Student engagement and library use: an examination of attitudes towards use of libraries and information amongst undergraduate students at a Turkish university library
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The purpose of this paper is to present the findings of a study that examines undergraduate students’ experience with research, library and information use prior to coming to university and their behaviour and attitude towards library and information after they have been exposed to a variety of library awareness activities and received information literacy training during their first year at Ozyegin University in Turkey. Students take a compulsory “Introduction to University’ subject during their first semester taught by both internal and external experts on a wide range of topics including ‘Journey of Information’ presented by library staff. The Library is also involved in the subsequent delivery of information literacy programs throughout students’ university programs in an on-going effort to engage them and to get them involved in university-wide activities. The library staff work as partners with the faculty and other student support services in designing, delivering and evaluating these programs.
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Student engagement and library use: an examination of attitudes towards use of libraries and information amongst undergraduate students at a Turkish university library
- 1. Student engagement and library use: an examination of attitudes towards use of libraries and information amongst undergraduate students at a Turkish university library Gulcin Cribb, Singapore Management University Ilkay Holt, Ozyegin University, Turkey
- 2. agenda • Student engagement • Connecting engagement to library use and information literacy • Ozyegin University study of first year students • Survey and outcomes
- 4. ‘All aspects of student engagement are positively related to students’ overall satisfaction with university study. More engaged learners are more satisfied, and vice versa.’ (ACER, 2008)
- 5. Global competition amongst universities Student engagement - a critical KPI for all stakeholders, especially the students
- 6. Gwen van der Velden, director of learning and teaching enhancement, University of Bath First understand what student engagement means: There are many interpretations of the term: one relates to how and whether students are engaged, for example. motivated to learn. Another concentrates on how to actively involve students of specific backgrounds, or from specific groups in society. Thirdly and arguably the most pressing for universities at the moment is the issue of engagement in terms of student satisfaction, much encouraged by the national introduction of student surveys (the NSS in the UK, NSSE in North America and AUSSE in Australia) Guardian, Wednesday 26 October, 2011
- 8. students • Don’t start searching on library website • Think library sources more trustworthy • Don’t borrow many books • Less interested in extra-curricular activities • Spend less time on the campus • Like using library as social and collaboration spaces • Think ‘anyone can find information – so easy!’ • Prefer technological and personal methods to research
- 9. library use, information literacy and student success • Does the library have any impact on student learning? • Does ‘library use’ (loan of books, e-resource usage, library visits, information literacy, network logins and so on) have any impact on student learning, engagement and academic performance? • Are we shifting focus from ‘information access’ to ‘student learning and engagement’?
- 10. Stone, et al, 2011, Does Library Use Affect Student Attainment? A Preliminary Report on the Library Impact Data Project
- 12. A new private (not-for-profit) university, Established in 2008 2000 plus students Both undergraduate and graduate programs North American approach Instruction in English Prep year – English language immersion
- 13. information literacy and library awareness • Use of learning portfolios in English language instruction offered by SELI (School of English Language Instruction) • Levels of English competency linked to academic and life skills including information literacy • Information literacy component becomes progressively more challenging as students move from one level to the next • Research guide designed to meet the requirement • ‘Introduction to University’ class and ‘The Journey of Information’ lecture and small group case study approach
- 14. survey – first year students • All first year students enrolled in English language classes • Beginning of spring term • In collaboration with SELI faculty • 57% response rate
- 15. survey aims •What kind of experience, if any, did the students have with libraries, information resources and research prior to coming to OzU? •What were the students’ perceptions of libraries and information resources prior to coming to OzU and at the beginning of the second term at the University? •How did the students’ rate their own competency in using information resources prior to coming to OzU and at the beginning of the second term at the University?
- 19. what is different? • selection of resources • increased use of e-resources • appearance of the ‘ask a librarian’ option • slight decline in selecting the web as the starting point for research compared to the figures whilst at high school (80.3% at high school and 71.5% at the university) • transition from dependency on their own resources to increased usage of library resources
- 21. Self-assessment of students’ own competencies
- 22. Self-assessment of students’ own competencies
- 23. some comments, observations ‘I used to think that libraries were just spaces to study’ ‘I used to think they were boring and suffocating places’ ‘ No idea about e-resources before coming to university’ ‘Internet is sufficient for my information needs’ ‘Other students should learn how to use library’s e- resources’
- 24. contributing factors • Student demographics • High schools the students attended • Collaborative approach to information literacy • Curriculum integration • Continuous activities to engage and involve students offered by the Library • Participation and involvement in university-wide student engagement activities
- 25. conclusion • OzU Library impact on students’ perceptions and awareness • Students’ awareness of their own needs and competencies • Library’s impact on student engagement, experience and learning as part of the OzU strategy
- 26. way forward • Input for the next review and revision of the 1st year SELI curriculum and IL program • Linking with student performance and attainment • Annual survey for benchmarking • Possible use of the survey to benchmark with other universities in Turkey and maybe abroad • Share with stakeholders, students in particular
Editor's Notes
- This is about a journey across Istanbul and Singapore. Our journey began 8 months ago in Istanbul, based on our joint passion for student experience, student learning and library’s role and impact in student experienceWhat we would like to share with you today is our story of student engagement and library’s involvement at a recently established new university in Istanbul where we jointly built the library. Those of you who have been involved in setting up a brand new university library would particularly appreciate the excitement and incredible challenge.
