Is the Library’s Online Orientation Program Effective with English Language Learners?

Abstract

In this paper, the author examines four years of assessment data (N=4,786) from Brooklyn College’s Library Online Orientation Program (LOOP; url: https://library.brooklyn.cuny.edu/resources/loop/loop.php ), which is used to provide all English 1010 students with an orientation to the library, to see if English language learners (ELLs) are performing as well as their non-ELL peers. This paper also reports on how useful the LOOP is to ELLs when compared to non-ELLs. By comparing data from ELL and non-ELL students using several independent samples T-tests, this paper shows that ELLs on the average scored lower on the quiz component of the LOOP than non-ELLs, though they found the LOOP tutorial more useful. In addition to reporting these assessment results, this paper includes a review of the different kinds of English language learners, discusses how to statistically operationalize this population for further quantitative studies for other libraries who would like to include these additional independent variables in their assessment data collection, and provides suggestions for making the LOOP more useful to ELL students in the future.