Diane Mick
LIS 7996: Research
October 6, 2011
Clark, S. & Chinburg, S. (2010). Research performance in undergraduates receiving face to face versus online library instruction: a citation analysis. Journal of Library Administration, 50 (6), 530-422 doi: 10.1080/01930826.2010.488599
As online college programs continue to increase in availability, it is important to improve the delivery methods and analyze the quality of education students receive. For Library and Information Science, it is time to integrate the knowledge of search skills into classes to increase the quality of articles and research cited by students. The question I would like to answer in my research is if the quality of education is improved by the embedded librarian program offered in some online classes. Unfortunately, this program is not available at all colleges and further research could persuade administrators to provide this service in all online academic programs.
In 2008, Rogers State University, Claremore, Oklahoma began offering the embedded librarian program into online courses if requested by instructors. Susan Clark and Susan Chinburg launched a citation analysis to test the effectiveness of the embedded librarian program.
The Clark and Chinburg study included three sections of an upper-level Management Information Systems (MIS) class. All three sections had the same instructor. Two sections were offered online, and one section was a face to face class that met twice per week. Each class covered the same material and used the same textbook. The research papers evaluated were from two semesters for a total of six sections. The results compared 327 citations.
The independent variable is the research papers written by all students in this class. The dependent variable is if the student was online or face to face. The face to face section was given one 50-minute class period of traditional information literacy instruction by the access services and distance learning librarian. The online sections were provided with a PowerPoint tutorial with voice over and screen shots by the same librarian. Links to key resources and the same information was given to both the face to face and online students. The librarian was then embedded into the online course with teaching assistant privileges in the course-management software. The embedded librarian read of the discussion board post and had an area designated for research questions which were answered with appropriate responses and suggestions throughout the semester. The research paper instructions for all sections were identical. The students were to write a strategic analysis paper, six to nine pages in length, on a technical topic in the information systems field. They were required to use five sources with no more than three sources from Internet-only articles.
To begin analyzing the sources, the citations were stripped from the papers by the professor and forwarded to the librarian. The citations were categorized into eight types of print and electronic sources. The citations were then tested against the null hypothesis that there would be no significant differences, statistically, between the sources used in face to face and online sections of the class. The class section results were very similar with no statistically significant differences. A chi-square test was used to test the results against the expected null hypothesis. The results were well within range with only a variation between the two datasets of 0.963.
The study was successful in suggesting that online instruction can be as effective as face to face instruction if an embedded librarian is used in the online class and research instruction is given to all sections. The study would have been more helpful if two more sections, face to face and online, without library instruction would have been tested along side those with library instruction.
I would suggest this article as a starting point for someone wanting to use citation analysis in a quantitative study. More studies need to be conducted to improve online classes and validate online education as an equally effective means of education.
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