Peer Review

Research Minutes

Material Detail page

Bookmark

Overall Rating:

Content Quality:

Effectiveness:

Ease of Use:

Overview:: This is a collection for four short videos developed at Cornell University Library. Topics include: how to identify scholarly articles, how to use citations to find sources, and how to locate materials with a call number. This material can be used by students with minimal library instruction but are not advanced researchers.
Type of Material:: Tutorial
Recommended Uses:: This material can be used as library instruction, homework after instruction, and as a reinforcement of the different research methods taught in class.
Technical Requirements:: Must have Internet access and able to view YouTube and an Adobe Flash Player to view.
Identify Major Learning Goals:: Students will be able to identify scholarly and news articles, locate sources from citations, and use the university library catalog to locate print resources.
Target Student Population:: This tutorial can be used as a reintroduction to the research process. The student population will be generally upper division, transfer upper level students, and those needing a refresher.
Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:: Users will need basic computer skills including knowing basic database searching and how to use an online catalog will be helpful.

Rating:
Strengths:: All videos are very specific and focused. They are about 90 seconds long. Each covers a very small, part of identifying information resources or using library resources. The sections on identifying scholarly and news articles and reading citations could all be used in almost any college or university course and are not institution-specific. The fourth video is institution-specific. The information about finding articles is succinct and could be used as a template for an instructor to give a quick, in-person description of finding materials in their institution.
Concerns:: Some of the material is very specific to Cornell, and thus the videos are not as flexible as they could be. There are some minor inaccuracies and obvious omissions, such as the claim that citations of book sections always contain the word “in” (MLA), and the failure to explain what it means for a journal to be peer reviewed in the “How to Identify Scholarly Articles” video. Some of the videos require you to already have some knowledge — for instance, you must know what a database is, how to enter one, and how to construct a search. The website does not have links to additional resources that might help the students with their research questions.

Rating:
Strengths:: The strongest part of these video tutorials is that they efficiently deliver a targeted message about one small aspect of library research. The 90 second format is designed to help keep student attention and present just enough information for it to sink in. By the end of the video, most students will understand the concept taught and be able to apply it to their research. These videos could easily be used to start discussions in class or in a discussion thread online. Since the videos are not subject specific, they could be used in many different types of courses.The videos encourage students to follow up by seeking help from a librarian.
Concerns:: The videos assume that the viewer has basic library skills but do not explicitly identify prerequisite knowledge, which may leave some viewers confused. The videos do not provide a means for assessment, such as a quiz or example task, for students to test their knowledge There are only four topics covered in these four videos, and instructors using these would most likely need to add additional information or tutorials for students to understand basic library research. Although the four topics are clear and easy to understand, they do not sufficiently cover enough for students to be successful in finding scholarly or news-related materials.

Rating:
Strengths:: All videos are delivered via YouTube, which is easy to access and view for students on almost any web browser or mobile device. They are also easy to link to in a course management system and can be directly imported into some CMS. Since YouTube is so well known and used by college students, no additional information is needed to make these usable.
Concerns:: Students can easily use the videos, but the research guide lacks any links for additional help or for further explorations of topics. The design of the guide would easily allow for those links, and this would enhance usability for students because they would not have to search out additional help on their own. Although closed captioning is available, it appears to be the default YouTube translation version, so not all words or sentences are correctly transcribed. Sometimes the music makes the voiceover a little difficult to hear.

Other Issues and Comments:: The format and concept of these short, just-in-time tutorials would allow for expansion of this series to other areas of library research and information literacy. The video on Identifying Substantive News Articles mentioned many news sources that were magazines rather than newspapers, but the section of the video on how to locate news articles in databases did not cover how to find non-popular magazines.
Creative Commons: