Tutoring Research & Writing @ New England Library Association 2019 powerpoint
•Download as PPTX, PDF•
0 likes•76 views
With student Research & Writing Tutors Marnie Anair and Emma Brown. Also available at https://osf.io/3mtyd/
Recommended
Recommended
More Related Content
Similar to Tutoring Research & Writing @ New England Library Association 2019 powerpoint
Similar to Tutoring Research & Writing @ New England Library Association 2019 powerpoint (20)
More from Elizabeth Dolinger
More from Elizabeth Dolinger (12)
Recently uploaded
Recently uploaded (20)
Tutoring Research & Writing @ New England Library Association 2019 powerpoint
- 1. Tutoring Research & Writing: A Tutors Perspective on Providing Integrated Research and Writing Services Keene State College @ New England Library Association 2019
- 2. Overview of Keene State College ~3,500 students 40% first-generation Public liberal arts 79 hrs/week at 2 locations (44 hrs @ library & 35 hrs @ Center) 12-15 student staff of Research & Writing Tutors
- 4. Providing Integrated Research & Writing Services
- 8. Teaching Research & Writing Workshops ● Intro to Center for Research & Writing ● Demystifying ITW (1st year research and writing course) ● Alternative to Wikipedia: CREDO & background research ● Searching Discovery & the library catalog ● Intro to Library Databases ● Characteristics of Academic Argument ● Incorporating Research Into Your Paper ● Reverse Outline ● How to Effectively Read and Edit Final Draft ● Types of Scholarly Articles & Literature Reviews ● Tracing Citations https://library.keene.edu/portal-research-writing/workshops
- 10. Benefits & Drawbacks of having two Physical Locations
- 11. Questions & Contact Elizabeth Dolinger edolinger@keene.edu Information Literacy Librarian Kate Tirabassi ktirabassi@keene.edu Director, Center for Writing Emma Brown Emma.Brown@ksc.keene.edu Research & Writing Tutor Marnie Anair Marnie.Anair@ksc.keene.edu Research & Writing Tutor
- 12. Photos: Keene State College Arch: https://www.nhpr.org/post/keene-state-finances-stabilizing-after-turbulent-year#stream/0 Research: http://edulab.uoc.edu/en/links/internacional-seminar-evidence-based-research-methodological-approaches-and-practical-outcomes/ Writing: https://www.boardeffect.com/blog/best-practices-for-writing-a-board-resolution/
Editor's Notes
- Elizabeth: Associate Professor and Information Literacy Librarian. I teach in the information studies program and co-coordinate the Center for Research and Writing. Emma: I’m a Junior at KSC majoring in English and minoring in professional writing and Information studies. I’ve been working at the Center for Research and Writing and The Research and Writing Help Desk for a little over a year Marnie: I am a Junior at KSC with a double major in Communications and Women’s and Gender Studies. I am also a part of the information studies minor and work as a research and writing tutor.
- Emma: Basic stats about KSC and hours of services ~3,500 students 40% first-generation Public liberal arts 79 hrs/week at 2 locations (44 hrs @ library & 35 hrs @ Center) 12-15 student staff of Research & Writing Tutors and this year we have 14
- Elizabeth: This is the story of integrating the library’s research services with the Center for Writing’s services - without being physically co-located. 2014 library moves away from a librarian-run reference desk we developed a peer-to-peer model of offering research services = Research Fellows working at the desk and providing basic research workshops to classes. I’d been working with the Director of the Center for Writing on various initiatives but we hadn’t moved beyond the librarian providing a few training sessions to their tutors. Value of cross training became really evident when we had two tutors who happened to work for both of us but experienced the trainings individually. The tutors highlighted the cross-over of what they were doing and applicability in both areas. Keene State has an integrative gen ed program - meaning that their approach to gen ed is based in the idea that learning crosses disciplinary silos and that experiences outside and inside the classroom inform learning in each. So the integration of research and writing services from the library and the center for writing is how we can reflect that - and bring together these processes in the way that students actually experience them in practice. 2016 Started by merging all of our handouts and resources and creating a booklet for faculty of those resources. Over the next year we began to integrate our trainings and then to co-hire students to work in both locations. we now have a staff that is fully trained in research and writing (as some tutors graduated who were only trained in one or the other). In spring 2018 To make the training sustainable financially, and also more consistent - we developed a course “Tutoring Research & Writing.” Its a general education course that incorporates writing center theory, information literacy and library skills, and some theory about research processes. It’s co-taught by myself and the center for writing director, Kate Tirabassi. Any student can take the course, and you’re not necessarily guaranteed a position working - but we hire from this pool of students. The tutors work in both locations - @ the Center (its own building) and at the desk in the library. Just this semester we became the “Center for Research & Writing” and the Center for Research & Writing @ Mason Library. But what really makes this story successful is our awesome tutors - they’re dedicated and interested in the practice of research, writing, and also tutoring and teaching. They really create the “center” and the community that thrives there - and that brings in more students than we’ve serviced before.
