Integrating reference practices and information literacy in academic writing: A collaboration between faculty and library
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The document summarizes a collaboration between faculty and the library at the University of Gothenburg to integrate reference practices and information literacy into academic writing courses. The library customized its instruction sessions to better support revised academic writing courses, which focused on developing students' academic literacy and writing skills over three terms. Students learned to use the citation management tool Zotero, which helped them understand different publication types, manage references and search results, and work on assignments. Most students found Zotero and the related tasks helpful, though some felt the library sessions needed more balance between Zotero instruction and searching strategies. The collaboration aimed to better link information literacy skills with academic writing.
Integrating reference practices and information literacy in academic writing: A collaboration between faculty and library
- 1. Integrating reference practices and information literacy in academic writing: A collaboration between faculty and library Miguel Garcia Yeste Karin Pettersson Anna Svensson University of Gothenburg Creating Knowledge VIII June 2nd 2016, Reykjavík, Iceland Miguel.Garcia@sprak.gu.se Karin.Pettersson@ub.gu.se Anna.Svensson@ub.gu.se
- 3. Context: The Department English unit at the Department of Languages and Literatures Revised courses in Academic Writing Major aims: • To increase the quality of students’ output, especially in relation to BA theses • To support students’ development in terms of academic literacy and academic writing • To increase the number of students retained (i.e. students who stay for the second and third term) Same teacher coordinates the courses on all levels – first, second and third term
- 4. Progression 3rd TERM • Pose, contextualise & justify relevance of a research question • Select, present and justify a research method/theory • Report on own analysis and results • Discuss the findings (discipline and practice) • Use of referencing software as support for own research project 2nd TERM • Critical reading identifying the main claim, arguments and support • Selecting and assessing the literature (does the method match the RQs, do the findings support the claims, etc.) • Advanced documentation (incl. use of software) 1st TERM • Academic register • Paragraphing and sentence structure • Quoting and paraphrasing • Referencing conventions Argumentative essay BA project (proposal and thesis) Literature Review paper Basic argumentation, style basics & formalia Critical reading, stance-taking & “the gap” Development of authorial self
- 5. Context: The Students • First term 80-100 students For many students first course in higher education • Second term 30-40 students • Third term 20 students The participants in the courses are a mix between: • Students from a BA program (i.e. International Language Programme) • Students taking them as single subject courses • International exchange students • Students who have done first or second level at other Swedish universities
- 6. Context: The Library Standard Customized First term 1 h introductory lecture First term 1 h introductory lecture + 2 h reference writing workshop with course task to be submitted to the teacher Second term 2/3 h search session Student’s own essay topic Second term 2 h search session Fixed topics for the Literature Review paper Using Zotero for a course task to be submitted to the teacher Third term 2/3 h search session Student’s own essay topic Third term 2 h search session Consolidate Zotero skills Student’s own essay topic Rethinking content in our sessions to respond to department needs and mirror their progression
- 7. First term 1: Introduction • Introduction to the university library and searching for literature • Interpreting references and finding the text with examples from the reading list (book/book chapter/journal article)
- 8. First term 2: Workshop References AIM: • To learn referencing conventions • To learn basic search skills CONTENT: • Academic integrity and citing • Introduction to the APA style and the elements of references • Search tools TASK: • Create a reference list using the APA style by completing incomplete references
- 10. First term – Experience • Fun! • Lots of student activity • Encourages peer to peer activity • Meets a demand • Tutor rather than teacher
- 11. Second term: Search session/Zotero Focus on Zotero not only to create reference lists but also to: • Reflect on publication types and metadata The students import a .ris file with references to their Zotero libraries Relationship between the example references: Web site with news release about the dissertation Newspaper article about a research project outlined in a journal article etc.
- 12. Second term: Search session/Zotero Focus on Zotero not only to create reference lists but also to: • Save search results for further analysis • Keep track of files (i.e. article PDFs)
- 13. Second term: Search session/Zotero The task instructions and a form to fill in with room for a reference list to be generated with Zotero copy and paste
- 14. The Students’ evaluation Online survey, part of the Department’s course evaluation Overall positive response to the questions about Zotero and the task, from 52% to 81%. Most positive: Did it help you understand the types of documents you found in your search? - > 81% Did it help you work on your Literature Review Paper? -> 68% Most negative/problematic: Do you think there was a balance between Zotero and searching strategies during the library session? Yes 33.3% No 33.3% Don't know 33.3% 52% think they will keep using Zotero
- 15. I have never gone through information assessment like this before and Zotero's interface made it easier to do this.
