How little is too little? An examination of information literacy instruction duration for freshmen

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Introduction
Nicholls State University provides incoming first semester freshmen (first-year undergraduates) and transfer students an introductory seminar course (UNIV 101) in an effort to help students adjust to university life. Included in this seminar is a library component that, until two years ago, consisted of only a library tour. Beginning in spring 2014, instructional librarians piloted a programme whereby snippets of information literacy were introduced in the classroom. Tutorials were created on five topics: Evaluating resources; Identifying and avoiding plagiarism; Documenting sources; Locating online resources; Using databases and e-books. These tutorials were presented to the UNIV 101 professors prior to spring 2014 so that they could choose which to implement in their classes. Librarians were invited to give these tutorials at the discretion and invitation of the UNIV 101 professors (in addition to the library tour).
After the semester-long pilot, the tutorials were well received by UNIV 101 faculty staff and instruction librarians were given the opportunity to mould these short introductory lessons into a more robust introduction to information literacy and the research process. Librarians standardised instructional methods across over 40 lab sessions in the autumn 2015 semester. This standardised lesson included the development of student learning outcomes and subject guides focused on the library's resources, information literacy and the research process.
The majority of UNIV 101 classes had a tour of the library in addition to these new one-hour lab sessions, scheduled for two separate library visits. However, several class sections could only meet for one day, meaning that these sections would have a lab and tour on the same day. Was it more efficient to have a one-day session with both components or did these students miss valuable material, a deficit which would be reflected in their performance in the post-lab assessment? Granted that we could not embed presently, how much bibliographic interaction with the students was beneficial? This study looks at the assessment after the data was gathered to try to identify any differences.

