Internship @ Berea College: Day 21 and 22 (Entry 21 and 22)

RPS Assessment:

Approach to Evaluating Resources

Question 28: Scholarly v Non-scholarly

Available Online (Best Answer: Cannot Be Determined):

• All students picked Cannot be Determined

Translated (Best Answer: Cannot Be Determined):

• All students picked Cannot be Determined

In a peer-reviewed Journal (Best Answer: Scholarly):

• All students picked Scholarly.
• Seniors are higher.
• NF are higher then BF.

Post in Political Blog (Best Answer: Non-Scholarly):

• All students picked Non-scholarly.
• Seniors higher than freshman.

Recent Publication (Best Answer: Cannot Be Determined):

• All students picked Cannot Be Determined.

Lengthy List of References (Best Answer: Scholarly):

• All Berea students and National Freshman picked Scholarly.
• National Seniors were split between Cannot be Determined and Scholarly.

Published by a UP (Best Answer: Scholarly):

• All students picked Scholarly.
• All freshman were higher than seniors.

Article in NYT, etc. (Best Answer: Non-Scholarly):

• All freshman are split between Scholarly and Non-Scholarly.
• All seniors picked Non-Scholarly.

Question 29: What is the Least Appropriate Source (Best Answer: Wilson, B. A. (2006). Women in the Civil War. Retrieved July)

• BF are split between the best answer and Heidler, D. S., & Heidler, J. T. (Eds.). (2000). Encyclopedia.
• All other students picked the best answer.

Question 30: Basis for Source Selection (Best Answer: Whether the source is likely to be scholarly)

• BF are split between the best answer and all of the above.
• All other students picked the best answer.

Question 31: Determine to Use Source (Best Answer: Whether the source is scholarly):

• BF picked all of the above.
• All other students are split between the best answer and all of the above.

Demographic:

• Majority are Female.
• Majority are White/Caucasian.
• All were either Freshman or Seniors.

Reflection:
Is the small sample of Berea students valid for the assessment (will it tell us anything)?

We have found that despite the small sample size, the national data compares generally across the board with Berea. We can say that the national results can be generalized for Berea and the Berea results can be generalized for the national students. There are some places here and there that are different. We will be taking a look at those. However, we know that the RPS data is valid and can be generalized for our case on what the students are learning and thinking for information literacy.

Now that we know the results are valid and can be used even with our small sample, we can ask some more questions.

•  What is important?
• Are we teaching what is important?
• Is what is important in the assignments?
• Is what is important being graded?

We can also start setting up some initial criteria to look for:

• Where the F are higher than the S
• Where everybody gets it
• Where nobody gets it

 Now we can start the next step in the process.