- 16. Implications/Results/Outcomes • Collaboration essential when it comes to linking our three literacies • Tasks that reflect how library skills and writing skills are intertwined enhances student motivation and understanding • Zotero can support students’ search and writing process • Students need a basic preconception on referencing to be able to assess the output of reference management tools
- 17. References Biggs, J. B., & Tang, C. (2011). Teaching for quality learning at university: what the student does (4th ed.). Maidenhead: McGraw-Hill. Childress, D. (2011). Citation Tools in Academic Libraries: Best Practices for Reference and Instruction. Reference & User Services Quarterly, 51(2), 143–152. http://doi.org/10.5860/rusq.51n2.143 Dudley-Evans, T., & St John, M.-J. (1998). Developments in English for Specific Purposes. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Kim, T. (2011). Building student proficiency with scientific literature using the Zotero reference manager platform. Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education, 39(6), 412–415. http://doi.org/10.1002/bmb.20551 Melles, A., & Unsworth, K. (2015). Examining the Reference Management Practices of Humanities and Social Science Postgraduate Students and Academics. Australian Academic & Research Libraries, 46(4), 250–276. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00048623.2015.1104790 Salem, J., & Fehrmann, P. (2013). Bibliographic Management Software: A Focus Group Study of the Preferences and Practices of Undergraduate Students. Public Services Quarterly, 9(2), 110–120. http://doi.org/10.1080/15228959.2013.785878
Editor's Notes
- #2: Thank you to the organizers for accepting our paper and to all of you for being here. First we would like to introduce Miguel García Yeste who couldn’t make it here today. Miguel is senior lecturer in English Linguistics, and specialized in English for Academic and Specific Purposes.
- #3: Among other aspects of Academic Writing, Miguel has an interest in Academic Literacies and the so called digital born generation As a conceptual frame for the collaboration we’ve had since spring term 2015, this representation seeks to illustrate how we are looking for ways to link AL, IL and DL. Our presentation however will be focusing on the practicalities of what we are actually doing so today, we will not go further into the discussion about these literacies.
- #4: The collaboration we will talk about is with the English unit at the Department of Languages and Literatures. They have done a major revision of the syllabus for the courses in Academic Writing. Major aims: • To increase the quality of students’ output, especially in relation to BA theses • To support students’ development in terms of academic literacy and academic writing • To increase the number of students retained (i.e. students who stay for the second and third term) Same teacher coordinates the courses on all levels – first, second and third term
- #5: This slide illustrates the content, student output and progression in the different courses. We bolded the content for each term that relates to the content for which the department sought library cooperation: Referencing conventions Selecting and assessing the literature Advanced documentation (incl. use of software) Use of referencing software as support for own research project In this presentation we will focus on term 1 and 2.
- #6: First term 80-100 students - For many students first course in higher education Second term 30-40 students Third term 20 students The participants in the courses are a mix between: Students from a BA program - International Language Programme Students taking them as single subject courses International exchange students Students having done first or second level at other Swedish universities
- #7: Karin So we needed to rethink the content in our sessions to respond to the needs from the department and to mirror their progression. To the left you can see our Standardized progression, with 3 sessions during first, second and third term. Even if it’s a standardized progression it is not generic but adapted to the specific disciplines at hand. The content is focused on developing the skills students need in order to find, evaluate and use literature for their own essay topics. To your right you can see the progression for our collaboration with English and the focus on Academic writing. As you can see, we have added a session on references in the First term and in the Second term we introduce Zotero as a digital/academic tool to aid in both the search and writing process. The sessions are linked to tasks developed by the librarians and the teacher in collaboration. So, let’s look at the content in the customized sessions a bit closer.
- #8: Karin We meet the students for the first time just a week into their first term. We have a lecture in an auditorium with all students so not a lot of chance for interaction and student activity at this point. It’s just a basic Introduction to the University Library and information searching. The first step here that connects to Academic writing is to start interpreting references. We use examples from the students reading list and locate the texts using our search tools. You could say that the students learn how to interpret the metadata that a reference is made up by.
- #9: We meet the students again about midway through their first term in a workshop about “Managing references in academic writing” The focus of this workshop is to learn how to write references but it also teaches the students basic search skills. We give a short introduction where we talk about: The importance of academic integrity and citing in academic writing We introduce the APA style and look closer at the different elements of references Finally we look at some search tools and interpret the information found here and use it to create references manually
- #10: Karin The main part of the session the students work with an assignment created by the teacher in collaboration with us librarians. The task is to create a reference list using the APA style by completing a list of references. To finish the task the students need to find the missing metadata for 8 incomplete references using our discovery system and our OPAC.
