ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries February 1 9 9 3 /7 5 Using CAI to teach library skills By John E. Cooper Use the computer to orient large numbers o f students efficiently M any academ ic libraries are involved in program s designed to help students d e­ velop library skills. These program s range from brief tours of the library for entering freshm en to in-depth sem inars for graduate students on such topics as online searching or the develop­ m ent o f bibliographic databases. At large universities a com m on problem has b een finding an effective w ay of handling such instruction for beginning students. O rientation tours of the library, used successfully with small classes, becom e unw ieldy w hen they involve h u n d red s o f students. The o n e-h o u r biblio­ graphic instruction session, another frequently u sed format, may be perceived by students as irrelevant to their specific information needs. In either format students are too often passive recipients of instruction, retaining little o f w hat is presented in the orientation. O ne solution is the use o f Computer-Assisted Instruction (CAI), w hich is particularly suitable for large, ongoing orientation programs. Be­ cause it also requires student involvement in the learning process, it can be an effective in­ structional aid in teaching basic library skills. UCR'S past experience For each o f the past 13 years the Bio-Agricul­ tural Library at the University of California, Riv­ erside (UCR), has given library orientations to beginning biology students. The library’s refer­ ence staff undertook this program at the re­ quest of the Biology Department, w hich w anted its students to learn how to locate scientific information in a library early in their academ ic careers. The course selected for the orientation w as the introductory biology course, Biology 5A. The library w as asked specifically to in­ clude an introduction to the basic life sciences index, Biological Abstracts, in the program. Several instructional m ethods w ere tried in­ cluding tours, in-library exercises, an d a self- p aced w orkbook. In recent years the orienta­ tion evolved into a three-phase program: 1) An overview o f ways to locate scientific information in o u r library, presented as a 40- m inute lecture to a class o f approxim ately 600 students during the second w eek of the quar­ ter. 2) A library exercise in w hich the students u sed the online catalog, the microfiche list of UCR Serials, and Biological Abstracts. Each labo­ ratory section came to the library to w ork on the exercise for one h o u r during o n e of the regularly scheduled lab periods. 3) A follow -up assignm ent requiring the stu­ dents to locate scientific papers in the library for use as background material in tw o lab re­ ports. Problems During the time the library has been involved in the orientation, Biology 5A has grow n from 250 students in 1979 to about 600 students at present and from being offered in a single quar­ ter to now being offered in tw o quarters each academ ic year. We expect additional grow th in the future as the UCR cam pus grows. Along ith a greater num ber o f students, w e have o ted a significant increase in the am ount o f ibrary staff time required to give the orienta­ ion. In 1989 the orientation required approxi­ ately 486 hours o f reference staff time, far oo m uch to devote to a single course twice a ear. w n l t m t y John E. Cooper is acting head o f the Bio-Agricultural Library a t the University o f California, Riverside 7 6 /C&RL News O ther problem s w e e n co u n te red w ere pro b ­ ably typical for this type o f library orientation. We found: 1) The students seem ed to retain very little useful inform ation from th e 40-m inute lecture. 2) The program m ade intensive use of our reference staff. A cquainting each o f 25 students in 24 separate lab sections w ith B iological A b ­ stracts an d the online catalog req u ired alm ost individual attention from these librarians. 3) There w as severe overcrow ding in the reference area w h e re w e shelve B iological A b ­ stracts. This area is so small that only 12 stu­ dents can w ork effectively at o n e time, b u t d u r­ ing the 1989 sessions there w ere som etim es as m any as 25 students attem pting to use the sam e s e t o f in d e x e s . T h is s lo w e d th e s t u d e n ts ’ progress a n d frustrated their attem pts to learn. 4) T he use o f a single set o f indexes by 600 students in a learning experience dam ag e d an expensive library resource. 