Action Research in the Development of Referencing Tools

Bob HoffmanUniversity of Notre Dame Australia

Some History

• Prior to 2015, each school of the university decided on referencing styles to be used by their students• This led to many different styles used in the university and often a

number of guides to the same style which didn’t always agree• There was widespread frustration from students taking units from

different schools• In 2014 the University’s Teaching and Learning Committee gave the

go-ahead for the library to take responsibility for creating an official guide for each of three approved styles (AGLC3, APA, and Chicago Notes & Bibliography)

Referencing Guide Launched in January 2015

Next Step

• The initial guide had to be in place quickly using existing tools but library staff immediately started considering planning something better• We looked at a large number of existing guides from other

institutions• Our first thought was that we would build a prototype of a

new guide and do some research to see if students and academic staff found it better• We started a research proposal to submit to a School

Research Committee

Oops!• As we went through this process, things became more complicated• Trying to build a prototype in the way we wanted it proved much

more time-consuming than we expected• While filling in the research proposal, issues were raised that we

hadn’t considered (of course, that was the purpose of the process)• A review of the literature threw up a number of issues

• The growing diversity of online resources confused students trying to use referencing styles originally designed for print materials (Brown, Dickson, Humphreys, McQuillan, & Smears, 2008; Gibbs, Kooyman, Marks, & Burns, 2015; Gray, Thompson, Clerehan, Sheard, & Hamilton, 2008; Park, Mardis, & Ury, 2011)

• Importance of referencing in academic integrity (Brown et al., 2008; Park et al., 2011)

• Low use of many referencing guides provided by universities (Brown, et al., 2008; Greenwood, Walkem, Smith, Shearer and Stirling, 2014)

A Way Forward

• We realised that we needed to know more about the needs of students before we started planning a new guide• A research methodology was needed that was going to set

us on the right track to creating a guide that gave students the help they needed to work out when and how to reference that they would actually use• A lecturer who teaches research methods was recruited to

assist us to design a process that would lead us to achieve our goals• We decided to take an Action Research methodology

Action Research• Action research is a cycle of planning, action, and reflection which

is repeated until the desired outcome is achieved• This allows research to be a continuous process to inform

development of a service• It will be used in this case to:

• Establish the needs and desires of students and academic staff starting with focus groups in first semester 2016

• Construct a new or revised guide based on the results• Do further research and modifications to eventually provide a guide that:

• meets the academic integrity needs of the university• results in high quality referencing in assignments• makes it easy for students to learn referencing skills• is actually used by students

Action Research Model

Koshy, 2005, p. 4

AcknowledgementsBrown, C. A., Dickson, R., Humphreys, A., McQuillan, V., & Smears, E. (2008). Promoting academic

writing/referencing skills: Outcome of an undergraduate e-learning pilot project. British Journal of Educational Technology, 39(1), 140-156. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8535.2007.00735.x

Gibbs, C., Kooyman, B., Marks, K., & Burns, J. (2015). Mapping the roadmap: Using action research to develop an online referencing tool. The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 41(4), 422-428. doi:10.1016/j.acalib.2015.05.004

Gray, K., Thompson, C., Clerehan, R., Sheard, J., & Hamilton, M. (2008). Web 2.0 authorship: Issues of referencing and citation for academic integrity. Internet and Higher Education, 11(2), 112-118. doi:10.1016/j.iheduc.2008.03.001

Greenwood, M., Walkem, K., Smith, L., Shearer, T., & Stirling, C. (2014). Postgraduate nursing student knowledge, attitudes, skills, and confidence in appropriately referencing academic work. Journal of Nursing Education, 53(8), 447-452. doi:10.3928/01484834-20140725-01

Kargbo, J. (2010). Undergraduate students' problems with citing references. The Reference Librarian, 51(3), 222-236. doi:10.1080/02763871003769673

Koshy, V. (2005). Action research for improving practice: A practical guide. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com

Newton, P. (2015). Academic integrity: A quantitative study of confidence and understanding in students at the start of their higher education. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 40(1), 1-16.