The document discusses a study on how recent college graduates address information problems in the workplace, highlighting employer expectations and challenges faced by graduates. Key findings reveal that while graduates are technologically adept, they often lack essential skills such as engaging teams, thoroughness, and the ability to utilize diverse information sources effectively. The document emphasizes the need for enhancing information literacy and teamwork in academic settings to better prepare students for workplace research demands.

1. Learning Curve
How College Graduates
Solve Information Problems
in the Workplace
Michele Van Hoeck
CSU Maritime and Project Information Literacy
California Conference on Library Instruction
San Jose State University, April 5, 2013

2. Ability to obtain and process information
Ranked 4th : “very to extremely important”

3. Project Information Literacy
A large-scale study about early adults and their research habits

4. Who?
Director:
Dr. Alison Head
Research Team:
Beth Black
Ohio State University Libraries
Sue Gilroy
Harvard University Libraries
Michele Van Hoeck
CSU Maritime Library
Jordan Eschler
University of Washington
Sean Fullerton
University of Washington

5. What?
Interviews with employers Focus groups with recent
college graduates

6. 23 Employers
• Fortune 500 + small + mid-­‐‑sized
companies
• Media, Tech, Engineering,
Government, Manufacturing,
Financial, Research

7. 33 Recent Graduates
• Santa Rosa Junior College
• University of Puget Sound
• University of Texas Austin
• Harvard College

8. Where?
= graduate focus groups
= employers

9. When?
2008
2009
2010
Student
focus
groups
Handout
content
analysis
Large-scale
survey
Tech study
interviews
2011
Recent college grads in the workplace
2012
Student
survey

10. How $

11. Why?
A Confession

12. We asked employers about:
• Expectations
• Strengths
• Struggles/challenges
for college grads “doing research” or
“solving information problems” at work

13. Coding
• 14 ACRL Information Literacy
performance indicators
• 16 Habits of Mind
(Art Costa, CSU Sacramento)

14. Findings

15. Baseline Expectations
• How and where to find information online,
without much guidance
• Use a search strategy that goes beyond first
page of Google results
• Articulate a “best solution” and conclusion
from all that was found

16. Strengths
Ease with technology: A+

17. “The contrast is so evident
between us on one side and
them on the other side. They
are connected in a way that
my generation wasn’t.”

18. “Information? They find
it, they take it, and they
blend it, they mash it up,
they re-­‐‑purpose it.”

19. What do employers need
(but rarely see)
in recent grads?

20. 1. Engage team during
research process
“We need someone who will go
out and explore on their own and
then come back to the team and
say, ‘Here'ʹs my best take, what
do you think?’ They need that
ability to invite discussion and
be able to redirect on the fly.”

21. “They believe the computer is their
workspace, so basic interactions
between people are lost. They won’t get
up and walk over and ask someone a
question. They are less comfortable and
have some lack of willingness to use
people as sources and also have a lack
of awareness that people are a valid
source of information.”

22. 2. Use variety of formats
“There were many graduates
who just looked in one place—
the Internet—and that was the
problem. It’s a whole bag of
tricks you need for doing
research today.”

23. 3. Find Pa]erns
“difficulty distinguishing
the noise from the
solid material”
get stuck in the mud
trying to figure out
what it all means”

24. 4. Being thorough
“I don'ʹt think there'ʹs a lot of
that desire to go deep. They expect
information to be so easy to get,
that when it'ʹs not,
it'ʹs frustrating to them.”

25. Habits of Mind
• Openness to learning
• Persistence

26. Surprise!
The workplace needs
sophisticated
information literacy skills.

27. Workplace research:
• Is social (and socially iterative)
• Uses a variety of sources and source types
• Seeks pa>erns
• Requires persistence
• Means being open to continuous learning

28. What information problems
do you solve at work?

29. What did grads say?

30. Focus group questions
• What is challenging about solving
information problems in the workplace?
• Which college learning experiences have
been most applicable?
• What strategies do you use to solve
information problems?

31. “My job feels like there’s a
perpetual thesis due, but my job
is literally about finding
information that does not exist.
My information needs have
changed and intensified since
when I was an undergraduate.”

32. Workplace research challenges
1. Increased sense of urgency
2. Li]le structure or direction
3. Highly contextual and
fundamentally social

33. What transferred well?
Ability to:
• Systematically evaluate sources
• Critically read and analyze published sources
• Synthesize large volumes of content and
extract quality information

34. Overlap: Workplace research is social
The biggest hurdle
for me was ge]ing
used to talking to
strangers.
They need to look
beyond their
computer screens.
Recent graduate
Employer

35. Opposing views of
workplace research
Grads perceive:
fast pace
Employers need:
persistence,
thoroughness

36. Time vs. Ambiguity

37. What is our learning curve?

38. If team projects are so
prevalent in college, why
aren’t grads be]er at doing
research in teams?
Text your hypothesis!

39. What assignments require…
• Persistence
• Iterative process
• Variety of sources?

40. Are research papers the
best way to develop
persistent, iterative
researchers?

41. Opportunities
for Instruction Librarians

42. How many ACRL
Info Lit learning outcomes
are social?
14 of 87

43. Social side of research
• Encourage team consultations with
librarians
• Teach identification of experts as sources
• Discuss tools/sources that make iterative,
team-­‐‑based research more transparent:
Google Docs, Zotero, Wikipedia

44. Motivation and authentic tasks
• Use data from NACE or PIL to talk about the
workplace value of information literacy
• Partner with faculty to design research
assignments that reflect workplace realities
• Reach out to extracurricular groups on campus

45. New assessment possibilities
• How can we measure source
variety?
• How can we measure
persistence?

46. Resources
Alison Head, Project Information Literacy (2012). Learning Curve.
http://projectinfolit.org/pdfs/PIL_fall2012_workplaceStudy_FullReport.pdf
National Association of Colleges and Employers (press releases)
http://www.naceweb.org
Art Costa, Habits of Mind
http://www.instituteforhabitsofmind.com/
Bill Coplin. (2012). 10 things employers want you to learn in
college. Berkeley, CA: Ten Speed Press.
Head, Van Hoeck, Eschler, Fullerton. What information
competencies matter in today’s workplace? (May 2013), Library
and Information Research, http://www.lirgjournal.org.uk