1. CCBC 2011 Annual Teaching Learning Fair January 12, 2011 Cynthia Roberts, Director of Library Services Jay Whitelock, Associate Professor, Business Studies
2. Stacking the Deck in Your Students Favor Essential Communication and Research Skills for Business
3. “The organization of the future is held together with information – working in such an organization will require literacy to obtain the necessary internal and external information to do our jobs “ Drucker, Peter F. "The Information Executives Truly Need." Harvard Business Review 73.1 (1995): 54-62. Business Source Premier. EBSCO. Web. 18 Jan. 2011.
4. “Effective integration of information literacy skills into the business curriculum requires the development of collaborative partnerships between teaching faculty and librarians” Wu, Yuhfen Diana and Susan Lee Kendall. “Teaching Faculty Perspectives on Business Information Literacy.” Reference Services Review 34.1 (2006):86-96. Proquest Central. Web. 28 Dec 2010.
5. Determine the extent of information needed Access the needed information effectively and efficiently Evaluate information and its sources critically Incorporate selected information into one’s knowledge base Use information effectively to accomplish a specific purpose Understand the economic, legal, and social issues surrounding the use of information, and access and use information ethically and legally Association of College and Research Libraries (2000) An information literate individual is able to:
6. MNGT 101: Introduction to Business and Industry A 3 credit course, which has no pre-requisites or any required minimum competency level for reading, writing or mathematics The Course
7. A semester-long group project Students are assigned into groups and provided a Public Company to researchAn outline is provided to each group The outline is coordinated with the textbook and lectures Oral Presentation: 20 minutesWritten Report : addressing specific information about the company and minutes of their group meetings The Assignment
8. Ability to identify credible information resources for business research Practice the necessary skills to research effectively and efficiently particular business concepts for a specific public company Improved written communication skills Improved verbal communication skills Ability to work well in a group Learning Outcomes
9. Writing a documented research paper Citation format Making an oral presentation Coordinating what each group member will present Peer assessment of group presentations Working in a group Calling meetings Dividing/Assigning tasks Communication Skills
10. Within the first few weeks of the semester a Library Instruction session is scheduled During this session students sit with their groups Research skills are integrated into the project The Library Instruction Session
11. Research Skills in Context Discipline specific assignment A real-life exercise Business – research a public company Introduce students to trade publications Advantages
12. Company Annual Report Company Website Library Databases Business Source Premier LexisNexis Academic Identify the Resources
13. How to find it on the company website Investors or Investor Information/Services What is important in the annual report? Letter to the Shareholders Financial Highlights Form 10-K Company Annual Report
14. Our Company Our Mission Our History Read with a critical eye Company Website
15. Company Profile SWOT Analysis Industry Profiles Trade Publications Magazines, Journals and Newspapers Business Source Premier
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18. Database Features Save material on your flash drive and then send to group members E-mail articles to group members, including yourself
22. Conclusions – Stack the deck in your students’ favor Do not assume your students know how to research Students who are required to use information resources other than random websites of their choice develop an appreciation for research databases and develop the skills to search these resources effectively Collaboration between teaching faculty and librarians can produce effective assignments that involve research components
23. Require the groups to use search profiles in Business Source Premier and save their search strategies and articles How can we improve on this?
Jay--Read the quote and emphasize that even in 2011 Drucker’s words are just as important. Information is powerful, and the skills to find information even more powerful!
Jay--Research databases are changing quickly so partnerships between librarians and teaching faculty are very useful. Both parties bring knowledge and talent to the resulting classroom assignments.
Jay--This assignment helps our students edge a little closer to becoming information literate. Students need to practice these skills in every class.
Jay--Remind everyone which course and the fact that these students may have a very wide range of knowledge and abilities.
Jay--Describe the assignment.
Jay—identify the learning outcomes expected as a result of this assignment
Jay—talk more specifically about the communication skills students be practicing related to this assignment
Jay—I think it is important you talk about this and that you initiate this and not the librraian.
Cynthia—talk about the contextualization of these skills. Research bears this out for information research skills just like it does for reading
Cynthia—Specify the resources students should use. In entry level classes they need to be led thru the process and introduced to important discipline resources and discover what type of resources are important to the discipline. In business, annual reports, trade publications and financial and market data are key.
Cynthia—In business, corporate annual reports are important information resources and students in business courses need to learn how to critically read annual reports and locate and analyze the information presented.
Cynthia—We review the company website because again this is an important source for information about a company and we talk about reading between the lines since this information is presented with some bias.
Cynthia—Business Source Premier is one of our most important business databases. There is a variety of information resources included here. We review with the students the importance of each of these types of publications. We also encourage the groups to assign two people to review materials together.
Cynthia—here is a snapshot of a result page in BSP. Notice we searched on Target Corp and go over the types of publications
Cynthia—here is the first page of the company profile for Target Corporation. Notice the key data included in the company profile.
Cynthia—we encourage students to save their materials electronically and to share their findings with the group using the email features provided in the database search interface.
Cynthia—LexisNexis is another database we show the students.
Cynthia—here is the snapshot page for Target Corporation
Cynthia—here is the financial information page for Target. We often talk about trends and how watching for these trends and analyzing trends are a key thing the groups should be doing.
Cynthia and Jay—emphasize that most students have little or no practice do academic research
