March 7, 2023
Student-centered design is key to successful undergraduate library programs
UW Libraries tutorial featured as a best practice in new ACRL book
Authors: UW Libraries Student Success Team – Amanda Hornby, Emilie Vrbancic, Linda Whang
“This second volume of Undergraduate Research & the Academic Librarian: Case Studies and Best Practices provides colleges and universities with a set of models that inspire and enrich undergraduate research, demonstrating the contributions of academic librarians to student success.” —From the Foreword by Janice DeCosmo
As librarians, we are always looking for ways to improve services and resources for our users. One of the ways we do this is by partnering with others to get insight and feedback on student needs. UW Libraries’ Undergraduate Student Success Team adapted a common model of online tutorials to create a unique tool for student success, created in partnership with the UW Undergraduate Research Program (URPP): the Undergraduate Researcher Tutorial. This online tutorial is an online, self-paced tutorial that provides students an opportunity to learn research and information skills not usually taught in the classroom or laboratory setting.
The tutorial is the focus of “A Collaborative, Student-Centered Approach to Designing an Undergraduate Researcher Tutorial” a chapter in the recently published Undergraduate Research & the Academic Librarian: Case Studies & Best Practices. Team members Amanda Hornby, Emilie Vrbancic, and Linda Whang co-authored the chapter with Jessica Salvador, former Associate Director of the UW Undergraduate Research Program.
The book chapter highlights how academic libraries can cultivate partnerships with undergraduate research programs and ethically involve students throughout the tutorial curriculum development process.
“In our experience, intentional partnerships with students and cross-campus programs takes time, but the effort ultimately results in a more inclusive product with far greater reach, impact, and relevance to students.” – Hornby, Salvador, Vrbancic & Whang
We know from assessment data that students often feel overwhelmed in their first years when faced with research projects that require a baseline of knowledge about the research process and how to use library resources. This tutorial “de-mystifies” the process and helps students learn the basics, including how to get started – often the most daunting part of the process.
The tutorial has been well-received by UW faculty and staff, with instructors assigning students the whole tutorial or specific tutorial modules across all disciplines and departments. Through our student learning assessments in courses, we saw UW students commenting on bias in the peer-review process, reflecting on their personal and academic use of information sources, and highlighting the benefits of metacognition and reflection, especially when experiencing feelings of “imposter phenomenon” in research settings.
The USS Team continues to collaborate with the URP, particularly Director Sophie Pierszalowski and Program Manager Allison Perez. The Undergraduate Researcher Tutorial, which has over 30,000 views annually, remains open to all students via Canvas and is integrated into key research-focused courses like URP’s Research Exposed! Approaches to Inquiry. The USS Team updates the tutorial each academic year based on student learning assessments, and each quarter we review the tutorial to further improve EDI and accessibility. In 2023-24, the USS Team and student employees are interested in reviewing tutorial content to ensure all content has a strengths-based approach and to reframe the experience of “imposter phenomenon” among researchers.
Learn more about UW Libraries’ Undergraduate Researcher Tutorial
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