- **Marnie and Emma Emma: We have a research and writing help desk which is primarily for drop-in questions (like quick MLA formatting questions or questions on how to print), the center for research and writing which is 30 or 60 minute research and writing appointments, and then in-class research and writing workshops. Because I was in the first class for the integration of both research and writing I don’t know what it is like to tutor without the knowledge I have about research. Through taking the course and from continuing as a research and writing tutor I know how crucial research is in the writing process. There are many times students come in for appointments to start an outline or brainstorm for their papers and as the appointment progresses I realize that what they really need is to do background research on their topics. (credo...mind map)
- Marnie: Over the summer I worked at the research and writing help desk, and during that time I got to code all of our client feedback forms from the 2018-2019 academic year. The client feedback forms describe how the session went, and what was worked on. I did this by hand, as our data collecting system doesn’t allow for us to see what time of appointment it was explicitly, so instead I looked at the tutor feedback forms. Through this, I looked at each appointment feedback form, and determined if it was a research appointment, a writing appointment, or if it was both. ***show the slide with the chart*** This chart shows us that OVERALL THERE WERE 66 APPOINTMENTS THAT COVERED RESEARCH CONCEPTS. in the spring semester, there was almost 3 times as many research appointments than there was in the fall. When you look at this, you see that there is also less appointments that were both research and writing in the spring semester. This is likely because Fall 2018 was the first full semester of having integrated services. Because of this, students were more aware of our research services, and started to come in explicitly for that help, because they knew we provided it. We are hoping that this year the numbers of research based appointments continue to rise, as we have had many outreach initiatives. ****In comparison, in 2017-2018 there were only 14 scheduled research appointments in total, done mostly by librarians and a few by student Research Fellows. So the number of scheduled appointments addressing research concepts has increased by over 300% from 14 to 66 scheduled appointments. And this year we’ve already had 94 appointments - though only some of those would be covering research concepts.
- ELIZABETH - We wanted to share this data about the desk interactions - while there was a noticeable decrease in activity at the desk during the 18-19 academic year (in purple) we know that we had some training challenges with tutors and data collection suffered so we believe the data for 18-19 are significantly lower than what actually occurred. BUT you’ll notice that this year we are set to double or even quadruple the numbers we’ve had in every category since 2017. These services are in addition to scheduled appointments and numbers of workshops which are kept track of in a separate data scheduler system, WC ONline.
- Emma: This also goes off of what I was talking about earlier in terms of background research. Often times students come into tutoring appointments set on writing an outline or starting their papers, but what they don’t realize is that to start outlining and writing you need to have to be knowledgeable about your topic (background information). A lot of times students come in when their deadline is approaching soon so they just want to jump into writing or outlining which makes it hard to show them through databases and getting them to expand their knowledge on the topic. Also for me I don’t even realize when I move from writing to research because it comes so naturally especially because I’ve been crossed trained so I don’t know what it is like to tutor without having the knowledge I do about research but because of this I’ve realized just how important it is for tutors at the writing center to be cross trained in both research and writing. I am really grateful to be cross trained and am excited to work with students on their entire writing process from introducing students to background research to helping them edit their final drafts. Marnie: A lot of students come in to the center thinking that peer tutors are either going to tear their paper a part, and know everything that they could ever need. They also can come in thinking that we will write their paper for them, rather than us just guiding them in the right direction. Many students have also said they had been required to come in, and were dreading it, and left having had a great experience, and were excited to come back for more services.
- Emma: We currently offer 11 different research and writing workshops. Because the integration of our services is so new we are using workshops from both services but are currently starting to combine research and writing workshops ( for example we are creating a workshop on plagiarism and citations). We also want to look into revising some of the workshops we have and combining more research and writing into them. For example, we can revisit our incorporating research into your paper workshop which is primarily writing based and add more research
- Emma: Over the summer I worked at the research and writing desk and one of my summer projects was to go through WCOnline (which is a scheduling program for our Center for Research and Writing) to see how many of each workshop we gave. Total Workshops: 80 in 18-19 41 of which were research workshops Academic year 17-18 we gave 22 research workshops This fall semester 2019 we haven’t hit the busiest time yet and it looks like we will be doubling our number of research workshops by the end of the year
- Marnie: Some of the benefits of having separate locations include: -at the center, the space is more focused on research/writing, and has two private tutoring rooms, along with a writer's nook, which is a cozy room with couches, tables, and a smart board. -In the library, there is more foot traffic, people are familiar with the space, and more people drop in for help. Some of the drawbacks include: -At the center, people are scared to come in, since it is a building they don’t normally go to, or have ever been to. -At the desk, we get questions that are completely unrelated to our services (many are for the IT group, or just questions from local patrons) -There is also less privacy at the desk for appointments, which can make students uneasy when looking at their writing.
- We really believe in this model - I encourage any librarian to look at their Center for Writing and to work with the tutors. They are likely providing research guidance to students whether you’ve trained them or not and whether you want them to or not - because these processes are really integrated. Tutors have the opportunity for professionalism. By integrating research and writing, by having one student staff cross-trained in providing both research and writing help - it is reflective of the actual process that students experience and engage in for their academic work. No longer do faculty have to work with both the library and the writing center - and - it recognizes and addresses student’s needs in the moment and where they are. Further - its enhanced the experience of being a tutor. Its provided them more tools to use in their tutoring sessions. One senior tutor who had previously only been trained as a writing tutor, served as the TA for the training course (and therefore received the research training) commented how she wished she’s had these resources and understanding of the research process earlier in her tutoring career.