Foundational Learners Team Summary Post

The Foundational Learners team spent most of last semester asking questions in a variety of ways, striving to get to know our population better.

To understand this process better, we first must define what a foundational learner is. The easy answer is “freshmen” but something we learned from our focus groups is that all freshman are not on the same page when it comes to research. Some have a great deal more experience (and similar amounts of overconfidence) while others have only completed the most basic of research assignments before.  If foundational learners are students who are new to the type of research demanded of them at Penn State, it does likely mean all freshmen, but it also includes transfer students, ESL students, and even higher level students who have slipped through the cracks in some way.

Definition in hand, we began exploring the ways we reach out to these foundational students, completing an inventory that gathered together all of the places where LLS provided instruction. While we by far reached the most students through ENGL15, it was interesting to note that we reached 100% of ESL students. But the question was, looking at this document, is this the best usage of our time. Teaching, both in person and online, takes a significant amount of time and the question was, is this time well spent, or should we come up with an alternative.

This led us to complete a series of focus groups with ENGL15 students. Because of the Reboot, none of them had received in person library instruction. When asked if anyone had ever  explained research to them in a way that stuck, most students said no. While we would like to complete another focus group, one of students that had received library instructions, it is easy to make the assumption that if these students had attended a library session, they would understand research in a more in depth way.

In order to check this understanding, we reviewed and revitalized our faculty and student evaluations, mapping them to the learning outcomes that our librarians are teaching to. Instead of sending them out at the end of the semester as we have in the past, these assessments will be done at the end of class in order to get a fresh perspective.

So that left us with opportunities with students, but students are not the only variable in the classroom. Faculty buy-in, whether it’s in person or online, is vital to students’ commitment to learning. The Foundational Learners team took time to use a form created by the Instructional Steering committee to review instructional partnerships. This, combined with meetings with ENGL15 administrators let us know that the buy-in from ENGL15 instructors is comparably strong, and a good use of our time and energy.

There is still much work to do. Assessment is likely to need some tweaking as we push forward with the new time frame. There are many models of teaching, in person, badges, Credo modules, that our instructional partners may want, and navigating these different opportunities will require finesse. The reboot was just the start of our work, but it was a start that gave us both direction and drive as we make our way forward.

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