The University Libraries have offered Research Toolkit workshops since 2014. In 2015, we began recording attendance. With grant funding from the Academic Library Association of Ohio (ALAO) and the Friends of the Libraries, we were able to study student outcomes for students who had attended either a workshop or an appointment with a librarian between Fall 2015 and Summer 2017. The grants paid for services from the COSM Statistical Consulting Center, provided by Michael Bottomley. The documents below include the full statistical report and a summary of that report.
Regardless of whether they participated face-to-face or online, undergraduate students who completed at least one information literacy workshop were significantly more likely to return the following semester than their peers who did not complete a workshop.
In 2023, a follow-up study was conducted with new funding from another ALAO grant. This new project intended to identify the impact of online completion of Research Toolkit workshops on indicators of student success compared to the face-to-face workshops. The grant paid for services from Institutional Research and Effectiveness, provided by Aaron Skira and Ying Chen. The Topline document below highlights the preliminary report.