Showing posts with label student success. Show all posts
Showing posts with label student success. Show all posts

Friday, October 13, 2017

Updates Fall 2017

Well, I suppose I'm more than overdue for a blog update. Here goes! After my last post, it was a race to the end of the semester at Grand View, but not before hosting both the Iowa Private Academic Libraries conference and the spring Iowa Library Association ACRL conference. I was a member of the planning committee for the ILA ACRL conference and as a local person, also helped with IPAL. In addition to generally helping, I also helped plan and co-lead the Information Literacy Interest Group morning session at IPAL. But rather than drone on and on, how about we just check out some of my tweets between my last post and now! :) I think you'll see some exciting things!




































You may have noticed a shift in my role. I took a new position at Iowa State University as an Instruction Librarian focusing on teaching and teaching support. This is a big switch from a small, private university to a large, Regent university, but I'm excited to try new things and serve the students and instructors here! Also, I got an adorable puppy (with photos sprinkled in above). I'm sure I'll share more as I develop into this position, but I wanted to write an official update before I left this blog hanging even longer!
Posted by Cara at 10:14 AM 0 comments
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Tuesday, April 22, 2014

DOGS! (Pet a Pup: Library Study Break)

(I apologize right from the get-go for internet yelling at you in the title, but I'm super-excited about how well our program just went off! Plus, dogs are awesome.)

This week is finals week (yes, already!), and, while our computer labs and study rooms are definitely packed, we know that the bulk of the projects/group work/stressful assignments happen the week before finals. That is why we scheduled our "Pet a Pup: Library Study Break" program for Monday and Thursday of last week.  We contacted Paws & Effect and arranged to have their handlers bring in two therapy dogs in-training to help Grand View University students reduce their stress levels with a couple of study breaks. They came in on Monday 4/14/14 & Thursday 4/17/14.  I'll bore you with the details at the bottom of this post, but I wanted to give you a visual representation of how the program was received by students (and see more photos on our Facebook page):
  
  
 
 
 
 
 
 

Plus, our University Videographer, Todd Bailey, was amazing and came by early on during the Monday event, got some great footage, and put together this video by noon that same day! It was so nice to be able to send that out as publicity for Thursday's event!


Here are a few statistics:
Total Attendance
  • Attendees: 218
  • Surveys completed & returned: 171
  • 78% survey completion rate

Total Self-reported Stress Levels (Scale of 1-10 with 10 being extremely stressed, 1 being not stressed at all)
  • Average incoming stress level: 6.696
  • Average outgoing stress level: 3.204
  • Average decrease of stress level: 3.492

Responses to the Question: “Is this something you would like to see the library do again?”
  • 100% of respondents, 171 surveys, indicated, yes, this is something they would like to see the library do again. 
  • 0% indicated they were unsure of whether this event should continue in the future. 
  • 0% indicated they would not like to see this event continue in the future. 

How Students Learned of the Event (could indicate multiple)
  • 70% - Email (120)
  • 33% - Friend (57) 
  • 23% - Posters (40)
  • 15% - Grand Views (University Newspaper) Article (26)
  • 8% - Facebook (13)
  • 7% - I just happened to be around the library during the event (12)
  • 3% - Twitter (5)
  • 1% - Other (2)
(The social media numbers make sense, given we only just created our Facebook page after Thursday's event, and don't currently have a Twitter account for the library.)
And here are some of my favorite comments students wrote on their surveys:
  • <3 Paws & Effect
  • Bring more dogs!
  • Do it every month
  • Great idea! Good for the dogs AND students.
  • I had a great time with the dogs.
  • I love dogs & think having dogs around is a great stress reliever
  • I love dogs! GV should do it again!
  • I loved the dogs and this made me happy! :)
  • It's very calming.
  • Thank you! This is a fabulous event that I hope continues!
  • They were wonderful and very friendly. It was nice to relax with some dogs much like the one I have back home.
  • This is a WONDERFUL event! I love this idea. Thanks so much!
  • This is such a great idea! Please, please, do this again. Who doesn't love dogs? Plus it's a great way to get volunteers for Paws & Effect! 
  • Awesome idea-now if there was just a way to give every student a dog...
  • Do this more often, please!
  • Great idea! Do it at midterms, too! 
  • I love dogs they always make me smile and forget the bad things going on!
  • I think this is a wonderful way to relieve stress and also a way to gain knowledge about something unique. 
  • It was so nice having the dogs here! This should happen more often! :)
  • It's a great idea, especially black labs!!
  • LOVED IT (With a paw print drawn next to their comment) 
  • Thank you! It's a great way to break up a stressful time by seeing & petting the dogs. 
  • The pups were a great way to just relax and forget about school work
  • This is the best! We need more of this! (Is this something you'd like to see the library do again? Yes with “Please do it again!!!” written in.)
  • This was a great idea! I LOVE dogs and they made me feel so much better! <3
  • We should have dogs in the library all the time not just finals! :) Love it

I also want to say a big thank-you to the Psychology Club and the GV chapter of NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) for their volunteer and financial help with this program! 

If anyone is interested in the nitty-gritty details of putting a program like this together (something I've been working on since December), I've tried to document everything along the way and am happy to share that information with you! 
Posted by Cara at 5:48 PM 0 comments
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Saturday, April 16, 2011

Article 9: Students' Academic Success and its Association to Student Involvement with Learning and Relationships with Faculty and Peers

Ullah, H., & Wilson, M. A. (2007). Students' academic success and its association to student involvement with learning and relationships with faculty and peers. College Student Journal, 41(4), 1192-1202. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.

Many factors are associated with student success at the collegiate level. Some the student may be able to control. Ullah and Wilson used the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) to examine the academic achievement and level of involvement (student engagement with learning activities and institutional environment that supports learning) of students at a Midwestern public university over a span of three years. Factors noted were: student involvement, student relationships with faculty, student relationships with peers, gender, ACT scores, and age. All were examined in relation to academic achievement as measured by cumulative grade point average (GPA). The student sample was randomly drawn for each of the three years and included students ranging from first-years through seniors. The study found a significant positive correlation between students' relationships with faculty members and GPA, class involvement and GPA, and relationships with peers and GPA. There were also positive correlations between student academic achievement and ACT scores, and GPA and students' age. However, since age and ACT cannot be controlled by students currently enrolled (meaning, those things happened in the past or cannot be changed), their importance is less significant than the other factors mentioned. Female peer relationships had a positive effect on GPA and male peer relationships had a less significant positive effect on GPA. While not the focus of the study, it is something to note. Creating a learning environment in which students are actively engaged and relationships with faculty are developed will help students better succeed at the collegiate level (as measured by cumulative GPA).
Posted by Cara at 11:06 AM 0 comments
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