Use of e-resources by unmotivated students: a success story from a library in Russia

Abstract

Purpose This paper aims to examine how new educational approaches to the presentation of electronic information resources can influence interest in their use among first-year undergraduates. Despite the variety of technological facilities available in universities, the learning process sometimes fails to keep pace with their advantages. Universities are investing in high-technology classrooms and an extensive multidisciplinary subscription to e-resources in the belief that students will make use of these opportunities. However, students often ignore the availability of relevant and verified content and prefer to retrieve information from Google’s search results. The absence of students’ initial motivation to work with a complex product is perhaps the greatest challenge faced by the teacher-librarian. Limited time available for training (a lecture and a seminar) and lack of preparedness among information specialists aggravates the situation. Design/methodology/approach The efficacy of new educational approaches to the presentation of e-resources was examined in a pilot study involving 940 first-year undergraduates at the North-West Institute of Management of the Presidential Academy (RANEPA). The authors replaced academic lectures with flexible and interesting techniques based on student’s interests, used attention triggers for each e-resource in lecture materials and focused the seminar on multiple specific searches to attract and keep students engaged. New educational approaches were implemented in four-hour sessions for first-year students in all disciplines. Findings The results suggest that the new educational approaches and teaching techniques can raise the level of students’ involvement and interest in the use of subscribed e-resources. To assess the developed approach, the authors analyzed the dynamics of the students’ visits to subscribed resources and observed a significant increase in the number of visits. The authors found such a trend for all the types of requests and resources. Overall, the number of visits and full-text requests increased from 88 to 284 per cent for the 2017-2018 academic year compared to the 2016-2017 one. Practical implications The findings of the study demonstrate the necessity of applying new educational approaches to teaching students who lack the motivation to use high-quality electronic resources. The teacher-librarian can be an important link between scientific information and consumers. The newly developed techniques have great potential for a wide range of educational applications including the development of teaching materials and training programs. Social implications The approach combines teaching methodology with rich informational environment, enhancing students’ motivation to information literacy through mastering their digital skills. Students’ interest in subscribed resources initiates their professional work with scientific information. Students need to constantly use subscribed resources. Otherwise, the skills of using information e-resources will disappear and motivation for their use will decrease. The development of techniques that can help to maintain students’ interest in information e-resources is continuing, and new findings will be presented in future papers. Originality/value In the scientific literature, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, no information is available on the use of similar techniques at Russian universities. It is hoped that developed techniques helps students with low digital literacy from other universities or colleges overcome their bias against high technology.