Education Commons^™

Strategies For Reading Scholarly Articles, Hannah Krauss

All Musselman Library Staff Works

This handout reviews suggested strategies for reading scholarly articles in the sciences, social sciences, and humanities, recommending reading out of order based upon the discipline. The second page contains tips for taking notes on articles for research and classes.

Investing In Textbook Affordability Pays Off For Students, Janelle Wertzberger

All Musselman Library Staff Works

Investing in textbook affordability can have a huge payoff for students—just ask Assistant Professors Alice Brawley Newlin and Marta Maras in the Management department. Their open, customized textbook for Statistical Methods (MGT 235) is completely free. It has been used by over 400 students and saved them an estimated $150,000! The story of how this remarkable outcome was achieved has its origins in Musselman Library. [excerpt]

2022 Gettysburg College Student Textbook And Course Materials Survey Executive Summary, Janelle Wertzberger, Mary R. Elmquist

All Musselman Library Staff Works

In Fall 2022, Musselman Library conducted its second course materials survey, this time in collaboration with 10 other liberal arts colleges from around the country. The results from this new survey illuminate how students are affected by textbook and course material costs, how they cope with these costs, and how effects and behaviors have changed since our 2019 survey.

This report summarizes the background of the project, key findings, and recommendations.

2022 Gettysburg College Textbook Survey Full Report, Mary R. Elmquist, Janelle Wertzberger

All Musselman Library Staff Works

In Fall 2022, Musselman Library conducted its second course materials survey, this time in collaboration with 10 other liberal arts colleges from around the country. This report compiles the results from Gettysburg College participants' responses. Comparisons are also made to the results from Gettysburg's 2019 survey and the larger group of colleges.

Bridging Communities Of Practice: Cross-Institutional Collaboration For Undergraduate Digital Scholars, R.C. Miessler, Clinton K. Baugess, Kevin Moore, Courtney Paddick, Carrie Pirmann

All Musselman Library Staff Works

At Bucknell University and Gettysburg College, an increasing focus on supporting creative undergraduate research as intensive, high-impact experiences has resulted in both institutions implementing library-led digital scholarship fellowships for their students. Gettysburg’s Digital Scholarship Summer Fellowship began in 2016, and Bucknell’s Digital Scholarship Summer Research Fellowship in 2017.1 While academic libraries have emerged as leaders on college campuses for digital humanities (DH) services, the programs at Gettysburg and Bucknell are distinctive in their structured curricula, a focus on independent student research, and the development of a local community of practice. Each program situates undergraduate research in the field of digital …

Homer Rosenberger: Learning Beyond The Classroom, Theodore J. Szpakowski

Student Publications

Homer Rosenberger, a Pennsylvania historian, cared deeply about sharing information. He collected books and articles on the history of PA, as well as meeting minutes for the many societies he participated in. All of this material is now stored in boxes available at Musselman Library in Gettysburg, PA. This paper is a combination of research and reflection on the experience of working with the Rosenberger collection, specifically a box that deals primarily with correspondence learning and public history.

Drafting An Assessment Plan For Your Instruction Program: Sustainably Assessing Information Literacy In An Undergraduate Stem Course, Kevin Moore, Clinton K. Baugess

All Musselman Library Staff Works

Assessing student learning across a library instruction program can be infeasible without being strategic, intentional, and realistic. Librarians at a small college will share how they developed a sustainable, 3-year assessment plan for the ACRL Framework and targeted a 100-level biology course-one of the two high-enrollment STEM courses that receive library instruction on their campus each year. The presenters will share their assessment plan, flipped instruction model, workflow-management strategies, and lessons learned for collaborating with STEM faculty to assess information literacy.

Textbook Remix: An Introduction To Libretexts For Oer Editing, Mary Elmquist, Alice M. Brawley Newlin

All Musselman Library Staff Works

So, you’ve found an open textbook that you really like, but it’s not quite right for your class? LibreTexts might be the answer! Join us for this informal webinar to learn a little more about this online platform designed for customizing and distributing open textbooks. From Gettysburg College, Scholarly Communications Librarian Mary Elmquist will provide an introduction to the platform, its structure and features, and Dr. Alice Brawley Newlin, Assistant Professor of Management, will speak on her ongoing experiences using LibreTexts to edit and implement an open textbook for a Statistical Methods course.

