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Browsing by Author "MacDonald, Amanda B."

Now showing 1 - 20 of 26
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    Beginning to badge: Exploring digital credentialing at Virginia Tech
    Zaldivar, Marc; MacDonald, Amanda B. (2020-06)
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    Creating an inclusive, adaptable model for tracking, assessing, and celebrating student success in undergraduate research
    MacDonald, Amanda B.; Brown, Anne M.; Swaby, Keri (2020-06)
    There is a current need for programmatic and curriculum support for inclusive, university-wide programs that incentives and recognizes students’ varied research endeavors. Launched in the spring of 2018, the Undergraduate Research Excellence Program (UREP) at Virginia Tech provides a programmatic pathway to assess student interest in collecting, organizing, and reflecting on their undergraduate research experiences. UREP is currently offered as a discipline agnostic and to provide multiple on-ramps into the program. The program has generated interest from students in every College and, to date, 608 students have enrolled. This presentation discusses results and metrics regarding the expansion, assessment, and program updates of UREP and will provide an adaptable framework, program model, and openly-accessible materials for directors/coordinators of undergraduate research offices or programs.
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    Creating the Big Picture: Improving Instruction Programming through Curriculum Mapping
    Metko, Stefanie; MacDonald, Amanda B. (2018-04-25)
    On April 25th the Instruction Section’s Management and Leadership Committee hosted a virtual event titled Creating the Big Picture: Improving Instruction Programming through Curriculum Mapping. Stefanie Metko and Amanda MacDonald (Virginia Tech) covered the purposes and goals for a curriculum mapping program, how to get started with a curriculum mapping program, how to scale the program once the pilot is complete, and how to move forward once the curriculum mapping has yielded meaningful data.
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    Distinguishing our Undergraduate Researchers: Perspectives on an Innovative Campus-Wide Framework at Two R1 Land Grant Institutions
    MacDonald, Amanda B.; Brown, Anne M.; Swaby, Keri; Ferstel, Sarah (2022-06-29)
    There is an increasing need to relate cross-institutional strategies to elevate undergraduate research and foster collaborations. Many students participate in more than one research experience at their home institutions, and some will also have the opportunity to conduct research outside of their home institutions, such as at NSF REU sites, which allows them to engage with new faculty, content, and research. This creates a space for universities to celebrate all types of student research experiences, even research conducted at other institutions, and offer a programmatic structure that not only provides a roadmap for students in terms of participation but also a connector to key university resources. Here, two research-intensive, land-grant institutions discuss their innovative framework to aid launching UR tracking programs. The framework for these programs is highly adaptable and helps with development and implementation. In this presentation, speakers will discuss the varied research landscape for students across the two universities and challenges commonly faced by those in UR supporting roles, such as UR librarians and Directors of Offices of UR. They will provide an overview of their UR tracking programs and how this type of programmatic framework can assist in connecting with student researchers, offering essential training and support for both students and mentors, celebrating the success of students, and identifying the reach and impact the framework provides OURs and other support units, such as University Libraries. The speakers will showcase where their programs overlap and diverge, share cross-institutional strategies for learning and collaboration, and address how this framework allows for flexibility and adaptability. This type of UR programmatic approach not only benefits librarians and Directors but also students, mentors, and the undergraduate research community at large. A set curriculum for UR does not exist for every student, so this program structure offers goalposts for students, particularly those seeking to maximize their research participation potential while in college and/or their future careers in research. Faculty mentors and UR program directors can integrate any or all of the framework’s resources, training, and requirements to build their own recommended path for students. Attendees will leave this session with access to the programmatic framework alongside a “menu” of options for program development and growth, and access to other types of openly accessible UR resources. Following the session, attendees will be able to practice programmatic development using the menu, draft UR tracking programs that celebrate student success, and integrate any shared materials or the framework itself into usable programing at their home institutions.
