From paper to pixels: using Google Forms for collaboration and assessment
| Date | 01 June 2015 |
| Pages | 9-13 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/LHTN-12-2014-0105 |
| Published date | 01 June 2015 |
| Author | Mireille Djenno,Glenda M. Insua,Annie Pho |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science,Librarianship/library management,Library technology |
From paper to pixels: using Google Forms for
collaboration and assessment
Mireille Djenno, Glenda M. Insua and Annie Pho
Introduction
Google Forms is a Web application
that allows users to create surveys and
polls that can be distributed to
authorized users. It is freely available in
Google Drive, Google’s cloud-based,
file-storage system, making it an ideal
option for educators and librarians.
Responses submitted through Google
Forms are automatically gathered in a
Web-based spreadsheet that can be
viewed online or exported to proprietary
spreadsheet software such as Microsoft
Excel, allowing for easy data analysis.
While using Google Forms to
facilitate instruction has enjoyed
popularity in recent years among primary
and secondary school teachers (Adams,
2008;Denton, 2012;Mallette and
Barone, 2013), its utility is only now
being explored within higher education
and library settings (Fransen et al., 2011;
Taylor and Doehler, 2014). The case
study described here is intended as a
precursor to a longer assessment project
currently in progress at the University of
Illinois at Chicago (UIC). In both studies,
Google Forms is being used as an
assessment tool and as a way of
incorporating active learning during
information literacy sessions at the
Richard J. Daley Library at the UIC.
Context
Students at UIC are introduced to
library research when they take the
required first-year writing composition
course, English 161: Academic Writing
II. Typical of many foundation courses,
English 161 is taught by several
members of the English Department
faculty and is subtitled variously,
according to the particular focus of that
section, as determined by the instructor.
Course themes vary greatly and address
topics such as Chicago and its
architecture, globalization, the US prison
system and immigration. Regardless of
the theme, the main emphasis is on
academic writing. In addition to
providing students with a foundation in
rhetoric, this course also requires students
to do in-depth research on a topic of their
choice, making it an ideal setting for
introducing information literacy concepts.
The semester progresses with scaffolded
writing assignments, the term
“scaffolded” being used here to denote
a pedagogical approach wherein
“teachers provide successive levels of
temporary support that help students
reach higher levels of comprehension
and skill acquisition that they would not
be able to achieve without assistance”
(Abbott, 2014). In the case of most
English 161 courses taught at UIC, this
includes several essays, an annotated
bibliography and research proposal,
which culminate in a final research
paper.
Information literacy instruction/
library sessions
The instruction coordinator at the
Daley Library has spent many years
developing a strong relationship with the
UIC English Department, resulting in
library instruction sessions being
mandatory for all English 161 sections.
English Department faculty thus schedule
one or two sessions with an instruction
librarian at the point of need, i.e. when
students have chosen a topic and are
about to begin the formal research
process. The sessions are typically 50
minutes or 75 minutes in length, so the
range of librarian contact hours with
students can be quite wide – from 50
minutes to 2.5 hours (with 75-100
minutes being the norm). According to
the work of Detlor et al. (2012, p. 149)
these contact hours correlate with student
learning outcomes: “The more information
literacy instruction (ILI) received, the
more significant the student learning
outcomes” (Detlor et al., 2012, p. 149).
The researchers aim to test whether this
finding holds true at UIC through
analysis that is currently on-
going.
During library sessions, students
begin to learn information literacy skills,
such as how to construct effective
keyword searches, how to evaluate
information and how to use library
databases to find books and articles
(Association of College and Research
Libraries, 2000). They also acquire other
relevant knowledge such as understanding
the importance of the peer-review process
and how to recognize the differences
between scholarly and popular articles.
Librarians try to address a variety of
information literacy competencies within
each session, but due to a variety of
factors (not least of which are time
constraints), they must make informed
choices about which concepts to
emphasize. Integrating information
literacy with these English classes has
proven essential for student participation
and is corroborated by comparable
studies of Illinois (IL) assessment in
foundational courses (Sheret and Steele,
2013).
Daley library case study
In the summer of 2013, librarians
at the UIC evaluated the library’s
instruction program for first-year
students with an eye toward updating
and improving the library instruction
curriculum. Two primary objectives
emerged:
(1) finding ways to incorporate more
active learning during these
sessions; and
(2) finding a way to increase assessment
of library instruction.
Some librarians were already proficient
in using active-learning techniques,
while others admitted to feeling less so,
especially given the time limitations
LIBRARY HITECH NEWS Number 4 2015, pp. 9-13, © Emerald Group Publishing Limited, 0741-9058, DOI 10.1108/LHTN-12-2014-0105 9
To continue reading
Request your trial