5) In th e fo llo w -u p a ssig n m en t stu d en ts again req u ired intensive h elp from the library staff, show ing that they rem em b ered little from th e previous library exercise. C om puter-assisted instruction We d ecid e d to turn to CAI as a w ay of solving som e o f these problem s. B ecause the staff-in- tensive parts o f th e program involved training th e students in th e use o f the online catalog an d B iological Abstracts, these w ere th e areas th at w ere selected for com puterization. For the co n v en ien ce o f th e students, w e ch o se a co n ­ ventional CAI system that co u ld be ru n o n one o f the IBM-PC o r com patible m icrocom puter n etw orks that are available o n the cam pus. After determ ining th e objectives a n d outlin­ ing each p ro p o se d CAI program , w e ask ed for com m ents from librarians w h o h a d b e e n in­ volved in p ast orientations. This in p u t resulted in a shorter, m ore sharply focused program for th e online catalog system a n d a decision to change th e overall em phasis o f the Biological A bstracts program to include a seco n d index to biological literature. Individual screens w ere th e n w ritten an d given to a professional program m er w h o cre­ ated th e final program s using PMI (P olytron) Repertoire, release 1.5 (an indexed file and screen display program) for the set of routines, an d JPI Modula-2 as the screen compiler. D evelopm ent o f th e tw o program s took about 400 hours o f a reference librarian’s time, in addition to 30 hours o f the professional pro-gram m er’s time. Both program s are installed o n netw orks at the tw o cam pus m icrocom puter facilities and can b e accessed by th e students 93 hours a w eek. O n logging into o n e o f th e program s, students are ask ed their nam e, their biology lab session, a n d their lab instructor’s nam e. The program records this inform ation an d later re­ ports the nam es o f the students w h o have gone th ro u g h each program , so rted b y lab instruc­ tor. T he instructor can th en give th em credit for com pleting th e assignm ent. The O n lin e C a ta lo g P ro g ra m The CAI program for the online catalog is a brief introduction to th e system a n d can be co m p leted in a b o u t 30 m inutes. It teaches the students h o w to find b o o k s an d journals using significant title w ords an d explains three w ays o f displaying th e data. B anners displayed at th e b o tto m o f e a c h s c r e e n d ire c t s tu d e n ts thro u g h th e program . T h ro u g h o u t the program there are sim ula­ tions o f real searches. To dem onstrate h o w the system w orks, stu d en ts e n te r co m m ands on copies o f screens ta k e n from the online cata­ log, an d the program answ ers w ith authentic catalog responses. T hese sim ulations help stu­ dents recognize m any o f the system ’s features an d feel confident of their searching ability w hen they first use the online catalog in the library. The Bio In d e x e s P ro g ra m T he other CAI program w as ex p an d ed to a m ore g eneral introduction to indexes an d their use in finding inform ation in the life sciences. It n o w covers the im portance o f inform ation in scientific research, journal citations an d their interpretation, an d the use o f b o th Biological a n d A g r ic u ltu r a l I n d e x a n d B io lo g ica l A b ­ stracts. T he program , w hich takes 45 m inutes to an h o u r to com plete, consists o f a series o f screens th at explain an d illustrate these concepts, w ith review questions appearing every third or fourth screen. At intervals th e p ro g ram refers to a sam ple p ack et o f 21 pages from B iological a n d A g ricu ltu ra l I n d e x an d B iological Abstracts (re­ p ro d u c e d w ith perm ission). Students are ask ed to use this p ack et as a sam ple index to find several scientific articles. Citations for these ar­ ticles m ust th e n b e e n te re d correctly o n the terminal. Students become familiar with the indexes without having to use the real volumes. As in the other CAI program, banners at the bottom of each screen direct students through the program. 