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Nailed It!: How One-Shots Set Our Students Up to Fail

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Nailed It!: How One-Shots Set Our Students Up to Fail

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Lightning talk/blog post RE: my evolving approach to library instruction.

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So I have now said to other teaching librarians on more than one occasion that I actively resist doing traditional database demonstration in my one-shot teaching and the reason for this is explored through this kind of a-ha moment I had at the end of my first semester.

I think some important context to include is that I work at a community college in California so we're an open admissions institution; we work with everyone at every learning level. It's one of the things I love most about my job.

Our one-shots in the library are mostly done for introductory classes e.g. First Year Composition & Reading, Public Speaking, Intro to PSYCH, Intro to POLSCI, etc. and tend to be about 80 minutes. Traditionally 15-20 minutes is spent on database demonstration and then students have 15-20 minutes to independently search our databases following the demonstration. Professors, who have regularly brought their students to the library for a workshop, have often required they find and select a journal article relevant to their research topic by the end of the class period. When I was hired at DVC last fall, this traditional model of one-shot instruction was passed down to me.

So I knew from my own experience using academic databases for research that this wasn't really feasible for our students but I couldn't pinpoint why. And then over winter break, after my first semester, it hit me.

Over the break, I was bingeing the Netflix show, Nailed It! Nailed It! is a comedic competition baking show hosted by comedian Nicole Byer wherein demonstrably bad amateur bakers are tasked with creating professional quality desserts with their limited skills and time. They of course fail at this and what they do make is the source of the show's comedy.

As I was watching, it struck me that the premise of the show and the premise of the one-shot have a lot in common. Of course, there are some immediately apparent similarities in that both amateur bakers and amateur researchers are required to meet completely unrealistic expectations given their skill level.

But my lightbulb moment actually came when I realized the false way that time is represented in both Nailed It! and the one-shot.

Here's what I mean...

On the TV show, contestants are given a cake model to emulate and they have 45 minutes to make, bake, frost, and ornately decorate their own cake.

What I know to be true from my own experience: it takes at least 25 min for a cake to bake, even longer for it to cool and you can't effectively frost a cake that isn't a completely cool.

What's shown to suggest the impossible is possible: a heavily edited demo video that glosses the process of making this cake.

In our one-shots, students are given a search model to emulate and they have 15 to 20 minutes to search, find, process, and select a relevant journal article.

What I know to be true from my own experience: it often takes me at least an hour to select the "best" sample article in our databases relevant to my sample research topic to highlight in my lesson to them.

What's shown to suggest the impossible is possible: a heavily edited demonstration that glosses my process of searching, finding, processing, and selecting a relevant journal article.

In both instances, it's not just that the given task is beyond the skill level although that is true. But we, both the show and I, are actually being disingenuous about the process itself.

When contestants inevitably fail or "nail it", what they make is often hilarious...

When our students inevitably fail or "nail it", it's because this model of instruction is ultimately failing them.

It's with this recognition that I have become that much more motivated to explore alternatives to traditional one-shot instruction and as a bonus, I have a useful and kind of funny analogy for how to communicate why it's ultimately not benefiting our students.

This post was originally presented (with slides not GIFs) as a five minute lightning talk as part of ImmersionX at ACRL's Immersion 2019 in August.

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Nailed It!: How One-Shots Set Our Students Up to Fail

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So I have now said to other teaching librarians on more than one occasion that I actively resist doing traditional database demonstration in my one-shot teaching and the reason for this is explored through this kind of a-ha moment I had at the end of my first semester.

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1. Authority is constructed and contextual
2. Information creation as a process
3. Scholarship as conversation
4. Information has value
5. Research as inquiry
6. Searching as strategic exploration

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Workshop 1 - Establishing Authority Essay

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Workshop 1 - Establishing Authority Essay

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Frame: Authority is constructed and contextual.

Objective: Learn how to locate and access open web sources through Google and Twitter relevant to your research topic.

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Objective: Students have time to work in the lab and apply strategies demonstrated in last class to search for open web sources with assistance if requested.

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Frame: Scholarship as conversation

Objective: Learn how to locate, access, and decode a scholarly (peer-reviewed) journal article using a library database and write annotations for sources.

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Frame: Information creation as a process

Objective: Learn how to build an original digital annotated bibliography through digital curation platform, Padlet.

Choose format, add title, background, and description, change URL

Add open web sources and PDFs of journal articles, other media, and original text

Sample Padlet link

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Framing this project in the context of a common topic - the human brain - actually opened up a broader diversity of topics. Framing students as authorities on their topics and using web-based sources at the outset drew them in to a level of rigorous investigation that surprised them and me.
Many students - including those often disengaged with school or challenged by traditional teaching strategies - discovered the scholar in them, and this was so gratifying to see.

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How students feel is inextricably linked to the work they create and how they engage the process.
Web sources, interviews, initial writing and discussion give students foundational knowledge they need to pursue deeper research.

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"The most surprising thing about the whole research and writing process for this unit was the amount of steps it took before the drafting process. Unlike high school, where we simply did some research on our own right off the bat and created a basic outline, there were preparatory steps taken to get us thinking about the overall subject of brain science. We were given tools and resources to guide us through ur research, so we weren’t alone and expected to find amazing sources on our own. Also, the writing structure is different in which we have more freedom and weren’t confined to the typical 5 paragraph essay outline that made everyone’s paper look the same. “Topic sentence, evidence, evidence, evidence, conclusion sentence…” It is a much more advanced and mature level of writing. "

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"I knew college level research was going to be difficult, but learning the things we did in the library with Emily was really interesting to me, learning so many tips and tricks that I have already used for other classes, how to do an advanced search and really narrow down your options, as well as efficiently read an article."

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"I learned how to correctly cite an article and website, also how to organize a website. I also was taught to constantly look over and work on my essay, which will led to a better final draft. Plus how many steps are included to a research paper, and that you can use many types of sources not just websites."

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"One thing that surprised me about college research was how rigorous it was. It seemed like it would never end."

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"I was very surprised when I realized that when your topic is personal to you, you'll actually be interested in what you're researching rather than just doing it for the class.  And hence you'll write a good paper."

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Library & Classroom Collaboration FLEX (1)