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Sustaining Research Skills: Enhancing College Student Success

This study explores strategies for maintaining students' research skills throughout their college careers, focusing on engineering and humanities courses. By integrating library instruction into the curriculum, students can develop strong information gathering abilities crucial for projects like the Senior Design Challenge. Special courses like HIST285 provide opportunities for in-depth research, encouraging students to explore historical contexts of technology. Library resources, instructional activities, and collaborative efforts between librarians and faculty help students acquire the necessary skills for successful academic endeavors.

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Sustaining Research Skills: Enhancing College Student Success

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  1. Keeping the Conversation Alive: Maintaining Students' Research Skills Throughout Their College Careers Drexel University Jay Bhatt, Larry Milliken, Lloyd Ackert and Eleanor Goldberg ASEE ELD (2011) - session T530

  2. Engineering information • Library instruction for engineering students for freshman • ENGR101-103 sequence • ENGR102-ENGR103 Engineering design • Understanding fundamentals • ENGL101 during the Fall term • Main emphasis on scholarly papers • Senior Design

  3. Challenge….. • No formal library instruction between freshman and senior years • Except a few courses where a faculty member requests instruction • More and more new resources are added • Eresources updated • Students need reinforcement to make senior research for engineering design more productive • Practicing and refining students’ information gathering skills is critical for Senior Design

  4. Challenge • True innovation cannot occur without a solid understanding of the ethical, legal, social, and technical contexts • Well developed library research skills are integral to students’ success • Students tend to forget research skills if not used • HIST285 – a possible solution? Literature supported integrating library instruction in curriculum

  5. HIST285 – Technology in Historical Perspectives • Course offered by the Department of History and Politics in the College of Arts and Sciences. • Examines the interrelationship betweentechnology and its economic, social, intellectual, and political context. • Research intensive • Engineering students take this course in prejunior year

  6. HIST285 -Technology in Historical Perspectives • Addresses contemporary historical issues as the relationship between technology, government, and culture • Incorporates a variety of media, guest lectures, and weekly discussion sessions • Students are required to write • a 1500–2000 word research essay • or alternative product, e.g. website, • or short documentary film, • or digital library project exploring a focused topic in the history of technology

  7. HIST285 – Library Instruction • Students are required to include: • Scholarly secondary sources, including journal articles • Monographs • Primary historical documents such as patents, diaries, and engineering publications • Other credible print and web based resources. • Library Instructional sessions planned address these requirements • Senior design projects may benefit

  8. Instructional activities • Direct instruction by librarians • Humanities and social sciences librarian conducts a library instructional session highlighting the important resources • Direct instruction by faculty • Faculty members reinforce library resources while teaching content • Important resources and tools are also linked from their course web pages

  9. Instructional activities • Video based instruction • Instruction for students in Burlington County Community College • These sessions will be videotaped and made available online for students • Possible instruction through Adobe Connect system • Virtual chat for simple questions

  10. Instructional Activities • Research Guides • Help students in navigating through core resources • Available from the Library web site • Linked from course management software • Consultations • For more in depth research help • Examples include: history and invention of the ball point pen, the jet engine, the steam engine, Plexiglass, and the electric guitar.

  11. Future Activities • Field Trip • Students explore history, science and technology • Franklin Institute Museum • Students, librarians and faculty members visit museum together • Explore historical aspects of invention together • Museum has exhibits on: computing, flight, electricity, automation and more • Instructional activities • Brainstorm research topics after the visit • Group discussion where peers help each out for selection of their research topic

  12. Future activities • Journal Groups • Students explore their research topic in a group • Active discussion among students and librarians • Dialog based inquiry to help learn more about: • Scholarly papers • Web resources • Patents • Primary resources • Peer review

  13. Conclusions • Students need information skills before Senior Design Project • Heavy research demands • Need for ethical, social, legal context of inventions • HIST 285 provides unique opportunity to address student needs • Collaboration of librarians and History faculty • Both direct library instruction and information skills-building activities • Students using tools and sources needed for Senior Design Project

  14. Thank You! • Jay BhattLibrarian for Engineering Drexel University bhattjj@drexel.edu http://www.library.drexel.edu/engineering 215-895-1873Gmail IM drexeleng • With Larry Milliken, Dr. Lloyd Ackert and Eleanor Goldberg

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