STRENGTHENING UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH THROUGH COLLABORATIVE EFFORTS WITH THE LIBRARY: A CASE STUDY OF AN ELECTIVE COURSE.

As educators, we seek to find creative ways to introduce research components into undergraduate classes. Embedding quality research activities into courses has been a challenging endeavor across undergraduate students in many courses. This paper details the collaborative efforts between the library and faculty in an undergraduate elective course, at a large research university. Key areas of focus involve bringing the library expertise to the classroom in multiple ways, reinforcement of research and writing skills, application of research and writing skills through group and individual research papers, and a dedicated library research web page, embedded in the LMS (Learning Management System). The researchers were interested in whether or not the content taught in the librarian-led workshops would have an impact on the types, quality, and timeliness of sources used. A blind study of 160 research papers collected from Fall 2016 to Spring 2018 were used to conduct a quantitative and qualitative study of research practices and application based on undergraduate student performance. The study was conducted to determine initial research quality, techniques and tools and to discover any improvement in research quality, techniques and tools over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]