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    Faculty Perceptions on Research Impact Metrics, Researcher Profile Systems, Fairness of Research Evaluation, and Time Allocations
    Miles, Rachel A.; Pannabecker, Virginia; MacDonald, Amanda B.; Kuypers, Jim A. (2019-10-09)
    This survey research study was conducted by the Faculty Senate Research Assessment Committee at Virginia in the spring of 2019 to determine how faculty at Virginia Tech use researcher profiles and research impact metrics as well as the reasons behind why they use them and how they use them; the survey also assessed how faculty perceive research assessment at the department, college, and university levels, and asked their views on the potential integration of their research into a new incentive-based budget model at the university. The results of this study also help to inform institutional policy reform at Virginia Tech. The results of this study and its implications for practice for researchers, librarians, and scientometricians, was presented at the 6:AM (the sixth) Altmetrics Conference in Stirling, Scotland, United Kingdom.
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    In-person, embedded, & online: Designing a pedagogically based undergraduate research literacy program
    MacDonald, Amanda B.; Brown, Anne M. (2020-02)
    High impact practices like undergraduate research and CUREs are excellent experiences for student learning and workforce development. Students from all fields can engage in research, albeit training and approach is varied. In 2014, library faculty at Virginia Tech, piloted the Advanced Research Skills Program (ARS) to help faculty mentors and lab leaders train their students in research literacy. Programmatic challenges were identified and approaches to excite students to enroll needed to be developed. In this session, the presenters will cover three pedagogical approaches (teaching in-person, online, hybrid) for training and tracking undergraduates in research literacy and outlooks for the future.
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    Leveraging ePortfolios to Drive Learning Success with Virginia Tech
    MacDonald, Amanda B.; McNabb, Kayla B.; Hyman, Ashley (2018-01-25)
    This session will describe the process that Virginia Tech has employed for re-envisioning ePortfolios on their campus in response to campus change initiatives. The goal of their new ePortfolio program is to empower students to demonstrate their unique student experience and how they will apply their knowledge and skills to future endeavors in a meaningful and marketable way. The program aims to highlight intentionality in student learning by connecting a complex and interwoven network of peers, mentors, advisors, librarians and employers through reflective ePortfolio practices. In this session, you will learn: best practices and lessons learned for researching, selecting, and implementing an ePortfolio tool that meets unique requirements; Virginia Tech’s ongoing process that was employed for designing and promoting the new ePortfolio program; success stories from the initial launch, including program and student examples; and opportunities that were presented for improving the program moving forward to the entire campus.
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    Librarians as guests in the classroom: Making the most of a one-shot
    Becksford, Lisa; McNabb, Kayla B.; MacDonald, Amanda B. (2017-10-12)
    This presentation discusses best practices for making the optimal use of a one-shot instruction session. Participants had the chance to discuss their experiences and learn techniques to engage students and maximize student learning. Strategies for collaborating with teaching partners were also discussed.
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    Metrics beyond Impact: New Approaches for the Novice Researcher
    MacDonald, Amanda B.; Miles, Rachel A. (2019-09-04)
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    Open Pedagogical Practices to Train Undergraduates in the Research Process: A Case Study in Course Design and Co-Teaching Strategies
    MacDonald, Amanda B.; Brown, Anne M. (2021-01-26)
    Academic institutions are continually looking for routes to authentically engage more students in experiential and high-impact practices (HIPs) in order to make them more career-ready and adaptive to changing professions. These experiences, especially undergraduate research, can spark creativity, curiosity, and entrepreneurship across disciplines, highlighting true benefit for student participation. In this work, we frame and describe an open pedagogical approach to a course in undergraduate research training and explicitly define the course structure and project deliverables that seek to prepare students in the HIP of undergraduate research in an interdisciplinary environment with ambiguous problems. This course has been formed in collaboration between library and teaching faculty, piloted first through the Honors College, and is called “Research Practices”. Prior to course creation, the library offered a co-curricular workshop series focused on undergraduate research skills. During the development stages, it was decided to embed the workshops into the course, thus showing how a valuable library program moved from co-curricular to curricular. The course is open to any major, thereby engaging students from the fields of physical and life sciences, engineering, arts and humanities, business, and social sciences in the collaborative research process. In the course, students learn to conduct and propose research, write proposals, draft annotated bibliographies, and create digital research posters based on active conversations with their teammates and an open-ended topic that is self-selected by the group at the start of the semester. The multidisciplinary team of instructors bring unique skills and presence to the course. This course was created to provide base knowledge on research methodologies while also providing an interactive, dynamic course using evidence-based pedagogy that allows students the space to intentionally and selectively forge their own path towards success while also preparing them for faculty sponsored research. Scaffolding approaches, open project design, and alternative teaching techniques have been implemented in the course design. We will share the collaborative framework and lessons learned by library and teaching faculty from this approach, as well as describe the unique nature of the course design for freshman and sophomore students new to research. Rubrics, project assessment, and deliverable examples will also be explained so that others can implement similar approaches, as appropriate, in their academic environments. Finally, we will reflect on the origin of this course collaboration between library and teaching faculty, who have successfully co-taught this course for three years. Co-teaching can be difficult, but yet proves to be an influential design and modeling exercise to show students that teamwork is necessary in the world of research. The value-added for library faculty collaboration will be detailed, as well as the best practices used to co-teach and run a for-credit course that engages students from multiple disciplines. Ultimately, this chapter seeks to provide the framework in the creation of an interdisciplinary, open-ended research practices course, detail implementation of similar, unstructured practices in course design, highlight the utilization of publishing student work in an open repository, and discuss successful collaboration and co-teaching between library and teaching faculty.
