From Research Guide to Scheduled Research Appointment

In a very routine set of events that are either more or fewer in between at times, this resource traces its origin to a scheduled research appointment following a one-shot information literacy lesson at a community college. In preparation of this scheduled research appointment, I made a roughly two-page document with steps to access questions on the student's topic via CQ Researcher's Pro/Con page and 4 QR code links to Boolean searches on different aspects of their topic with the "Viewpoints" filter selected. This also included an alternate way of conducting the searches from the library's homepage with a little added advice about doing follow-up searches with new keywords as an extension of the "Searching as Strategic Exploration Frame" emphasized during the one-shot lesson.

The research guide used in the teaching of the one-shot lesson the class attended builds on an overarching research as exploration metaphor. The steps of this research as exploration metaphor are as follows:

1. Creating a Meal Plan
2. Assembling your Research Gear
3. Researching the Area and Getting your Permit
4. Choosing a Trail
5. Setting Up Camp

These steps briefly go over developing a research plan, a critical pedagogy-inspired word cloud description followed by different types of searching, accessing information resources, the value of organized systems of information, and source evaluation and citing mapped to the metaphor of setting up camp.

The research guide uses Appreciative Inquiry as an alternative to trying to emphasize some of the more theoretical aspects of the Framework and to encourage a level of metacognition. Being a community college librarian who has used the Framework as a teaching tool for information literacy for over 4 years after coming from a 4-year college, some of the work I've been doing has revolved around designing a metacognition scaffold in and through different research guides. 

I have attached the response prepared in advance of the requested research appointment to this resource. I was mindful that the student should have some existing knowledge of Boolean searching as a requested part of the one-shot. The enduring idea of research as iterative was less a known understanding, and so I thought using my response as an implicit way to draw back on the Framework toward the end seemed like a nice way to bring things back in a circle.

There was a more direct way for students to reach out contextualized and placed at potential points of need in relation to the research as exploration steps added to this iteration of the one-shot. Adding this did result in more follow-up questions from students just getting started on their topic or wanting help narrowing it down to something a little more specific. This resulted in some changes to how I will present the content of the one-shot next time and it wasn't until a student requested an in-person appointment that I prepared a formal outline to guide my response. Making this outline of my response a small extension of the one-shot lesson as taught through the research guide helped me reflect on the 3 sessions I taught. It also gave me something the student could take with them or that I could email if they missed the appointment, which is what happened.

Writing this ACRL Sandbox post has also made me reflect on my post of Uncovering Inquiry in Pre-classical Court Dance Research for Students in Beginning Ballet  in September of this year. In writing that post, I found the idea of developing an assessment-informed lesson plan development process. A key juncture to note in this process now seems to be receiving and responding to a follow-up request in a way that extends the teaching of a one-shot.