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The Researcher’s Companion: an online tutorial for postgraduates
6 May 2004.
14549 visits
Authors
Sally Rumsey, University of Surrey
The need for the tutorial
Although the teaching of library and information (L & I) skills to undergraduates has been the subject of much activity by those in UK university libraries, the same has not been so true for research students. This situation is changing as the emphasis on research grows, an issue exacerbated by the increased numbers of postgraduates and the importance of the RAE (Research Assessment Exercise) UK Higher Education. At the University of Surrey in Guildford (UniS) and its federal partner, the University of Surrey Roehampton (USR), training in L & I skills for research postgraduates (PGs) has always been provided, but in an ad hoc manner. Given that many of these students require expert searching skills, but are diverse in their competence, needs and geographical situation, it was felt that an online solution would be advantageous. A project to develop an online tutorial has been running at the University of Surrey since 2002. The work was made possible by the provision of funding from the University of Surrey Federal Innovation Fund and was carried out jointly by Information Services staff at both federal institutions. The result has been named the Researcher’s Companion and is freely available online.
In 2003 the online tutorial in retrieval skills for research students was extended to include taught PGs. Investigations had revealed that much of the content was relevant to the academic work of this group, particularly the dissertation element of a master’s degree.
What is included in the tutorial
The backbone of the tutorial is training in search techniques that guides students in finding the information they need using standard methods. In addition to this there are other topics which are relevant, resulting in a complete information skills package.
Information retrieval
The information retrieval tutorial follows a logical path: planning the search (including defining the subject and setting the limits); how to create search queries; using Boolean logic (AND, OR and NOT) and other techniques; plus a section on citation searching. The first phase of the project included generic examples, but feedback from students resulted in the development of subject specific examples during the second year of the work.
There is a section on accessing materials which gives guidance on using library catalogues, using libraries other than the home library, document supply and accessing electronic resources.
Any linked resources are designed to open in a separate window so that the user may toggle between the instructions on the tutorial and the live linked website.
Practical exercises
A handful of practical exercises were included in the original tutorial. The project team was surprised at the reception of these exercises by the student body. It had been thought that they might be perceived as trivial by those at doctoral level, but in fact, the students engaged fully with the hands-on practice and commented on the usefulness of such work. Because of this, when the tutorial was expanded to include more subject specific examples, the number of practical exercises was increased.
Other relevant information
When planning what was to be included in the tutorial, it became clear that the content should not be limited to searching methods. There are a number of related topics that are of relevance to this body of students, which, although not strictly retrieval, are vital for information handling. These additional areas include using the internet as a research tool, issues of copyright and plagiarism, and referencing. As both institutions have site licences for bibliographic management software, it was felt important to include something about its use as it is of particular benefit to those studying at doctoral level who are gathering large numbers of references.
The importance of and methods for evaluating retrieved information is included as a general topic, but also as part of the section covering the internet. Given the variable quality of information found on the WWW (World Wide Web), library staff thought it important to provide criteria for judging the quality and validity of what has been discovered.
Relevance to individual students
One of the difficulties of providing an online resource for research students such as this, is making the content relevant for people who are working in a broad range of extremely specialist topics. Even having incorporated subject specific sections to the tutorial, it is unlikely to feature examples of precise topics being investigated by the users. The students were keen though, that any examples, and more importantly, references to other resources such as online databases, were in selected broad subject areas.
The wide range of competence in L & I skills of PGs has been catered for by i) making the tutorial operate sequentially, so the user can start at the beginning and work their way through the entire content and ii) it working equally well for those who wish to select specific topics. The advantage of dividing the material into short sections means that the pages work well in an online format as they require minimal scrolling.
The Personal Log Book
An innovative solution to the difficulties of making exercises relevant has been the development of a personal log book. This enables the student to complete records of their personal search strategies that may be used to aid planning of future search strategies but also during consultations with research and dissertation supervisors. Academic staff benefit from knowing where and how their students are seeking information for their research and the log book provides a transcript of the sources and methods used.
The log book is available online and can be completed and saved in a file of the user’s choice. The user can then return to it to revise and update the records as and when they wish.
Communication
An additional feature of the Researcher’s Companion is that of a facility for researchers to contact other similar students across the two institutions. At the time of writing, this is still under development. Research can be a lonely occupation and it was felt that some form of communication would be of benefit to this group for general issues, as well as those of an information seeking nature. The solution that is to be adopted is an online message board where users can post and read messages from other PGs. The success of this feature will be evaluated when it has been running for some time. There are currently issues of monitoring and guidelines for users still to be addressed.
Working Collaboratively
Apart from the success of the provision of the Researcher’s Companion, there have been many benefits resulting from collaborative working. Firstly, both teams of librarians who wrote the content of the tutorial have benefited from sharing their expertise. Close working relationships have been built between the two teams of library staff, which are set to continue as the Researcher’s Companion grows and develops in the future. It has also been a good way to share expertise in other departments at both institutions: those that have been involved include the web development team at USR, and the CLD (Centre for Learning Developments) at UniS and the RED (Roehampton Education Development) Centre.
Conclusions
Development of the Researcher’s Companion has been a successful project resulting in a resource that is popular with students and academic staff. It provides support for PG students, in particular those undertaking doctoral research and is not limited by time or place. The content should aid information discovery, location and access as well as the management of information and other related information issues.