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    Optimizing the Field Through a Curriculum Mapping Initiative
    Metko, Stefanie; Feerrar, Julia; MacDonald, Amanda B. (2017-05)
    This presentation shares a new model of curriculum mapping to demonstrate how library instruction programs can make connections between high profile campus initiatives and library instruction. While this model was designed to address one institution’s changes to the general education curriculum, the model is flexible and transferable. Attendees will be able to define various types of curriculum mapping approaches and identify strategies for designing their own curriculum mapping frameworks. Frameworks can be used to map library instruction to the student experience, space usage, and new university-wide initiatives in an effort to assess future changes in information literacy programs.
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    Personal librarian program for transfer students: An overview
    MacDonald, Amanda B.; Mohanty, Suchi (2017-06-12)
    Purpose This paper aims to address the emergence of personal librarian programs and to discuss the development and implementation of the Personal Librarian for Transfer Students Program at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-CH). Design/methodology/approach The literature is limited to research focused on personal librarians and programs. This paper examines the process by which the program was established at UNC-CH and includes a discussion about how campus and library buy-in was secured. Findings The response to the program has been positive. Survey responses and anecdotal feedback shows that the program resonates with a select group of transfer students. Originality/value This research provides an overview of an effective, sustainable way to forge personal connections with transfer students to support their academic development.
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    A protocol for a scoping review: Literature on undergraduate research and career readiness
    MacDonald, Amanda B.; Mekolichick, Jeanne; Hall, Eric E.; Picardo, Kristin; Richards, Rosalie (2024-04-26)
    This document provides the protocol for a scoping review to systematically map what the literature reveals faculty, programs, and institutions are intentionally providing via URSCI experiences to aid in career readiness.
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    Research consultation effectiveness for freshman and senior undergraduate students
    Faix, Allison; MacDonald, Amanda B.; Taxakis, Brooke (2014)
    Purpose – The aim of this paper is to compare the effectiveness of library research consultations for freshmen and senior undergraduate students, to determine if freshmen or seniors benefit more from these sessions. Design/methodology/approach – This study looks at the results of a survey conducted with students enrolled in a senior level capstone research course and in a freshman level composition course who were required to attend library research consultations. Findings – The study finds that freshman students can be overwhelmed by the amount of resources a research consultation may help them locate, and research consultations for freshmen should be conducted with this in mind. Research limitations/implications – Because the size of our study was small, further research with a larger sample size should also be conducted. Practical implications – If librarians experience high demand for required research consultations, and have difficulty scheduling sessions, then they may take into consideration that senior students benefit more from consultations than freshmen. Research consultations should also be designed to take student class rank into account. Originality/value – This study shows that upper-level students benefit more from research consultation than freshman students. Librarians should take this research into consideration when consulting with faculty about the most effective methods of instruction for students.
