Transcript Reaching Out to Transfer Students: USC Upstate’s Foundation in Information Literacy Andrew Kearns and Chris Vidas University of South Carolina Upstate LOEX 39th Annual Conference Fort Worth,

Reaching Out to
Transfer Students:
USC Upstate’s Foundation in
Information Literacy
Andrew Kearns and Chris Vidas
University of South Carolina Upstate
LOEX 39th Annual Conference
Fort Worth, Texas
May 6, 2011
Why transfer students?
• What do you do when you learn that nearly
half of your new students are transfer
students?
• Library and Education Literature: initiatives for
transfer students must be separate from those
for first-year students.
• Library response generally minimal. Phillips
and Atwood (2010) call for professional
dialogue.
Who We Are
•
•
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•
Largest branch of University of South Carolina
Metropolitan Mission
Main Campus in Spartanburg
Largest undergraduate presence at University Center in
Greenville
• Student enrollment 5000 FTE
• 22 undergraduate degrees, 1 graduate degree also offered at
USC Sumter, increasing distance education and online courses
Our Transfer Students
• 48% or more of new students
• More than half of USC Upstate graduates entered as
transfers (53% in Spring 2010)
• 40% of students on the main campus
• Most students at University Center in Greenville
• Half or more come from area technical and community
colleges
• Articulation agreements and a Direct Connect program
ease process of admissions
Information Literacy Program at Upstate
• First-Year Information Literacy Program in three firstyear courses includes three mandated library
sessions
• Sessions for GE and upper-level disciplinary courses
taught on demand by subject liaisons
• Many students in upper-level classes have not gone
through the First-Year Program
Instruction Gap?
• We didn’t really know what kind of information
literacy instruction our transfer students had at their
former schools, in spite of articulation agreements.
• There are things specific to our local situation
(physical layout and services in library, selection of
electronic resources, etc.) that students need to be
aware of.
• “Disconnect” in students’ minds about information
literacy-focus on survival skills rather than process of
research
What is FIL?
• A group of librarians began work on our Foundation
in Information Literacy (FIL) project
• Collaboration with Mary Theokas, Student Success,
and Donette Stewart, Enrollment Services
• FIL consists of 15 questions
• While presented in a testing format, we consider FIL
to be an inventory of students’ information literacy
skills
How is FIL structured?
• Completing the questions is not mandatory
• The inventory is expected to take 30 minutes
• The goal is to address the information literacy
skills that we expect our first year students to
possess
• All five information literacy standards are
covered
Why Blackboard?
• Students are introduced to Blackboard during
the admissions process
• Blackboard provides a testing feature,
complete with useful statistical data
• Blackboard allows us to provide students with
feedback at the end of the test
• We can use the data to follow-up with
students with additional instruction
FIL Question, Multiple Choice
FIL Question, Matching
FIL Question with Screen Shot
Feedback in Blackboard
Marketing
• Announcement cards sent to students during
admissions process
• Reminder e-mail sent at beginning of semester
• In Fall 2010 we had a drawing for gift certificates as
an incentive.
Participation rates:
• Spring 2010 19.7%
• Fall 2010 9.6%
• Spring 2011 4.4% (no announcement cards)
Evaluating the Results
• Students scores are consistent, but low
• 56% for Spring 2010, 58% Fall 2010, 60%
Spring 2011
• The majority of students answered each
question correctly, with the exception of three
questions
• Certain types of skills were found to be more
difficult by the students
The Follow-up to FIL
• Feedback provided at the end of the inventory
• Voluntary instruction sessions at the
beginning of the semester
• Link to LibGuide reviewing FIL topics sent to all
students who completed the inventory
(http://uscupstate.libguides.com/FIL)
• Other options for outreach continue to be
explored
Follow-up LibGuide on FIL Topics
What are your thoughts?
The following slides summarize comments made by
audience members during a discussion at this point
in the presentation.
What are you currently doing to reach out to
transfer students?
• Table at “Transfer-Transition Fair” – info for incoming
transfer students.
• Not much. Our efforts are really focused, in any
systematic way, at 1st and 2nd year students; so we
mostly miss transfer students.
• Not much-try to build a partnership with Transfer
Student Orientation Program-has been some
resistance there.
• Web page for some basic info-not much else.
How would you like to improve your efforts?
• Have a better idea of where transfer students are
and if we are reaching them with instruction.
• Pretty much in all ways.
• Have a better connection as students arrive to
campus. Have a better understanding of their unique
needs. Have a better understanding of what skills
and competencies they actually have-moving beyond
assupmtions.
• Target and assess-figure out best way to reach them
and follow through.
Who on campus might you collaborate with?
• Admissions, EMM (Enrollment Management and
Marketing), Student Services
• Dean of Undergraduate Students
• Transfer Student Orientation Program, other transfer
student coordinators, Campus IT-has specialized
transfer student program
• Admissions, advisors (academic), Gen Ed courses,
Student Success
Admissions Process – Pros and Cons
• Gives library a presence in the admissions process
• Collaboration with Enrollment Services and
Student Success is valuable
• Access to all targeted students through
Blackboard course, including email addresses
• One potential problem is coordinating our efforts
with a year-round admissions schedule
• Time constraints make FIL less comprehensive
that we would ideally like.
Where do we go from here?
Improvements to FIL
• Continuous revision and evaluation of questions.
• Can we develop questions that better get to the
essence of Standards 3 and 4?
• Is the level of FIL “right”? (We intend to test a cohort
of English 102 students to measure level).
Increasing Participation
Trend towards eliminating barriers to admission
makes it unlikely that FIL can become a
requirement for admission. Therefore . . .
• Redesign FIL to be a more interactive, game-like,
experience, allowing students to play until they come up
with right answer.
• Retain ability to record students’ first answer choices.
• Better coordinate our efforts with the admissions process
(year-round): distribute announcement cards in welcome
packs, add FIL to transfer student “to do” page, library
presence at transfer student orientations
Direct Connect Students
• Program that guarantees admission to certain
community/technical college students once they
have completed their Associate’s degree.
• We plan to target a version of FIL to these students
beginning in Fall 2012.
• Some results can be reported back to other
institutions.
• FIL is a work in progress and will continue to evolve,
perhaps in more than one direction!
Thank You!
Andrew Kearns
Coordinator of Library Instruction
[email protected]
Chris Vidas
Electronic Resources Librarian
[email protected]
University of South Carolina Upstate
800 University Way, Spartanburg, SC 29303