JACALYN KREMER- HEAD OF ACADEMIC LIBRARY PARTNERSHIPS AND ASSESSMENT

WIT MEESANGNIL –HEAD OF DIGITAL SERVICES & TECHNOLOGY PLANNING

DIMENNA-NYSELIUS LIBRARY FAIRFIELD UNIVERSITY

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Agenda:

1.Introduction: Helping today’s students understand the complex stages of research and writing.

2.Exploring the RT – from the student perspective. 3.Exploring its Use at Your Institution- Creative Commons License

4.Brief Review of Tech Requirements to bring this to your institution 5.Assessment – RT Assessment to date plus your Opinion

http://librarybestbets.fairfield.edu/researchtracker

1.Introduction: What do our students struggle with when writing a large paper/project?

1. Introduction: How can we help today’s students understand the complex stages of research and writing?

DiMenna-Nyselius Library at Fairfield University has created a one-of-a- kind online research tool that successfully answers that question with features such as:

• calculation of research steps with assigned due dates; • option to save those dates into a student’s calendar; • ability of students to document and store their research in

one place as they work; and • highlights subject specific resources including links

to LibGuides. .

1.Introduction:

History Collides with New Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education

Threshold Concept - Research as Inquiry

Research as Inquiry refers to an understanding that research is iterative and depends upon asking increasingly complex questions whose answers develop new questions or lines of inquiry in any field.

2.Exploring the RT – from the student perspective!

Assignment: Do a 10 page paper on Mark Twain’s Tom Sawyer.

____________________________________User this to login to RT:

•NetID: rtlibrariandemo2014•Password: anything that’s not blank e.g. “dog” “cat” etc.

We are sharing it via Creative Commons Open Access license. go to: http://librarybestbets.fairfield.edu/researchtracker

3.Exploring its Use at Your Institution

Break into groups of 2-3.

Consider the following:

Do you think the RT might help today’s students – distance learners, independent researchers, adult learners, and traditional students -  avoid last minute research panic and help them to understand the complex stages of research and writing?

Do you think the RT might help your instruction program? If so, how?

4. What are the tech requirements?

RT is built with open source technology-PHP / ZendFramework 2 & MySQL

-What you need to use it at your institution-A server-A sys admin that can setup LAMP stack application

4. What are the tech requirements? (cont.)

Caveat-I haven’t put the source code on a public repo (e.g. GitHub) yet because

- code still needs refactoring (cleanups)- It’s not very easy to customize

- e.g. you might what to change steps name, list of DBs, and etc.

5. RT assessment to date

5. RT assessment to date (cont.)

5. RT assessment to date (cont.)

5. RT assessment to date (cont.)

What new feature would you like to see added to the Research Tracker?

•Reminders sent to phone via text.

•Being able to hand in our papers in through the research tracker.

•An example of a finished one to see and compare to

•help add books easier

•connect to class syllabuses

•No edit button, type right on it.

•make it more personal, able to make your own template

•it would be nice if teachers could connect it to papers and allow them to change the dates and post notes if needed

Assessment

- Let us know what you think- Don’t forget to let us know if you’re interested in using it at your institution

http://bit.ly/restrkJackie Kremer- jkremer@fairfield.edu

Wit Meesangnil –

wmeesangnil@fairfield.edu