Kaua‘i community college

The Learning Center

The Learning Center offers instructional programs to develop skills in information competency among students. They have included academic assistance through individual, small group, and in-class sessions, technological assistance in order to help students gain or improve skill in computer usage, teach life-long learning skills, and prepare students for the workforce. Workshops and assistance in learning to use technology are all interactive. Students are guided into learning and using these programs. The sessions allow students to gain and improve basic technological application skills.

Historically, TLC has offered special workshops and other services to the campus community on a broad range of topics, including how to combat procrastination and test anxiety, and many other college success strategies. Since the retirement of the TLC director, and the inception of the College Success program in 2005, the center is currently in the process of reorganizing.
Recently, TLC has offered a number of group and individual workshops covering such topics as how to use email and the Internet. When the campus establishes how the College Success program will operate with, as well as complement, TLC operations and offerings, clear priorities will be established to guide the realignment and expansion of workshops and other educational opportunities.

Instructional Technology

Instructional Technology offers assistance to users through tutorials, and identifies online resources to provide learning opportunities for the acquisition of technological skill sets for faculty and students. The Instructional Technologist also provides consultation to faculty and students in the development and/or use of instructional technology (Instructional Technology Program Review, Appendix: Software Tutorials and faculty logs).
Self Evaluation

Library

The number of library instruction classes and students who have participated in these library classes has remained stable during the past few years. The criteria used to count instructional sessions were changed in 2002 to include only classes that had actual classroom instruction (excludes tours and classes that scheduled library time to complete assignments with no formal instruction). The number of classes has grown from 43 in 2002 to 54 in 2005. Total number of students who had instruction increased from 655 in 2002 to 856 in 2005 (Library Program Review - Appendix 22 - Bibliographic Instruction Trends Over the Past Seven Years). The number of individual courses that included scheduled library research instruction session(s) was 24 in 2005. Compared with total enrollment, the total number of students participating in the library instruction program seems high. The numbers, however, are not controlled for duplicate counts.

Although almost all English instructors schedule library instruction sessions, there has not been an initiative to make the sessions mandatory. At two UH community colleges (Leeward Community College and Windward Community College), library instruction is required in English 100 courses and students must pass an exam in order to satisfy either the course requirements or college requirements. Faculty from many of the divisions incorporate library instruction in their classes; however, most of the faculty using the library instruction program are from the Language Arts Humanities (LAH) and the Science and Math Division (SAM) divisions. Faculty from the Health Education Division regularly schedule classes for the professional, pre-professional and nurses’ aide programs. The Auto Body and Repair program schedules one class every year.

For most courses library instruction is covered in only one session, which is limited to a 50- minute session or a 75-minute session. This is too short a time to teach all the components of information literacy instruction. To address this issue, instructional librarians from the UH System created the LILO tutorial described earlier, which can be integrated into any course that requires a research paper or project. The incorporation of the online tutorial into courses could provide instructors a means of infusing information literacy into the curriculum without requiring more in-class time. The UHLILC (University of Hawai‘i Libraries Information Literacy Committee) is currently working collaboratively to develop a rubric to assess the student journal portion of the tutorial, which will provide a measurement of UH System defined information literacy skills.
Three instructors at KCC used the LILO tutorial in Fall 2005 as a guide for students writing researching papers. Informal feedback from the instructors on this campus and other UH campuses has been positive. Kaua‘i had the second highest number of users of LILO among the UH System with 75 out of a total of 414 UH students systemwide (LILO user counts for the system). By Spring 2006 Kaua‘i had the highest percentage (4-5 percent) of its student population who were using LILO. The results of a survey of KCC LILO users in Fall 2005 showed that 68 percent of the respondents agreed with the statement: “The LILO tutorial has helped me to improve my researching skills” (Library Program Review – Appendix 26 – LILO Users Survey).
The seven faculty members participating in the Library focus group, who represented all college divisions, were asked if they utilized the library instruction program. Those in the affirmative indicated that they used it for beginning classes or classes that required use of library resources. For advanced classes, faculty felt that students already had the knowledge so they stopped using library instruction. Some mentioned they liked the fact that library instruction can be customized according to their needs. Another question the focus group participants were asked was what they thought of several colleges within the UH System that required the demonstration of information literacy skills in order to graduate with an AA degree. Most thought that this was something that should be explored further. Others felt it was useful and should be encouraged but not a requirement. Some said it was already being evaluated in classes by means of research papers (Library Program Review – Appendix 23 – Library Focus Group Questions).
Library surveys administered to students who took library instruction classes show a consistently high rating with these classes. In the Spring 2005 survey of 108 students, 92 percent of the students surveyed were either satisfied or very satisfied with library instruction. 84 percent of students surveyed rated the impact of the library on their academic studies as useful or very useful (Library Program Review – Appendix 2 – KCC Library Student Surveys).