Although the teaching of library and information (L & I) skills to undergraduates has been the subject of much activity by those in UK university libraries, the same has not been so true for research students. This situation is changing as the emphasis on research grows, an issue exacerbated by the increased numbers of postgraduates and the importance of the RAE (Research Assessment Exercise) UK Higher Education. At the University of Surrey in Guildford (UniS) and its federal partner, the University of Surrey Roehampton (USR), training in L & I skills for research postgraduates (PGs) has always been provided, but in an ad hoc manner. Given that many of these students require expert searching skills, but are diverse in their competence, needs and geographical situation, it was felt that an online solution would be advantageous. A project to develop an online tutorial has been running at the University of Surrey since 2002. The work was made possible by the provision of funding from the University of Surrey Federal Innovation Fund and was carried out jointly by Information Services staff at both federal institutions. The result has been named the Researcher’s Companion and is freely available online.
In 2003 the online tutorial in retrieval skills for research students was extended to include taught PGs. Investigations had revealed that much of the content was relevant to the academic work of this group, particularly the dissertation element of a master’s degree.
What is included in the tutorial
The backbone of the tutorial is training in search techniques that guides students in finding the information they need using standard methods. In addition to this there are other topics which are relevant, resulting in a complete information skills package.
Information retrieval
The information retrieval tutorial follows a logical path: planning the search (including defining the subject and setting the limits); how to create search queries; using Boolean logic (AND, OR and NOT) and other techniques; plus a section on citation searching. The first phase of the project included generic examples, but feedback from students resulted in the development of subject specific examples during the second year of the work.
There is a section on accessing materials which gives guidance on using library catalogues, using libraries other than the home library, document supply and accessing electronic resources.
Any linked resources are designed to open in a separate window so that the user may toggle between the instructions on the tutorial and the live linked website.
Practical exercises
A handful of practical exercises were included in the original tutorial. The project team was surprised at the reception of these exercises by the student body. It had been thought that they might be perceived as trivial by those at doctoral level, but in fact, the students engaged fully with the hands-on practice and commented on the usefulness of such work. Because of this, when the tutorial was expanded to include more subject specific examples, the number of practical exercises was increased.
Other relevant information
When planning what was to be included in the tutorial, it became clear that the content should not be limited to searching methods. There are a number of related topics that are of relevance to this body of students, which, although not strictly retrieval, are vital for information handling. These additional areas include using the internet as a research tool, issues of copyright and plagiarism, and referencing. As both institutions have site licences for bibliographic management software, it was felt important to include something about its use as it is of particular benefit to those studying at doctoral level who are gathering large numbers of references.
The importance of and methods for evaluating retrieved information is included as a general topic, but also as part of the section covering the internet. Given the variable quality of information found on the WWW (World Wide Web), library staff thought it important to provide criteria for judging the quality and validity of what has been discovered.
Relevance to individual students
One of the difficulties of providing an online resource for research students such as this, is making the content relevant for people who are working in a broad range of extremely specialist topics. Even having incorporated subject specific sections to the tutorial, it is unlikely to feature examples of precise topics being investigated by the users. The students were keen though, that any examples, and more importantly, references to other resources such as online databases, were in selected broad subject areas.
The wide range of competence in L & I skills of PGs has been catered for by i) making the tutorial operate sequentially, so the user can start at the beginning and work their way through the entire content and ii) it working equally well for those who wish to select specific topics. The advantage of dividing the material into short sections means that the pages work well in an online format as they require minimal scrolling.
The Personal Log Book
An innovative solution to the difficulties of making exercises relevant has been the development of a personal log book. This enables the student to complete records of their personal search strategies that may be used to aid planning of future search strategies but also during consultations with research and dissertation supervisors. Academic staff benefit from knowing where and how their students are seeking information for their research and the log book provides a transcript of the sources and methods used.
The log book is available online and can be completed and saved in a file of the user’s choice. The user can then return to it to revise and update the records as and when they wish.
Communication
An additional feature of the Researcher’s Companion is that of a facility for researchers to contact other similar students across the two institutions. At the time of writing, this is still under development. Research can be a lonely occupation and it was felt that some form of communication would be of benefit to this group for general issues, as well as those of an information seeking nature. The solution that is to be adopted is an online message board where users can post and read messages from other PGs. The success of this feature will be evaluated when it has been running for some time. There are currently issues of monitoring and guidelines for users still to be addressed.
Working Collaboratively
Apart from the success of the provision of the Researcher’s Companion, there have been many benefits resulting from collaborative working. Firstly, both teams of librarians who wrote the content of the tutorial have benefited from sharing their expertise. Close working relationships have been built between the two teams of library staff, which are set to continue as the Researcher’s Companion grows and develops in the future. It has also been a good way to share expertise in other departments at both institutions: those that have been involved include the web development team at USR, and the CLD (Centre for Learning Developments) at UniS and the RED (Roehampton Education Development) Centre.
Conclusions
Development of the Researcher’s Companion has been a successful project resulting in a resource that is popular with students and academic staff. It provides support for PG students, in particular those undertaking doctoral research and is not limited by time or place. The content should aid information discovery, location and access as well as the management of information and other related information issues.
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