Partnering with the Libraries

1. Partnering with the Libraries Chemical information instruction for a large freshmen core chemistry course Angie Locknar, Instruction Coordinator, Engineering and Science Libraries, MIT Prof. Donald R. Sadoway, John F. Elliott Professor of Materials Chemistry, MIT Kanak Kshetri, MIT undergraduate student ACS Fall National Meeting

2. Outline • Our challenges • How the collaboration began • 3.093: Information Exploration – Becoming a Savvy Scholar • Next Steps ACS Fall National Meeting

3. Our Challenge: the Libraries perspective • How to reach a vast majority of first year undergraduates? • How to do this without burdening staff? • How to impart transferable skills, not specific to a discipline? • How to do this without taking away from the already established subject specialist responsibilities? ACS Fall National Meeting

4. 3.091: Introduction to Solid State Chemistry • A required chemistry course, part of the core curriculum • Taken by over half the incoming freshmen • Enrollment around 500 students • Most students will NOT be chemists • Lecture plus recitations • Homework problems, graded quizzes, final exams • No laboratory work ACS Fall National Meeting

5. How the collaboration began • It all started with a research consultation… • Library involvement in 3.091: Introduction to Solid State Chemistry in Fall 2005: • 17 librarians in 27 recitation sections • How to provide the same level of instruction to a large number of students and have it be meaningful? ACS Fall National Meeting

6. Integrating information literacy • Applied for internal funding for “excellence in education”, granted in January 2006 • Modify assignments in 3.091 to incorporate information use • Create online tutorials or modules to be viewed by the students on their timeline • Use students to help create the content • Not just for chemistry, setting the foundation for information seeking skills ACS Fall National Meeting

7. How will we do all of this? • How do we use student input effectively? • What do we think freshmen need to learn? What do they know already? What do they THINK they know already? • Do we have to incorporate this into 3.091 in Fall 2006? ACS Fall National Meeting

8. What developed • Discussions about scalability, impact • THIS IS AN EXPERIMENT!  • 3 credit course to learn more about the students, their habits, and their needs • Run it in parallel to 3.091 to mimic integration in the course • Approved by Committee on the Undergraduate Program (CUP) ACS Fall National Meeting

9. 3.093 – Information Exploration: Becoming a Savvy Scholar • The course: • Lecture • Tutorials • Tutorial review • Assignments • Research Logs • Sample 1 • Sample 2 ACS Fall National Meeting

10. 3.093 – Information Exploration: Becoming a Savvy Scholar • Assessment and Feedback • Assignments, tutorial feedback, research log • Card sorting exercise • Course evaluations • Pre/post self-confidence survey ACS Fall National Meeting

11. 3.093 Self-Assessment ACS Fall National Meeting

12. 3.093 Self-Assessment ACS Fall National Meeting

13. 3.093 Self-Assessment ACS Fall National Meeting

14. Student feedback • “Actual assignments for which we must physically visit libraries and for good search queries are essential.” • “I’m confident that this material will make the rest of my research at MIT much easier” • “The content wasn’t incredibly fascinating but is necessary to perform high quality scholarly research.” • “Thank you. I learned a great deal in this class, and I hope that everyone can have access to these resources.” ACS Fall National Meeting

15. Survey of 3.093 students – May 2007 • 5 of 12 students responded • 5/5 took at least 1 course that required some library research (Communication Intensive) • 4/5 used skills from 3.093 • “I’m only recently discovering how useful the class was, now that I have begun to use vera/barton more regularly to review current research in my field for my UROP and other projects.” ACS Fall National Meeting

16. Fall 2007 • Create, modify, update tutorial modules • Work with course TA’s and students to modify assignments in 3.091 • Sample question • In 1995 Mario J. Molina and F. Sherwood Rowland were awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for “their work in atmospheric chemistry, particularly concerning the formation and decomposition of ozone.” • Cite the published article (not meeting abstract) in which they announced this discovery to the world. Format: MLA or ACS • What is the earliest article cited by the authors? • How many times has this article been cited by others? • When was this article first cited by someone affiliated with MIT? • Determine assessment methods • Pre/post tests? • Assignments • Is this method a scalable way to reach students? If yes, can we also provide this in other Chemistry classes? ACS Fall National Meeting

17. Questions? ACS Fall National Meeting

18. Links of interest • OpenCourseWare page • 3.093: Information Exploration: Becoming a Savvy Scholar (Fall 2006) • 3.091: Introduction to Solid State Chemistry (Fall 2004) • Angie Locknar, locknar@mit.edu ACS Fall National Meeting