Literature review
As Jon R. Hufford explains in his literature review on assessment (2013), in recent years academic libraries have changed their emphasis for assessment. Higher educational accrediting bodies are largely driving this shift with a greater emphasis on assessment. While still measured, the traditional data gathered to evaluate library use (like circulation statistics and gate counts) has become the first step in measuring student learning. Libraries have moved beyond questions such as 'How many books were checked out last year?' or 'How many computers are being used at 8:00 p.m. on weeknights?' Now libraries are asking, 'What do these numbers mean for students in terms of their grade point averages (GPAs), retention and overall success?' And there is good reason for this.
Research shows that students benefit from various forms of library interaction (Association of College and Research Libraries, 2016). GPAs tend to be higher for students that use library services than those that do not and there is a connection between library instruction and retention (Soria, Fransen & Nackerud, 2013;Ireland et al., 2014;Smith et al., 2015). Course grades are higher for students that completed online tutorials (Martinez et al., 2015). Spievak and Hayes-Bohanan (2013) found that simple exposure to the library in the form of regular class meetings or visiting a coffee shop does not make students more likely to use it. Instead a primary responsibility must be placed on instruction. Spievak and Hayes-Bohanan were able to show a link between library instruction and a more complex use of the library. Because students fare better when they have some encounter with the library, particularly through instruction, academic libraries should evaluate student learning whenever possible; establishing student learning objectives is an important part of this process. According to Radcliffe, Jensen, Salem, Burhanna and Gedeon (2007), 'A learning objective is a statement of what you want students to learn as a result of a learning experience…' (p.14). Additionally, learning objectives measure student learning, not student satisfaction. Satisfaction measurements, Pausch and Popp (2006) write, could just be an indicator that students 'do not know enough to be dissatisfied' (The Future section, para. 3) so satisfaction cannot equal student learning.
Perhaps the easiest place to assess student learning is through library instruction. Much has been written on the impact of instruction that takes place in one class session once a semester, 'oneshots', with varying outcomes. Beile (2003) found a significant improvement in students' library skills after attending an instruction session. In contrast, Emmons and Martin (2002) found that their instruction brought about only small changes to their students' research habits and very little change in how their sources were used. One critique is that one-shots are too short on time to effectively teach the research process (Badke, 2009;Bean & Thomas, 2010;Jacobs & Jacobs, 2009). Another critique is that the information is not retained beyond that lesson and into new semesters (Farrell, Goosney, & Hutchens, 2013). Spievak and Hayes-Bohanan (2013) did find long-term retention of information literacy skills and argue that there is some merit to one-shot sessions despite these established drawbacks. Their study evaluated students' abilities to select good web sources and found students with library instruction at some point in the past performed significantly better than those without. In addition, students were more likely to ask a librarian for help if they had previously had library instruction. An admitted weakness of their study, however, is that they had no way to measure how many times a student had had library instruction. It is entirely possible that students received multiple instruction sessions, which may have skewed the results.
This idea that multiple instruction sessions might skew results is not without merit. Findings by Booth, Lowe, Tagge, & Stone (2015) indicate that increased exposure to library instruction in a course leads to increased student learning. Increased exposure to a librarian can be implemented in a single course or within a student's entire academic career. Using a pre-test/post-test, Gandhi (2004) found student learning taking place when taught in five 25-30 minute sessions strategically placed in the middle of their English Composition II research projects. Additionally, an experimental group that received an extra review lesson had greater increases in learning that those who had not. Farrell, Goosney, and Hutchens (2013) found that after implementing a new library instruction strategy that was 'cumulative, curriculum-integrated' (p.166) within an undergraduate nursing programme, students that had received more instruction had better information literacy skills than those with less instruction. Despite the success of providing more rather than less instruction, there is one significant drawback. Gandhi (2004) reports the success of the five-session model led to an increase in requests for this type of instruction. While instruction statistics have grown exponentially, resources are limited. As a large number of research papers and projects are assigned at the same point in the semester, not every instructor can be accommodated. Classrooms with computers are not always available on the day and time an instructor wants it, and librarians often have many other duties outside of instruction. The resource of time cannot be understated. In a study done by Tmanova, Ancker, and Johnson (2015) with promising (though self-reported) results regarding information literacy skills in graduate students, an informationist was integrated into in a single research course within the Department of Healthcare Research and Policy at Weill Cornell Medical College. The informationist taught multiple lectures in a semester, facilitated journal club meetings, met an average of four times with each student for individual research consultations, maintained an active presence in the course management system and served on the education collaboration team that met weekly. As the course only had six students, this amount of integration is possible. The difficulty is scaling up this type of integration to provide all students this level of attention.
How, then, do librarians provide quality instruction without placing such a strain on their resources? Can librarians be involved in a course beyond the one-shot without the resource drain of heavy integration and still have a positive impact on student learning? Is there a gradient to library instruction and student outcomes? The literature that currently exists is only tangentially related to this topic and inconclusive. Ackerson and Young (1994) looked at whether using technology in instruction made a difference in the quality of student bibliographies. Their methodology, however, resulted in the experimental groups of students receiving four instruction sessions compared to the control group's one. After five semesters of evaluations, only one semester produced an experimental group with statistically significant higher scores than the control group. Likewise, Beile (2003) received results she deemed inconclusive when she looked at how the amount of instruction had an impact on student learning. Beile assessed learning outcomes using a pre-test/post-test on students with no previous library instruction, students that had previously completed a walking tour of the library and a worksheet, and students who had previously attended a library instruction session. As mentioned earlier, Beile found that students who attended her instruction session had increased information literacy skills. However, Beile did not find a difference in the scores between students who had previously had some in class library instruction and those who had none.
We aim to further this question of how much library interaction is beneficial for students and at what point do the returns plateau? With limited resources, what is the most efficient means of reaching students in-person? Our study examines whether a length of student sessions in which the same information is presented affects student learning.

Getting all players to the table
During summer 2015, instructional librarians met with UNIV101 instructors to discuss needs and expectations. Based on this discussion, two-day and one-day models were created according to the instructors' needs.

Set-up
The ability to team-teach was prioritised when scheduling the classes. Three librarians divided the classes so there was an equal load among them and ensure two librarians were available to teach every session. Due to the different styles of teaching among the librarians, team-teaching brought a different dynamic to each class and kept the instruction from becoming rote.
The library had recently subscribed to LibGuides. In order to familiarise students with the product early in their academic career as well as to have a visual for the students to follow and refer to, a UNIV101 subject guide was created in LibGuides. Keeping in mind the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) framework (2016) when developing student learning outcomes (SLOs), the librarians organised the subject guide to follow the overall research process. The librarians taught from this guide.

Content
The tour of the three-floor library took students to Archives, Circulation, Reference, Government Documents and Serials. Students received both information about resources in each department as well as an introduction to the librarians and staff of each department. The tour was conducted by one librarian.
The lab used a mixture of lecture and facilitated discussion to introduce students to research, how information is created through time, finding information in the library, evaluating information, the difference in popular, scholarly, and peer-reviewed information, plagiarism and citation, interlibrary loans and Google searches.
It was decided to not align instruction with a particular UNIV 101 assignment. Instructional librarians felt the ability to focus primarily on theory rather than the 'how-to' common in instruction aligned with a specific assignment would make information literacy skills easier to transfer to assignments outside of and beyond UNIV 101. It should be mentioned, however, that specific library resources that would assist students with a career research paper required in the course were shown on the tour.

