Today is the first official day of my 6-month sabbatical. While I have some ambitious ideas for the time and I hope to be able to expand into many areas of professional interest, my first priority and ostensible purpose is to evaluate the ELIP program, based on both the feedback and the assignment data that were collected this past year.
In the last, lazy days of June, I was able to make a start with my analysis, reading the librarian journals, the student survey answers, and the faculty survey answers. What remains is the bulk of the student assignment data, especially the search strategy worksheets, which formed the major assignment in both semesters.
Even taking into account the increased communication and collaboration with course instructors, truly understanding the long-term impact of our instruction (if any) remains outside of our capabilities. The bulk of literature on one-shot instruction sessions notes the difficulties incumbent upon evaluating any lasting impact of the instruction; we at least have the perspective of the whole semester, as reported by course instructors.
The initial goal of the research was (somewhat vaguely) to evaluate the impact of the program on students. After teaching, collecting data, and keeping this project on my mind almost constantly throughout the past months, the questions I think we can answer are the following:
- Did the ELIP program help students succeed in their English 1100 courses?
- Does further integration of instruction aid in relationship-building between the library and the TRU community?
- How can we improve our instruction practices to better meet student and program needs?
I feel like potential answers have been swirling in my brain since the beginning of all this, but at this point, my most important goal will be to forget all that and start at the beginning.