- #11: Karin So what are our experiences with the workshops and what do the students think? I have taught IL sessions for over 10 years and these sessions have been some of the most rewarding and fun sessions to teach. Why? There is so much student activity, they ask questions, talk to each other and most students really see the need for learning these skills The workshop form shifts the focus and allows us to be tutors rather than teachers and for me, that is a better role. I have more time to talk to each of the students and they also have more time to engage in peer to peer activity. I should also say that we have not evaluated this term properly, so these are simply our reflections
- #12: Anna Working with open source reference management program Zotero offers an opportunity to integrate department objectives on advanced documentation, referencing and searching/selecting literature. Zotero is not a tool just for producing reference lists but also a tool that helps us visualize our discussion on publication types both from the point of view of referencing and source criticism. The students import a ready made .ris file with references of different publication types to their Zotero libraries. The references in this file reflects a “find the source” setup (newspaper article -> find the research article or a press release on a web site -> find the dissertation), but to make room for the parts on how to handle Zotero itself, the source criticism takes up less time in this outline than for our standard courses; but the Department goes into this thoroughly during their lectures. So we talk about how Zotero stores different metadata for different publication types, just as the students themselves had to look for different data during the reference writing workshop during first term. All documentation is available to the student through the learning platform. Students are given the choice to work on library computers or their own, in the latter case they must download the program before the class.
- #13: The teaching on Zotero during the class puts most focus on its usefulness in saving search results and related files, usually article PDFs. We do a collective search for a book and an article with PDF and download them to our Zotero libraries. Between these searches we lecture on search strategies.
- #14: During the Students own search session part of the class, they start with the task. From a fixed set of topics they search for 2-5 papers and download them to Zotero. The task uses a form where they fill in their search terms, databases used and search questions. Finally it has room for a reference list to be generated from the references saved in Zotero with its simple copy and paste. It’s presented as one of the course’s tasks, not a separate library task, and it’s to be submitted online as a regular assignment. The teacher looks at the students’ selected references to make sure they are on the right track in relation to their final assignment.
- #15: The evaluation is done by an online survey as a part of the Department’s regular course evaluation Overall positive response to the questions about Zotero and the task, from 52% to 81%. Most positive were the questions: Did it help you understand the types of documents you found in your search? - > 81% Did it help you work on your Literature Review Paper? -> 68% Most negative/problematic: Do you think there was a balance between Zotero and searching strategies during the library session? Yes 33.3% No 33.3% Don't know 33.3% 52% think they will keep using Zotero
- #16: Here are some comments from the evaluation. As usual, some of them are contradictory and some have to do with timing. The positive ones highlights that the students did see the usefulness other than formatting the reference list: “I have never gone through information assessment like this before and Zotero's interface made it easier to do this.” “easy to save the sources I liked and then read and pick out which ones to use. Also sort them and easy access to them” We think the comment “may or may not work” is really illustrative as it relates to Student Uncertainty or the expectations students may have on software as automatically doing the right thing and not needing to be assessed or interpreted. Balance “I would have liked to work a bit more with Zotero” “It was to much focus on zotero itself, and many students had a hard time trying to keep up with all the assignments regarding zotero” Did it help you work on your review paper? “It was done too late, and Zotero is a bit confusing since it may or may not work.” “easy to save the sources I liked and then read and pick out which ones to use. Also sort them and easy access to them” Did Zotero give you new knowledge to understand the different types of publications (research articles, books, etc.)? I have never gone through information assessment like this before and Zotero's interface made it easier to do this.
- #17: Karin So, we have almost reached the conclusion and will end by summarizing the outcomes of this initiative. We started by saying that we wanted to link three literacies, Academic, Information and Digital Literacy and the collaboration between library and faculty has been essential in order to achieve this. Collaborating both when it comes to the content of the sessions and the design of the tasks made it possible for us to connect the search and referencing skills with the writing skills. Our experience is that this enhances the students motivation to participate in the library sessions and their understanding of the whole search and writing process. And Zotero can be used to support these processes. And finally, our experience is that if you want to introduce a reference management tool like Zotero to first year undergraduate students it is important that the students have some prior knowledge on referencing beforehand ,otherwise the learning curve will be too steep for most students.
- #18: Here are some reading tips with references we have used (created by using Zotero of course …)
- #19: And I think we have a few minutes left … so now we are open for questions. And please, grab me or Anna at one of the breaks if you have more questions or want to share similar experiences. Thank you for listening!