Reference Management Software in the Classroom: Student Awareness, Knowledge, and Usage
Abstract
This research project examines the University of Texas at El Paso undergraduate students' general awareness, knowledge, and usage of reference management software (RMS). Moreover, an important aim of the project is to compare incoming and first-year college students (freshmen and sophomores) relationship to RMS against upper-level undergraduates (juniors and seniors). The project consisted of three phases, with a lecture on RMS and a pre-and post-lecture survey bookending the project. The principal investigator recruited 150 students from two different courses within the Rhetoric and Writing Studies program at UTEP. Six classes were surveyed: four sections of RWS 1301 and two sections of RWS 3359. A 15-question survey was created to assess participants' awareness, knowledge, and usage of RMS. The findings indicated low to average awareness, knowledge, and usage across all six classes regardless of course and general classification. The remainder of the project gives space to discuss future research and advocate for increasing RMS instruction in composition classrooms.
Subject Area
Rhetoric|Higher education
Recommended Citation
Cortez, Javier, "Reference Management Software in the Classroom: Student Awareness, Knowledge, and Usage" (2022). ETD Collection for University of Texas, El Paso. AAI29207366.
https://scholarworks.utep.edu/dissertations/AAI29207366