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Library Academic Services Learning Interventions

Discovered library-led interventions enhance student learning outcomes.

From Orientation to Application: Library Interventions for STEM Bridge Students

During the summer 2025 semester, we designed and delivered two interactive learning opportunities for STEM Sumer Bridge students (MATH 2900). Through these engaging, hands-on experiences, students discovered essential information about library resources and serves and engaged with academic research. 

Orientation Experience: A Library-Themed Escape Room

Students participated in an exciting library-themed escape room that encouraged active learning and collaboration. While solving puzzles, they built confidence and familiarity with the library environment. By the end of the escape room orientation, students could successfully identify library resources and services they recommended using.

Academic Sources Intervention: Seeing Research in Action

Students worked in groups to "dissect" an academic journal article, focusing on each section's purpose. After becoming mini experts on their section, students taught their classmates about through a gallery walk activity.  This intervention increased student familiarity with academic research while demonstrating how to navigate these articles before engaging in deep reading of their content. By the end of the session, the majority of students successfully identified the purpose of the sections in an academic journal article and contextualized the role of math in academic literature.

If you are interested in adapting either of these stand-alone interventions for your class, please contact your liaison librarian.

Escape Room Orientation Experience: Overview and Findings

Is the escape room orientation experience right for you?

Do you teach first-time college students? Would you like your students to connect with important campus support? Are you interested in your students working together to discover library resources? If so, the escape room orientation may be right for your class. Please keep in mind:

  • This experience is best for an introduction to the library. It does not cover in-depth research or information literacy skills.
  • The escape room orientation and follow-up lesson requires 1.5 to 2 hours. 
  • The escape room works best with groups of 10-15 people. Larger classes may be able to be split into two groups, depending on staff and room availability.
  • Advance notice is required to set up and facilitate an escape room.
  • Active instructor engagement helps students successfully engage with the learning activities.

Positive Student and Faculty Reception4.7 out of 5 stars. 140 responses. "So fun! I feel more comfortable coming to the library if I ever need to!" - STEM Bridge Student, Summer 2025

Students responded positively to the escape room, expressing enthusiasm about the fun and innovative approach. We asked them to provide a star rating (1-5) for their library orientation experience. Of the students who did, 94% gave it 4 or 5 stars. 

STEM Summer Bridge instructors were also pleased with the orientation sessions.

"One of the key takeaways was the importance of knowing where to find help, and the library is an outstanding resources - not to mention a great place to study." - Michael Jensen, MATH 2900 instructor

Library Resource Highlights

All sections of MATH 2900 participated in the escape room orientation experience. This intervention successfully enabled students to identify and independently apply library resources to their own situations or sample study scenarios. It provided an excellent introduction of the library to first-time college students gaining basic study skills.

On "exit ticket" assessment forms, students reflected on library resources that may be helpful in their college experiences. The library resources they highlighted fell into five major categories:

  1. Access to physical and digital resources
    • This includes books, anatomy models, the online library, specific databases, and other resources.
  2. Librarian and library staff assistance
    • This includes scheduling consultations with subject librarians and using the live chat with the Reference Desk staff.
  3. Access to technology and study spaces
  4. General research support
  5. Quiet study environment
    • This differs from general study space as students specifically mentioned the Markosian Library's quiet study room.

Bar graph titled "Percent of Student Responses Highlighting Library Resources (n=152)." Access to physical & digital resources 74%. Librarian & library staff assistance 49%. Access to technology & study spaces 28%. General research support 20%. Quiet study environment 18%.

Academic Sources Intervention: Overview and Findings

Is the academic sources intervention right for you?

Do you teach general education or majors-level classes? Would you like your students to use academic journal articles in their projects? Are you interested in your students working together to gain a general understanding of how academic sources are structured? If so, the academic sources workshop may be right for your class. Please keep in mind:

  • This session is best as an introduction to academic journal articles. It does not cover finding or evaluating articles on students' research topics.
    • For class sessions longer than an hour, the librarian may be able to provide a follow-up lesson on searching for sources.
  • The workshop requires a minimum of 1 hour.
  • Active instructor engagement helps students successfully engage with the learning activity.

Academic Sources Overview

We provided the academic sources intervention to four MATH 2900 classes. The majority of students indicated that, prior to this workshop, , they had never seen an academic journal article. This was an excellent opportunity to familiarize students with these sources, provide context for how and why they are used in scientific discourse, and help them understand the distinct purposes of an article's individual sections. This intervention successfully set students up to use academic journal articles in future class research assignments.

"What one thing did you learn?""Results" poster students interacted with during the intervention

On "exit ticket" assessment forms, students listed one new thing they learned about academic journal articles during the session. 

  • Students most frequently mentioned learning about the abstract (22% of responses).
  • Students also specifically mentioned other sections, like the methods, results, or discussion.
  • Many students learned about how academic journal articles are structured (15%).

Encouragingly, some students students commented on strategies for engaging with academic journal articles and their overall purpose in scientific communication. These concepts were outside of the main learning objectives and reflect higher-level thinking about these types of articles. 

Math-Reliant Article Section Analysis

One focus of the intervention was to help the MATH 2900 students connect how researchers use math in academic sources. On their "exit tickets," students were asked which academic article section was most reliant on math skills. 89% of students corrected responded with the methods and/or results section. They learned this through the gallery walk activity, where the librarians presented their own posters on the purpose of the results section.