The goal of this project was to document with video photography some of the interactions between classroom Information Literacy Mentors and students in and ENG 102 classroom during Spring 2012. Grant money was used to purchase a Sony Bloggie video camera, which was then used for recording interactions between students and Mentors and also between students and the Professor.

What the recorded interactions show most noticeably is engagement; that is, the videos show body language and facial expressions of interest on the parts of students, Mentors, and the Professor. A tentative conclusion to be drawn is that conversations about paper topics can be engaging subjects for discussion. Students do not always know that their topics are significant for any reason other than to generate material for teachers to grade. Beyond the visual implications of the videos are the many times there are substantial and collegial exchanges between student and Mentor/Professor regarding topics, sources, findings, and plans for reporting information. For instance, a Mentor can say with a smile, “Couldn’t you find that information on a more reputable site?” By the same token, a Mentor can listen to the student’s rationale for choosing a particular text to cite and respond, “I think that’s a good source. It gets right at what you want to reveal at this point.”

The Benchmark research papers students in the ILluminate grant-supported course were generally demonstrative of strong satisfaction of the Student Learning Outcomes associated with the QEP. Most particularly, the recorded interactions between IL Mentors and students show the processes by which questions and suggestions lead students to read places where they can identify purposeful research questions and determine search terms to guide their research. As well, the recordings show interactions in which Mentors share research strategies and help students ask critical questions about the texts they find. Finally, recorded Mentor-student exchanges highlight discussions about citing expectations in academic writing, including explanations of rationales for various conventions and formats.

This project has left the researchers with a certainty that interactions between first-year composition students working on research projects and Information Literacy Mentors are beneficial both for the students as researchers and for the students as writers.