- Our agenda today includes
- Student engagement is about the relationship that the institution has with its students.It is about treating students as partners in their education and openly encouraging them to participate in the management and development of all aspects of learning and teaching. By effectively and proactively engaging with students, we can start to understand the changing needs of the modern generation. By encouraging students to get involved and urging them to constructively participate in their learning, we will not only help to generate more skilled, well rounded graduates, but the feedback they bring to the institution will benefit an improved student experience for current and future cohorts of students.
- Australian Council of Educational Research in its 2008 the Australian survey of Student Engagement Research Briefing sums up the critical nature of student engagement very clearly and succintly.
- why do we want to engage students? Who among us does not believe that engagement with the institution attracts students, ties them to us, makes them part of our community, and motivates them to succeed in their academic careers? In addition to global competition amongst universities, reputation, prestige, attracting research grants, parents, accreditation agencies, governments and so on…. Are critical factors, key performance indicators which are closely linked to student experience, learning and engagementUniversities and naturally their libraries are expected to focus more and more on human qualities, focus on student satisfaction and their success.
- Student engagement may mean different things in different contexts, e.g. in terms of how well the students are motivated to learn and whether they are motivated to learn or not.Another approach is about actively involving students of specific backgrounds, e.g. minority groups, high achievers and so on.Third and most critical issue for universities currently is the most critical issue of student engagement in terms of student satisfaction. This has become increasingly more evident with the introduction of various national student surveys, such as the NSS in the UK, NSSE in North America and AUSSE in Australia. Data available from the results of these surveys provide compelling information, input to link the impact of libraries and in particular information literacy on student experience.
- The 2010 Pew Research Report ‘Millennials’ portray those born between 1978 and 1994 as confident, self-expressive, connected and open to change. The report claims that millennials are history’s first “always connected” generation.A recent survey of 500 college students has found that 67% can't go more than an hour without using some sort of digital technology, and that 40 percent can't go more than 10 minutes. http://www.marketwatch.com/story/college-students-boost-digital-adoption-according-to-coursesmart-survey-2012-05-23According to the 2010 OCLC Perceptions of Libraries report, American college students overwhelmingly begin (83%) their information searches using search engines;the challenges academic librarians face when designing and offering information literacy programs to the millennials (they are both ug and pg students and even some of our faculty) are enormous.
- Today’s students as reported in a number of reports and our own campus surveys indicate that….Additional challenge is the students’ own perceptions about their own research skills.Gross and Latham found the lower the skill the students had, the more they overestimated their skills. First year college students who participated in Gross and Latham’s research stated that ‘finding information is something that anyone can do
- If the new paradigm is student learning outcomes, how do we articulate it? in terms of information literacy? How do we demonstrate the results of learning? Or convince anyone that the results achieved as a result of information literacy impacts student learning outcomes, which in turn translates to student engagement;Today’s learners, regardless of generation, the most important thing is ‘is it just for me, exactly like I want it, when I want it. Is it going to save my time?’ Is it going to help me succeed and get the GPA I want, get the job I want?. In recent years, there has been an increasing number of research done to see if there is any correlation between library use (in its broadest sense) and student achievement. T
- Stone and his colleagues in the UK undertook research to look at the relationship between book loans (including renewals) and student attainment for one of the partners;a similar relationship between book loans and Athens (e-resources authentication) and attainment from another partner;This was backed up by work previously undertaken at Huddersfield that showed that library space was used for more than studying;the hypothesis that ‘there is a statisticallysignificant correlation across a number of universities between library activity data and student attainment’ ; but further work needs to be done to examine students base line, student demographics; more investigation of e-resource usage; on the value added by libraries and universitiesas a whole; Analysis of library usage could give credence to the argument that a significant amount of value had been added by the library for student Y over student XIlkay will now continue (second half of our presentation) looking at the Ozyegin University research regarding student engagement, learning and library use and information literacy.
- Pictures of Ozyegin campus and the library with students
- In response to the question about what kind of resources they used whilst at high school, it is not surprising to find that the majority used the web for their research. In addition to the web, they also used their own personal library. See Table 1 and 2 for results.
- In response to the question about starting point for research at the university, it appears that students still prefer the search engines
- . However, the following changes as shown in Table 3 are significant: Selection of resources Increased use of e-resources Appearance of the ‘ask a librarian’ option in their responses Slight decline in selecting the web as the starting point for research compared to the figures whilst at high school (80.3% at high school and 71.5% at the university).Transition from dependency on their own resources at the high school to the increase in usage of the university’s resources.
- In response to the questions about their research skills since coming to university 67% of the respondents claim that they know how to use the library resources; 63% claims that they know how to find the books in the library; 58% claims that they know how to find the journals on the library web page; 64% claims that they know how to use the library e-resources; 71% claims that they can evaluate a web resource if it is suitable or not for their research/homework; 66% claims that they know how to evaluate web resources; 63% claims that they use the OzU Libraries and 70% claims that they find OzU libraries useful to do a research/homework. As this is results of self-assessment, it will need to be followed up with an assessment instrument at a later stage to cross-check.
- Students’ self-assessment of their research skills: The majority of respondents said that they did not feel competent in high school when they were doing homework or study. They also claimed that they feel more competent when they do homework or study since coming to the university. 73% of the respondents see the librarians as a reliable source for their research/homework at the university.
- (e.g. students’ involvement and participation in planning library services, library-student interaction and communication, social media, short film competition, students’ extra curricular activities)Most of the library staff are Gen Y as well and student assistants working at both campuses are very much involved and ambassadors for the library in helping with information literacy and engagement