New Research Article: “The Amazing Library Race: Tracking Student Engagement and Learning Comprehension in Library Orientations”
The following article appears in the latest issue of the Journal of Information Literacy.
Title
The Amazing Library Race: Tracking Student Engagement and Learning Comprehension in Library Orientations
Authors
New York University Libraries
Katelyn Angell
Long Island University
Eamon Tewell
Long Island University
Source
Journal of Information Literacy
Vol 9. No. 1 (2015)
Abstract
Seeking to introduce first-year students to library resources and services in an engaging way, an orientation titled The Amazing Library Race (ALR) was developed and implemented at a university library. Informed by the pedagogy of problem-based learning, the ALR asks students to complete challenges regarding different departments and services. This study assesses this initiative’s success using observational and artifact-based data, addressing the challenging prospect of evaluating the impact of library orientation sessions.
Two rubrics were developed to measure student involvement and student learning comprehension. More than 14 hours of in-class observations were used to track engagement, and 64 artifacts of student learning were collected and coded to evaluate learning comprehension. After coding, interrater reliability was established using the intraclass correlation coefficient to establish the validity of the ratings. This paper will outline these methodologies, present the results of the data analysis, and discuss the possibilities and difficulties of measuring student engagement in information literacy instruction centred upon active learning.
Read the Complete Article (12 pages; PDF)
Filed under: Academic Libraries, Data Files, Journal Articles, Libraries, Resources

About Gary Price
Gary Price (gprice@gmail.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area. He earned his MLIS degree from Wayne State University in Detroit. Price has won several awards including the SLA Innovations in Technology Award and Alumnus of the Year from the Wayne St. University Library and Information Science Program. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com.