78/C&RL News N e w L ib ra ry Skills P ro g ra m With the tw o CAI program s in place, w e w ere able to m ake significant revisions in the library orientation. Biology 5A students are now asked to go thro u g h the program s o n either o f the cam pus PC-netw ork facilities during th e first tw o w eeks of the quarter. T hose w h o are unfa­ miliar w ith com puters are urged to seek indi­ vidual help from o u r reference librarians. Al­ tho u g h the n u m b er w h o ask for this help is relatively small, w e have b e e n som ew hat sur­ prised that in a time w h en students are rep u ted to b e “com puter literate,” there are still those w ho feel unsure of their abilities in this area. After completing this assignment, the class is divided into groups of about 20 students w ho come to the Bio- Agricultural Library for a brief exercise in ways of finding material on the shelves. In the exercise each student is given a dif­ ferent citation to a journal article w hich they are to assum e they have found in Biological Abstracts. Following a brief to u r of the library, the students w ork through the exercise, find­ ing the call num ber for their cited journal from the online catalog, and locating the journal us­ ing library floor maps. After going to the shelves an d finding the correct journal volum e, they turn to the e n d o f the cited article an d record the citation for the first reference o n their exer­ cise sheet. The sheet is then turned in as evi­ d ence that they have com pleted the assignment. Instead o f th e formal follow -up library ex­ ercise included in past orientations, w e n o w ask the instructors to require library research for reports assigned in the introductory course an d also in later, more advanced courses. The students are told of this requirem ent at the start o f the library orientation, giving them additional m otivation to participate in the program . In all phases o f the orientation w e have found that a close w orking relationship w ith the course p ro ­ fessors an d laboratory instructors has b een es­ sential to the program ’s success. E valuation W e have n o w oriented 1,680 students using the n ew instructional program . In anonym ous evaluations 62% o f these students gave ratings o f very g o o d o r excellent to the skills an d know ledge they received from th e CAI p ro ­ grams, an d 72% gave the sam e ratings to the clearness o f the material p resen ted in th e p ro ­ gram s. The final library exercise received simi­ lar ratings from th e students, alth o u g h they suggested several m inor adjustm ents that will m ake the program run m ore sm oothly in the future. Overall, the students evaluated the p ro ­ gram very highly and indicated by their com ­ m ents that they felt it w as a w orthw hile invest­ m ent o f their time. H owever, the evaluations sh o w ed som e dis­ satisfaction w ith the use of CAI in teaching li­ brary skills. In fact, 29 students (2%) said that they did not like to use a com puter for this type o f assignment, and there w ere additional w ritten com m ents indicating resistance to the depersonalization inherent in this type o f in­ struction. O n the other hand, the overw helm ­ ing majority w ere positive ab o u t the experi­ e n c e a n d so m e e v e n a sk e d fo r m o re CAI program s in the future. T he Biology D epartm ent has also b een e n ­ thusiastic about the new program , stressing the im portance of the orientation to the students. Such su p p o rt is vital to its success b ecause com pletion of the program counts for only 12 p oints ou t of the total 320 points in a stu d en t’s final course grade. As m ight b e expected, a few students (about 5%) choose not to partici­ pate in the orientation, b u t all o f the others have willingly participated, undoubtedly stim u­ lated by the professors an d laboratory instruc­ tors. T he n ew program requires about 60 hours o f library staff time p e r quarter, most o f it spent guiding the students through the library exer­ cise. This is a significant decrease over the time sp e n t o n previous orientations. The staff notes that students w ho have b een through the ori­ entation seem to b e m ore confident in their u se o f the library. The overall assessm ent of o u r librarians is that the program is effective in helping these students learn w ays o f locating scientific information in the library. S u m m a ry W e believe the program is a success from the standpoint of the students, th e Biology D epart­ m ent, an d the library. The use o f C om puter- Assisted Instruction has simplified our task of orienting large groups o f students w hile still giving them basic training in the use o f a li­ brary. Most of the students like this instruc­ tional format, especially since they have som e control over the various phases o f the orienta­ tion an d can schedule them aro u n d o ther as­ signments. The evidence indicates that they are also retaining m any o f the library skills being taught— a benefit both to them an d to the Biol­ ogy D epartm ent’s Instructional Program. ■