SLOs
SLO 1: The student will be able to apply the parts of the CRAAP method. SLO 2: The student will be able to identify issues surrounding intellectual property. SLO 3: The student will be able to use library resources effectively.

One-day option
The one-day option began with an abridged tour of each library department beginning on the first floor and ending on the third. Every floor was allotted approximately five minutes, with five minutes total transit time between floors. Due to the lack of a computer lab on the third floor, students were provided a lecture on library resources and information literacy without the ability to follow on a computer. It was briefly considered to conduct the tour from the third floor to the first so that the class could end in the first floor computer lab. However, concerns that too much time would be lost in the transition from the lobby meeting point to the third floor to begin the tour as well as waiting for computers to turn on in the computer lab led to the decision to forego technology. For this reason and due to the abridged nature of the session, a handout covering the main points on the LibGuide was provided to the students (see Appendix A). The lab component of the one-day option lasted approximately 25 minutes.

Two-day option
The order of lab and tour in the two-day option was irrelevant. Because a full class period was dedicated to the two components, material could be covered more in-depth at a slower pace. This meant on the tour we had the ability to demonstrate to students the often confusing process of printing and copying on campus. Furthermore, since the physical logistics did not dictate directing students from the top of the library to the first floor again, instructional librarians held the lab sessions in computer labs. This facilitated students following along on computers in the LibGuide with the librarians as they led the class. In order to prevent students from getting lost or simply ignoring the instruction, one librarian often roamed the classroom to monitor student progress/attention. Due to the robust nature and hands on use of the LibGuide, these students were not given handouts. The lab classes were 50 minutes.

Assessment and analysis
The UNIV 101 instructors posted a quiz link for students on their Moodle (Virtual Learning Environment) pages. Due dates varied because of instructor preference and timing of the class. Some instructors required completion of the quiz within a few weeks of the class meeting while others gave students the entire semester. Additionally, classes were scheduled throughout the semester with some as late as November, meaning some students had longer to complete the quiz based on the number of weeks left in the semester. This quiz was composed of 15 multiple choice questions, 5 covering each SLO (see Appendix B). Most instructors offered bonus points simply for completing the quiz. However, the one-day instructor offered bonus points upon reaching a minimum threshold score.

Preliminary data
In order to assess if any pre-existing differences could skew the study, we conducted a preliminary analysis. American College Testing (ACT) and high school GPA scores are predictors of academic success and overall retention as well as use of library resources (Westrick et al. 2015, Soria, Fransen, andNackerud 2013). Therefore the ACT and high school GPAs of the two groups were compared to see if they differed significantly, as any difference may affect the study's outcomes. Excluding students enrolled in online sections, the total sample size (N) is 1154 while the two smaller groups (n) are none-day is 53 and ntwo-day is 1101.
However, not all students enrolled in UNIV101 had an ACT score or high school GPA. Students admitted by exception or transfer students taking UNIV 101 would not have a GPA or an ACT score. Some adult students may not have them either. That being said, 95% of UNIV101 students had both GPA and ACT.  Using the independent t-test in SPSS 22, no significant difference was found between the one-day or two-day models for either ACT score or high school GPA (p=.39 and p=.92 respectively). Pvalues indicate whether a study relationship exists. Because these p-values are so high, we can say there is no relationship between class model and either ACT or GPA. Based on these results, we know that there is no pre-existing difference between the groups regarding these predictors of academic success and library awareness.

Overall response rates & percentages
Of the 1154 students enrolled in traditional UNIV101 sections, 945 students (82%) attended the lab sessions and 365 took the quiz. This overall response rate is 38.6%. The response rate is different between the two groups, though there is no evidence that this difference is related to anything other than the higher expectation of the one-day model's instructor, as evidenced by her requirement of a minimum score before awarding students bonus points.

Table 3
Analysing student achievement for individual SLOs, we reached our target of 80% meeting or exceeding expectations.  Before the 365 records were analysed, they were examined more closely. This examination revealed that 4 students in the two-day classes submitted blank quizzes. An explanation for this behaviour is that the teachers for the two-day sessions offered bonus points for completion of the quiz regardless of percent correct. Therefore, these 4 observations were omitted as they offer nothing meaningful to the data: n=334 for two-day, n=27 for one-day.