This session should provide insight for both …

Inequitable Impacts Of Textbook Costs At A Small, Private College: Results From A Textbook Survey At Gettysburg College, Sarah Appedu, Mary Elmquist, Janelle Wertzberger, Sharon K. Birch

All Musselman Library Staff Works

Recognizing that higher education settings vary considerably, librarians at Gettysburg College sought to better understand textbook spending behaviors and the effects of costs on our students. We adapted the Florida Virtual Campus 2016 Student Textbook and Course Materials Survey to suit the context of our small, private, liberal arts college. Most students spent $300 in Fall 2019. Financial aid awards did not cover the cost of required books and course materials for most students receiving aid. Negative effects were more pronounced for first-generation students and Pell Grant recipients, who were more likely to not purchase required books, to not register …

Faculty And Student Perspectives On Open Education At Gettysburg College, Mary R. Elmquist, Janelle Wertzberger, Alice M. Brawley Newlin, Natasha J. Gownaris, Christopher C. Oechler, Ryan E. Nedrow

Friday Forum

Commercially available textbooks and course materials are often expensive for students and sometimes don’t cover topics in exactly the way you might prefer to teach. Freely available and completely adaptable open educational resources (OER) have risen in popularity in recent years, both nationwide and locally, as a way to address both issues. Join us to hear from Alice Brawley Newlin (Management), Tasha Gownaris (Environmental Studies), Chris Oechler (Spanish), and Ryan Nedrow ’22 to hear about their experiences with OER in the classroom. Panelists will talk honestly about the benefits, drawbacks, challenges, and successes associated with open course materials in order …

Peer Research Mentors At Gettysburg College, Meggan D. Smith, Mallory R. Jallas, Clinton K. Baugess, Janelle Wertzberger

All Musselman Library Staff Works

Musselman Library at Gettysburg College developed a Peer Research Mentor (PRM) program to expand the library’s formal research and instruction program. Designed and coordinated by a group of research and instruction librarians, the PRM program is built around a cohort of eight undergraduate students from a variety of class years and disciplines. Each PRM has a librarian supervisor. The PRMs participate in intensive training, provide reference service alongside professional librarians at the Research Help Desk, and develop outreach projects to better connect student patrons with library collections and services. [excerpt]

Access Challenge For Public Health Students, Janelle Wertzberger, Amy B. Dailey

All Musselman Library Staff Works

Health sciences students regularly engage in problem-based learning. This information literacy activity introduces a public health scenario and asks students to use published sources to determine the cause of a described disease and develop a treatment protocol. The activity design highlights different levels of information privilege and invites students to consider challenges to accessing public health information in a variety of settings. The exercise was initially created for undergraduate students in a 300-level global health course.

Best Practices: Accessibility & Equity For E-Learning Content, Mary R. Elmquist, R.C. Miessler

All Musselman Library Staff Works

When creating digital objects for use in teaching, instructors have an opportunity to expand the usability of their materials by adding accessibility features. This session presents a broad definition of accessibility, explains why it is important for instructors to consider accessibility as they create digital teaching materials, and describes some strategies and best practices for adding accessibility to digital learning objects.

'Shut Up And Take The Mellon Money!': Adapting A Library-Led Digital Humanities Program To Accommodate Grant Funding., R.C. Miessler, Kevin Moore

All Musselman Library Staff Works

This presentation discusses how the team of librarians who facilitate Musselman Library's Digital Scholarship Summer Fellowship program have negotiated the shift from local to grant funding, focusing on how we have organized our team and adapted program outcomes, assessment, and reporting to fit the requirements of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Presidential Leadership Grant. We review some unexpected challenges when working with grant funding and how we have successfully worked within the parameters of the grant to fit our needs locally.

