The problem: Today’s students, despite their reputation for technological savvy, still need to be taught how to conduct research. The increasing amount of digital material available makes research easier in many ways, but it can also complicate matters — particularly in terms of “information overload.” Rob Widell and I propose a discussion around strategies for introducing students to research in a digital world.
Our first step toward a solution: We are in the process of collaborating on a LibGuide for students engaged in historical research using primary sources. In doing so, we have encountered a number of questions that we suspect are common to scholars teaching humanities, and we propose an open discussion of ideas around those questions.
- Have you encountered something similar regarding student research? If so, what have you done?
- How do you get students past reliance on basic Google?
- How are students actually working/getting research skills/collaborating online?
- What is the best way to get students to understand that there can be many silos of information and that sometimes good research can require investigation of many of these silos?
Our project is very much in progress, so we’re interested in discussion of the broad ideas as well as the smaller details.
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Sam
November 4, 2010 at 12:28 pm (UTC 0) Link to this comment
I actually commented on Lincoln’s Omeka post (thatcampnewengland.org/2010/10/29/omeka-the-new-primary-source-anthology/#comments) with something I could almost could have said here. Most of the same points apply.
Amanda French
November 4, 2010 at 4:31 pm (UTC 0) Link to this comment
I’m definitely interested in a session like this, because I see this all the time, and while it’s not a new problem (I’m looking forward to Ann Blair’s forthcoming book Too Much to Know: Managing Scholarly Information Before the Digital Age for that reason!), it’s a really pressing one now. I like the LibGuide idea, and I think it might be interesting to talk about how resources like that could be shared more widely (or, conversely, how they could be customized to work with particular schools’ curricula).
izenstark.tumblr.com
November 5, 2010 at 9:16 am (UTC 0) Link to this comment
Thanks, Amanda! One of the options Rob and I discussed is something that already exists – the AHA wiki – but it requires institutions to make a concerted effort to update the information.
Maybe we should add some sort of brainstorming to develop techniques to persuade institutions with all of these fabulous resources to update the wiki.
And many thanks for the book tip – I’m going to send an order to my collections folks now!
izenstark.tumblr.com
November 5, 2010 at 11:43 am (UTC 0) Link to this comment
And thanks, Sam! In our case, we’re aiming at upper-level undergrads and grad students, so while they’re engaged, they’re very often overwhelmed by the multiple places to start their research. Of course, that means that lower-level students are likely to be even more overwhelmed.
clarissaceglio.wordpress.com
November 8, 2010 at 5:28 pm (UTC 0) Link to this comment
I’ll be attending BootCamp sessions this weekend but wanted to chime in here because you raise several points of real concern to instructors and their students. In teaching a freshman/sophomore seminar ( clarissaceglio.wordpress.com/2010/01/13/course-syllabus/ ) last year, one of my goals was to help students think critically about textual, visual, material, and web-based evidence and to become more adept researchers. I realized, however, that in order to help students improve in this area I first needed a baseline understanding of their research habits, skill levels and self-perceived areas of strength and weakness. Here is the quick-and-dirty survey that I used to collect this information:
Research Tools Survey
This survey is designed to give me a general sense of the class’s level of familiarity with the library’s various research tools. We will be meeting with The John Hay Library’s scholarly resources librarian and collections curator on 2/9 and I’d like to help them tailor their presentation to your needs. They’ll also be introducing us to collections that might be of interest for your research project for this or other courses you are taking.
1.The database(s) that I most often use for school-related research is/are:
2.I’ve worked with Brown reference librarians on past research projects: YES NO
If “YES,” what was useful and/or not so useful about the experience?
If “NO”, please explain why.
3.My research strategy is best described as follows:
4.The most difficult aspect of conducting research is:
5.When we meet with the research librarians, I would like them to address/answer the following issues:
It was an informative exercise but one that would be harder to implement with a larger class. So, one question I have is this: how can we effectively gauge students’ baseline skills so that our efforts to improve them are targeted?
I must say the results of my small survey confirm your statements about the problem of information overload. In describing the most difficult aspect of their research students responded with statements like these, “The obstacle I encounter is an excess rather than a scarcity of relevant sources; how do I identify appropriate material and synthesize the information” and “Too much information; how do I decide what information to include and to omit?”
Kate Freedman
November 8, 2010 at 11:37 pm (UTC 0) Link to this comment
Hi Amanda! I just wanted to chime in say that I’d definitely be interested in attending a session about these topics. As a teaching assistant, I find that my time is very limited in the classroom and it’s really difficult, if not impossible, to effectively teach students research skills while also covering the topical content of a history course. With that in mind, I’d be especially interested in thinking about how we can better integrate info and research literacy instruction into our courses.
Caro Pinto
November 10, 2010 at 2:59 pm (UTC 0) Link to this comment
I’ll be attending the BootCamp sessions this weekend, but I am always game for having discussions about research education and critical thinking skills across disciplines and institutions. I’ve been teaching the Library Orientation for History Majors and love to new ideas to integrate into my sessions. In any event, I will definitely be adding Too Much to Know to my reading list. Cheers!
izenstark.tumblr.com
November 10, 2010 at 4:07 pm (UTC 0) Link to this comment
Clarissa – I’d love to hear more about your results! I think it’s important that those outside of the library research world understand that students are overwhelmed, and that research isn’t straightforward.
Hey Kate! Have you partnered with your local History librarian? 🙂 What you describe is tough to balance, though, and I find that by trying to teach students the overall concepts, it seems to work a little better. Also, we can meet with those students who are struggling so that you can focus on content!
Libby
November 10, 2010 at 9:48 pm (UTC 0) Link to this comment
I would be interested in this session as well. I’m a veteran of teaching Research Methods courses for my History Majors, and I would love the chance to talk shop with others who teach similar courses in terms of what students are struggling with. I find that I have to do A LOT of work to get my students to go beyond google. I think those of us who learned to research in the 80s and early 90s [I’m 33] pre-google, pre-on-line catalogue, are more open [and indeed were once expected] to research in a greater variety of ways [be more creative if you will–more footwork–literally] but my students who have always done research digitally are often reluctant to learn some of the “old-fashioned” methods. Indeed, this is the second semester in a row in an upper-level research class where I have had to show multiple students how to read call numbers and how to find books in a library once they had located the call number on the computer catalogue. How can I teach some of the old methods to adapt to new forms of research? And also, even if students do have the baseline research skills needed for serious research, I’ve also found that many of them are reluctant to draw upon these skills in favor of what’s easiest and quickest, i.e. it may not be the best information for what I need, but it’s the quickest and requires the least amount of effort. Look forward to chatting more about this.