Group
The overall scores for the quiz are shown below (Table 5 and Graph 1).  Overall Quiz Score Frequency

Comparison of scores and SLOs
According to an independent t-test of the overall scores between the one-day and two-day models, the means of the sessions can be said to be similar with a p-value of .247. In other words there is no statistical difference between the one-day and two-day sessions on the total percentage correct on the library UNIV101 quiz, indicating that the difference in exposure to library resources did not significantly affect student outcome on the library quiz. If anything, setting a minimum required score on the quiz to receive bonus points was a greater predictor of average score than instructional model.

Table 6
Analysing the individual SLOs and their corresponding questions, each SLO was categorised as a binary variable, essentially 'Pass' or 'Fail'. This approach was most appropriate for the nature of the SLOs, since we had originally set conditions for pass or fail. Using a chi 2 test to assess any relationship between the pass/fail rates of the one-day and two-day models, SLO1 (p=.525) and SLO2 (p=.676) were insignificant at the 10% level. However, SLO3 had a significance of .070, indicating a relationship between passing SLO3 and instructional model, a relationship which seemed more beneficial to the one-day students on these questions. The one-day model had a handout to refer to while the two-day model did not. While the handout may be the source of this benefit, further examination is needed.

Table 7
Regardless, the effect of half an hour of bibliographic instruction compared to a full hour was not statistically different. Functionally, these results will not influence how instruction is offered to UNIV 101, though handouts may be incorporated into two-day library sessions to see if SLO3 improves.

Conclusions
The authors were surprised that this preliminary study reflects no statistical difference between the truncated 'one-shot' and the two-day library sessions comprised of a lab class and tour. Covariates that must be considered that would add to this conundrum include:  By making the quiz for bonus points only, does that take the 'teeth' out of the assignment?  The one-day students had a handout explaining the library's resources in a very concise manner that the two-day students did not have since the two-day students had a full lab class reviewing these resources. The handout was a pared down version of the UNIV 101 LibGuide and having this version in hand may have made a difference, although no instructions were given to students that they could not use either the handout or LibGuide during the quiz.  Were there different motivations to take the quiz since each professor could assign as many points to the bonus quiz as they deemed fit?  Was the student response rate due to students who felt they needed the bonus points because they were not doing well in the course? Was this a timing issue, where students in the beginning of the semester did not take it as much as students who were taught near the end of the semester?
Moving forward into the coming autumn semester, the authors have removed the tour from the UNIV 101 seminar and have incorporated a second lab day. The library assignment used in the upcoming classes will be a seven-question written assessment requiring face-to-face students to do a self-guided tour of the various library departments and a critical thinking exercise incorporating the use of the CRAAP method to evaluate an article that will be on reserve. UNIV 101 professors have agreed to give the assignment the needed weight of 50 points (not bonus points) to ensure that students finish the assignment. A similar assignment will be given to UNIV 101 distance education students, but with more a focus on how to access materials remotely (as they would need to since they are not on campus). The authors hope that this new assessment tool will be a better indication of student learning as well as gaps in our instruction. 3) Which of the following is NOT plagiarism? a. Copying a paragraph verbatim from a source without any acknowledgement. b. Composing a paragraph by taking short phrases of 10 to 15 words from a number of sources and putting them together, adding words of your own to make a coherent whole. All sources are included in a reference list or works cited page. c. Paraphrasing with substantial changes in language and organization; acknowledgement is included through in-text citation and the reference list or works cited page. 4) Is it plagiarism to re-use parts of a research paper written for another class in a new assignment without citing yourself? a. No, it is still my work. b. Yes, it is self-plagiarism. c. No, everyone does it. 5) Plagiarism only applies if you purposely copy someone else's work or do not properly cite. a. True b. False SLO 3: Students will be able to use library resources effectively. 1) Generally speaking, the best place to find a scholarly article is: a. A library database b. The library catalog c. The archives 2) Generally speaking, the best place to find a book is: a. A library database b. The library catalog c. The archives 3) To physically locate a book on the shelf, you will need the: a. Barcode b. Call number c. International Standard Book Number (ISBN) 4) Databases and the catalog allow you to search for specific pieces of information in certain field of the record so that you don't have to rely on a general keyword search. By choosing to search for Margaret Atwood in the author field, you will find: a. Books or articles written about Margaret Atwood b. Books or articles written by Margaret Atwood c. Books or articles written by and/or about Margaret Atwood 5) If a book or article you need isn't available at Ellender Memorial Library you should: a. Use Interlibrary Loan (ILL) b. Use LALINC c. Find a different resource. If the library doesn't have it, it isn't available to me. d. Both A and B