2019 Gettysburg College Student Textbook And Course Materials Survey Executive Summary, Janelle Wertzberger, Sarah Appedu, Mary R. Elmquist

All Musselman Library Staff Works

We’ve all heard stories of students struggling with textbook costs, but how do our students cope when the price gets too high? Modeled after the Student Textbook and Course Materials Survey conducted by Florida Virtual Campus, Musselman Library’s course materials survey sought to uncover how textbook costs impact the success of Gettysburg College students. Results give insight into participants’ perceptions of how much money they spend, the strategies they use to reduce costs, and the effects of the cost of course materials on their academic success.

The Executive Summary details our research questions, key findings, and main takeaways.

How Much Do You Spend?: Textbook Affordability At Gettysburg College, Mary R. Elmquist

All Musselman Library Staff Works

This poster, created for Musselman Library's Charting your Course 2019 first-year orientation activity, explains some of the strategies that Gettysburg College students can use to mitigate the impacts of rising textbook costs.

Skipping Stones: The Ripple Effect Of Collaborating With A Center For Teaching And Learning, Clinton K. Baugess, Kerri Odess-Harnish

All Musselman Library Staff Works

Collaborating with your campus teaching and learning center is a key way to center the library at the heart of conversations on creative pedagogy and student learning. Librarians at a small college library will share how their collaboration has enabled their information literacy program to ripple across campus – expanding their teaching practice beyond the usual one-shot and shifting faculty perceptions of librarians as classroom partners. The presenters will describe how they have contributed their expertise to teaching center programming and administered a series of center-funded faculty grants for information literacy, digital literacy, and teaching with archival materials.

Final Portfolio - Sparc Open Education Leadership Program, 2017-18, Christopher A. Barnes

All Musselman Library Staff Works

Final portfolio of work completed for the SPARC Open Education Leadership Program, 2017-18, including the Capstone Project Final Report, the Community Resource entitled “Piloting Faculty OER Grant Programs: A Practical Guide for Librarians,” and the blog Opening Up Liberal Arts Colleges (linked). “Piloting Faculty OER Grant Programs" is also available separately in The Cupola.

Becoming Part Of The Conversation Through Assessment Of Undergraduate Library Internships, Clinton K. Baugess, Kathryn Martin

All Musselman Library Staff Works

Any recent attendee at an academic library conference would likely note the large number of panels, posters, presentations, and roundtables that focus on libraries partnering and collaborating with other campus stakeholders, such as admissions, international student services, the writing center, and so on. Our library is no different.

Gettysburg College is a four-year liberal arts institution located in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, with an enrollment of 2,600 students. Musselman Library serves its campus population with thirteen librarians and nineteen staff members. In a small college environment, collaborating with other campus stakeholders is not only desirable, it is essential if the library wants …

Connecting Over Coffee: Extending Library Services For Students Through New Campus Partnerships, Kevin Moore, Meggan D. Smith

All Musselman Library Staff Works

One meeting with potential partners on campus can turn into a new, exciting initiative to reach underrepresented and first-generation college students. Librarians at a small, private liberal arts college will share how they collaborated with the Office of Multicultural Engagement on their campus to provide reference services to students outside of the library. Emphasis was focused on serving first year students from underrepresented groups, however, the service was open to and used by students from a variety of backgrounds and class years. The speakers will share lessons learned, plans for future development, and assessment strategies.

Innovating Peer Research Programs Together, Tatiana Pashkova-Balkenhol, Mallory R. Jallas

All Musselman Library Staff Works

This presentation provides details about two distinctive and unique peer learning programs at Gettysburg College and Millersville University. It also highlights how our collaboration sparked new initiatives to advance each of our peer research programs.

More Than “Just An Intern”: Undergraduate Internships In Academic Libraries, Clinton K. Baugess, Kathryn S. Martin

All Musselman Library Staff Works

This presentation reports on the findings of a 2016 assessment of undergraduate internships at Musselman Library. The presentation will include the impact of these high-impact experiences on previous interns’ development of career goals, acceptance to and preparation for graduate education, and their early career.