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    Researcher Identity: Active Learning Pedagogy for STEM Learners
    MacDonald, Amanda B.; Brown, Anne M.; Lewis, Stephanie N. (2020-09-28)
    Undergraduate research experiences (UREs) are a known predictor of successful outcomes for STEM students, and are often essential technical and theoretical training opportunities. However, intrinsic and extrinsic barriers result in deterrents for engagement. To broaden the STEM workforce, it is necessary to lower barriers of entry to research fields and UREs. We have implemented an introductory, interdisciplinary research practices course for first-year students where they ideate and explore projects in their domains of interest. Students produce formal research proposals, present research posters, and reflect on their learning experience. Students gain skills in research and data literacy while networking with professionals on campus. This course provides a structured, active-learning experience for students to explore and reflect on development of knowledge in a variety of STEM fields.
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    Researcher profiles: Teaching students to cultivate a successful online presence
    MacDonald, Amanda B.; Miles, Rachel A. (2020-02)
    Students engaging in undergraduate research have the opportunity to learn from a mentor, often preparing them for future careers in industry or professional programs. While these students gain high-level, technical research skills, students often do not consider or create marketable deliverables that they can use in the future to influence their career trajectory and curate their online identity. In this session, presenters will work with attendees on pedagogical approaches for teaching undergraduate researchers or others engaging in similar high-impact practices to synthesize their personal, professional, and academic experiences in order to develop research profiles related to career goals and objectives.
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    Rumor Has It: How Exploring Research Engagement through Metrics Transforms Student Learning
    MacDonald, Amanda B.; Miles, Rachel A. (2019-10)
    Increasingly, scholars are finding that their disciplines and sub-fields overlap and complement one another, leading to more cross-disciplinary and transdisciplinary collaborations and research projects. A Research Impact Librarian and an Undergraduate Research Services Librarian at a major research institution in the southeastern United States discovered that the overlap in their fields could enhance undergraduate researcher skills and expand the use and purpose of altmetrics. Traditional library instruction often focuses on digital and information literacy skills through keyword development, use of Boolean operators, database navigation, and proper citing of sources but rarely covers concepts related to citation metrics or altmetrics. Unconventional and innovative approaches to library instruction show students that research is not a profession; it is a life skill. Research can, of course, be a major part of someone’s profession, but those who teach research literacy skills have the opportunity to imbue a sense of independence and competence in students unfamiliar with the scholarly conversation. Healthy skepticism, curiosity, exploration, vetting of sources, emotional self-awareness, and a general understanding of human behavior are lifelong research skills that are constantly being honed, reassessed, and developed. Bibliometrics and altmetrics can augment students’ research skills by offering a window into the discussions surrounding research. Librarians can offer a more analytical and critical approach to their research instruction sessions by helping students interpret and decipher the meaning and context behind the metrics. While bibliometrics and altmetrics are traditionally used to assess individual researchers, research institutions, industries, scholarly journals, scholarly societies, and other groups of researchers, this interactive workshop will demonstrate how participants can use altmetrics to teach undergraduate students to engage in the scholarly conversation, develop topics, understand seminal works, evaluate sources, and investigate the motivations behind research metrics in both academic and public spheres.
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    Teaching Undergraduates to Collate and Evaluate News Sources with Altmetrics
    MacDonald, Amanda B.; Miles, Rachel A. (Association of College and Research Libraries, 2021-08)
    In the digital age of information, undergraduate students often have a difficult time identifying and differentiating among online sources, such as news articles, blog posts, and academic articles. Students generally find these sources online and often struggle to vet them for consistency, context, quality, and validity. In this chapter, we present a new purpose for altmetrics in which librarians teach undergraduates to use altmetrics as a tool to evaluate and differentiate between online mainstream and scholarly sources, which can lead to a deeper understanding of the research process and the engagement and discussion surrounding research as well as an increased ability to evaluate sources more critically. On a more advanced level, students will be able to analyze different levels of inaccuracy and misrepresentation of research from mainstream sources and more accurately identify highly sensationalized research topics from mainstream sources, seminal works of research, and deliberately misleading information and/or fake news. Slides for the learning activity are available at https://sandbox.acrl.org/library-collection/using-altmetrics-evaluate-pseudoscience-news-media