33 Association of Research Libraries Research Library Issues 290 2017 Instruction is redundant: during their Cornell years, students experience “effectively the same presentation” multiple times Quality of instruction varies (it is often not engaging enough instructors just “throw tools at you”) Conceptually, library instruction is often too centered on fairly intuitive search engines or it is too general Asked about possible explanations of why at the end of library instruction sessions 98% of the students rated them helpful, while on the end-of-year ESS survey 38.5% of those who participated in library instruction found it not very helpful, the students offered various explanations: students forget what they learned, at the end of the session they feel bad if they don’t rate positively, on the COFHE survey they were rating library instruction in relation to their overall academic experience, etc. Ultimately, the agreement coalesced around the perception that library instruction is too tool-based and is not teaching critical thinking. The suggestions for improving it included: Replace instruction sessions with one-on-one sessions Turn instruction into a Q&A session Divide classes into smaller groups so that individual questions can be addressed All of the suggestions clearly connected to the flipped classroom model where the content (or part of it) is delivered online and face-to-face interaction is reserved for customized help. Pilot Project In order to address some of the points made by the members of the Student Library Advisory Council, especially those about redundancy and “experiencing effectively the same
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