Evaluating Info skills

• Simone Ngozi Okolo • S.n.okolo@uel.ac.uk

Academic Services and Skills Manager

– 13th January 2012

Evaluating Info skills

Reasons for the evaluation

• Find out who is using this resource.• What aspect of the resource they find most

useful • Whether it meets their level of current study

and if they would recommend this resource to other students.

• Publicise the resource and increase usage.• Any other recommendation they might have

Methodology used

• Online questionnaire – designed with just 12 questions.

• 28 students and staff, filled in the online questionnaire.

• Focus group – 3 students attended the focus group

• Very small sample but we belief the information gathered to be of high quality and useful.

Online feedback

Survey went live in October Data collected until end of Nov.

• 28 people responded to the online survey and the results are as follows.

• It was important for us to know what the different groups within UEL are saying

• 1st year – 13• 2nd & 3rd year – 4• PG. – 4• Staff – 2• International -1

First

year

studen

t

second ye

ar stu

dent

third ye

ar stu

dent

Postgrad

uate st

udent

UEL sta

ff mem

ber

Internati

onal stu

dent

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

Are you?

Have you used Info Skills before?

71% said No Action• Of the 13 1st year students, just 4 had

used Info Skills• None of the second years had used

the resource• 1 out of the 4 3rd years had used the

resource• 1 out of the 4 PG students, had used

Info Skills• We hope that the re-positioning of

the resource on our website will make it more accessible to our students

• Continue with our marketing strategyYes No 0

5

10

15

20

25

Would you recommend Info Skills to a friend?

96.4% would recommendAlthough majority said they hadn’t used it

• 27 out of the 28 respondents said they would recommend Info Skills

• The 3rd year student who said No also said they found the resource both excellent and at the right level.

• They either wanted to keep it to themselves or not collaborative learner

Yes No0

5

10

15

20

25

30

Which sections of the site did you find most useful?

Referencing came out on topFollowed by Finding and identifying information• 1st Year students found all the sections useful

and particularly the referencing section• 2nd years were interested in Identifying and

finding information and to a lesser extent referencing and evaluating information

• 3rd year students found indentifying and Evaluating information useful. One singled out referencing and the other finding information

• The one International student said they found all the sections useful

• Postgraduate students said they found the section on Finding information (2) and one mentioned referencing section

• The two staff members found referencing and evaluating information useful

• Students could pick more than one section in this question

Identifyi

ng inform

ation

Finding i

nformati

on

Evalu

ating i

nformati

on

Referen

cing i

nformati

on 0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

18

How would you rate this site?

92% rated it excellent to Good

• 4 of the students who rated it excellent are 1st years

• 3 out of the 4 3rd years rated it excellent• The 1st year student who found it

satisfactory also said it was too difficult. The student can dip into they resources whenever they need to

• 1 staff and 1 PG rated it excellent

Excellent Good Satisfactory Poor Very poor 0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

Do you feel that the information on the site is at the right level?

None found it to be too easy

• One 1st year student found the resource both satisfactory and too difficult

• Remarkable that all students found it to be at the right level for them given that Info Skills is targeted at Level One

• One questioned why it was targeted at level one and not for all

Yes No-Too difficult No-too easy 0

5

10

15

20

25

30

What resources on the site do you find most useful?

• The downloadable guides came up on top because they can print it off and refer to it when it’s needed.

• The information is also concise.• The conclusion is that students found all

aspects of this very useful.

Demonstr

ations

Quizzes

Videos

Wep

ages

Downloadab

le gu

ides 0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

18

What do you like most about the site?

Comments• I like the staff talking in the videos and also

the advice students gave in the video • It makes me feel that you care about my

education - (International Student)• Its` necessity for students. • I really like this site because before i had less

knowledge about Harvard referencing, also i didn’t know too much about how to avoid plagiarism since i start using this site, i have learnt preety much about all those thingsit has quiz system i really like this system its kinda testing your knowledge how far u understand it all i ll say this is an excellent site.