“Lattes With A Librarian”: Collaborating With Campus Partners To Offer Reference Services, Kevin Moore, Meggan D. Smith

All Musselman Library Staff Works

Librarians met with colleagues in the Office of Multicultural Engagement (OME) to discuss new opportunities to support student initiatives. Lattes with a Librarian was proposed as a way to provide reference services for students outside of the library. Six dates during the fall semester were selected where a librarian would offer reference services for an hour in the College Union Building.

Allison Singley, Director Of Parent Relations, Musselman Library, Allison C. Singley

Next Page

In our new Next Page column, Allison Singley, Director of Parent Relations, shares with us the three books she is currently reading and why it might take her a while to finish them, her two desert island books (one of which inspired her doctoral dissertation), how she maintains a habit of reading poetry daily, and why she doesn’t write in books anymore — or feel the need to finish one!

Bringing Stories To Life By Sharing Archival Material, Christina M. Noto

Student Publications

Last summer I researched the experiences of women at Gettysburg College during the pivotal decade 1965-1975 with the support of a college grant, the Koble Fellowship, a ten-week humanities based faculty-mentored research project. I tracked women's experiences at the college during this period and designed a digital scholarship project to share their stories. As a history major and as a feminist, a project about the history of women and their activism on campus nicely complemented by interests. (excerpt)

Peer Research Mentors At Gettysburg College: Transforming Student Library Jobs Into High-Impact Learning Experiences, Clinton K. Baugess, Mallory R. Jallas, Meggan D. Smith, Janelle Wertzberger

All Musselman Library Staff Works

Research and Instruction librarians at Gettysburg College developed a Peer Research Mentor (PRM) program for undergraduate students. The program is designed to empower a group of student employees to work in partnership with experienced librarians in order to increase a PRM’s own research skills and support other student researchers more effectively. The program focuses on student training, reference service, and outreach to other students. The authors share the development of the program; describe their approach to training, supervision, and assessment; and offer insight about how to operate and sustain a similar program with limited resources.

Customize Your Course Content With Open Educational Resources, Janelle Wertzberger

All Musselman Library Staff Works

This half day workshop provides an overview of the current open textbook and OER landscape, including information about copyright, fair use, open licensing, strategies for identifying open content, and models for compiling open content for class use. We will also devote time to hands-on exploration of existing open resources that could be used in your course or discipline. If you have been thinking about reworking your required readings and are leaning toward more open materials, this workshop is the perfect time to explore the possibilities. You will get the most out of this workshop if you come with a specific …

In Solidarity, Musselman Library, Salma Monani, Sarah M. Principato, Dave Powell, Brent C. Talbot, Charles L. Weise, Bruce A. Larson, Scott Hancock, Mckinley E. Melton, David S. Walsh, Jennifer Q. Mccary, Kristina G. Chamberlin

Next Page

This edition of Next Page is a departure from our usual question and answer format with a featured campus reader. Instead, we asked speakers who participated in the College’s recent Student Solidarity Rally (March 1, 2017) to recommend readings that might further our understanding of the topics on which they spoke.

Undergraduate Library Internships At Musselman Library, Gettysburg College, Clinton K. Baugess, Kathryn S. Martin, Qin Zhang, Katherine Mattson

All Musselman Library Staff Works

In 2015-2016, Musselman Library at Gettysburg College participated in Cohort 3 of the Association of College and Research Libraries’ Assessment in Action program. This report outlines an assessment completed of former undergraduate library interns in order to explore the impact their internship experience had on the development of career goals, acceptance to and preparation for graduate education, and their early career. Through an online survey (n= 45) and six semi-structured telephone interviews, respondents reported a positive impact on the above areas.

Ai Education: Open-Access Educational Resources On Ai, Todd W. Neller

Computer Science Faculty Publications

Open-access AI educational resources are vital to the quality of the AI education we offer. Avoiding the reinvention of wheels is especially important to us because of the special challenges of AI Education. AI could be said to be “the really interesting miscellaneous pile of Computer Science”. While “artificial” is well-understood to encompass engineered artifacts, “intelligence” could be said to encompass any sufficiently difficult problem as would require an intelligent approach and yet does not fall neatly into established Computer Science subdisciplines. Thus AI consists of so many diverse topics that we would be hard-pressed to individually create quality learning …