In 2019-20, first-year Belmont students took a standardized survey at the beginning of the fall semester and again at the end of the spring semester. The HEDS Research Practices Survey explores the experiences and opinions of students concerning research. Its purposes are to:
1) study students' research experiences
2) use the findings to improve the ways we help students develop their research skills
3) determine what changes occur in research abilities as students progress through their academic careers
See the report below for results.
The survey will be deployed again at the end of spring 2022 to see if students have improved. The original cohort of students will be finishing their third year and will have likely experienced multiple research assignments and encountered library instruction at least once and possibly more.
Assessment methods for information literacy include the following:
Positive Outcomes:
Areas identified for improvement:
While students and faculty value the instruction they receive, their feedback indicates they would like more instruction in the following areas:
Next Steps
The library faculty would like to use the assessment data we have gathered to inform a new Strategic Plan for Digital & Information Literacy that will address the areas identified for improvement above and will include more digital literacy topics that will better prepare students to use information in their personal and professional lives as well as their academic lives. Our next steps include:
This chart shows aggregate data from all surveys given in 2020-21 to students after WELL Core events, course-integrated instruction, and research appointments.
This chart shows student feedback from a sampling of course-integrated instruction in the BELL Core, in the disciplines, and in the WELL Core.