Assessment Beyond the Classroom: Providing Job Specific Life-long Learning Skills for Students
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abstract
To improve instruction for upper level forensic science students, two librarians and a forensic science professor developed an information literacy-embedded seminar to improve student success in that major. Development of this class was influenced by anecdotes from former students on information needs post-graduation. To confirm the comments of these former students, this team received a grant to investigate information seeking behaviors of forensic science professionals. This grant work is intended to be of service to the forensic science professions, but has been incredibly useful for informing and assessing classroom practice, especially when teaching the value of information and developing search strategies. Data on information seeking and information resource access gathered from a survey of forensic science professionals and interviews at crime labs conducted as part of the grant will be highlighted. Despite the forensic science's discipline including a myriad of specialties, several universal themes emerged from the data. While this data is useful for the grant project, it is also informing the librarians as they reassess their information literacy seminar. Lectures and discussions on where to find quality materials and how to find open access materials for those who might not have access to subscription materials post-graduation have been especially shaped by these data. As impact is often discussed in terms of student success, this project has led the librarians to broaden their definition of student success to include success in the students' future professional life.