• The whole site itself. • It is very easy and simple to access.

Comments• I haven't looked in great detail at all the

areas of this resource however I have wanted to develop a quiz for Harvard referencing for Study Skills students - and here it is! Great! Now how to make passing this test a compulsory part of study skills! -(Staff)

• The ease of use • The is an excellent tools in the sense that it

helps students who struggle with the initial stages of finding resources of interest. (3rd Yr)

• Referencing - the other info that was on UEL website was confusing to use. This is straight forward.

• The thing I like most about this site is that, as a first year student with little understanding of how to reference, it gives you a breakdown of how to cite your source of information properly in order to aviod plagiarism.

What do you like most about the site?

Comments• The site is quite helpful and i think a lot of useful

information is stored for the new students. It shows you ways of searching for the right information you need and it guides you to many resources that would be essential for your

studies and assignments. • Easy to use and cover all areas of academic

study • The layout makes it easy to read and find what

you're looking for • What I most like about the info skills website that

the website provides step by step information and guidance on how to approach any assignment that involves doing research , on how to gather and reference information.

(2nd Yr)• This saves time when looking for help. Has

mainly used the ‘academic integrity’ bit, and has used videos (Focus Group)

• Videos• Quizzes• Ease of use• How to cite – more

understandable and less confusing

• Layout• Step by step• Well organised site• Time saving• Everything in one place

Is there anything that you feel is missing from the site?

Suggestions• Examples of bad referencing• More video on how to argue in an

essay• Video lectures for our module (2nd yr)• More information on using Endnote

and other reference management software (PG)

• More examples of referencing would be helpful. Not looked enough to see what else missing.(Focus Group)

• Not sure. Might be helpful if it included advice on how to conduct a literature search and on how to lay out / structure your dissertation (Focus Group)

Suggestions• Would like video length to be displayed

before pressing play. (Staff)

How did you hear about Info Skills?

The website and lecturer recommendation came out on top Response from Focus Group

• Never heard of it before being asked to join focus group moments earlier

• Posters could be way of marketing it, but only if they are attention-seeking

• UELSU banners on railings are effective means of marketing – perhaps library could try same idea

• E-mail not a good way to communicate with students, because inboxes are overwhelmed with e-mail from university.

• Would prefer a pop-up on UELPlus as a means of promoting it. She also said she doesn’t generally notice the plasma screens in the library and doesn’t read Universe.

From Lib

rary w

ebsit

e

Recommen

dation fr

om lectu

rer

Recommen

dation fr

om librar

ian

Recommen

dation fr

om a fri

end

Poster/b

ookmark

other0

2

4

6

8

10

12

Other Focus Group questions

Have you tried to use Info skills on a mobile device?

• Never tried.• Not tried, but will test on

iPhone and report back to Ella. Would like to know if compatible with all types of device.

What other support have you tried to access for your assignments

• A – Generally just looks at lecturer’s PowerPoints on UELPlus. Now in third year of programme and still getting head around how to use Athens. Athens access easier now that passwords set up automatically and also liked the Athens support leaflet.

• B – Used Ask-a-Librarian a couple of times in the past

Conclusion

The resource is useful• A lot of positive feedback from staff and

students• Share this findings with all partners – e.g. using

videos to communicate lectures• Keep Info Skills refreshed and up-to-date –

already our new website means that some of the demonstrations will need updating

• We need to add new content – videos, quizzes• Work on embedding in Skills Module. E.g.

Making referencing quizzes an element of the course

• More work on publicising and embedding info skills

• From the evaluation we have learnt about aspects of marketing and ideas for future content development

• You are welcome to use the

Info Skills

?• Thank you to:

• Ella Mitchell• Kelly Travers• Hugh Bowman• Robin Stinson• Catherine Johnson• Nicky Hale• Graham Fennell• Kaye Larbi

– 13th January 2012