Fantasy Football Instruction: Student Evaluation Data

Here is a sample of some of the responses we received from the students through a brief assessment/evaluation form at the end of the session (the results are for only one of the two sessions taught... the full results will be published later):

• Only 4 of the 27 students had played fantasy football previously
  
• The students were asked to list 3 criteria they used to evaluate their source
• 85%, 23 of 27 students listed at least 2 appropriate criteria
• 56%, 15 of 27 students listed at least 3 appropriate criteria
• The criteria fell into two categories: information quality & football quality
• Information: reliability, author, date,
  
• Football: yards, stats, print vs online, leaders in the industry (ESPN)

When asked what the term "research" meant before this session:

• work I didn’t want to do
• headaches
• Looking up facts to back up what one is writing about
• Finding out about a certain topic and what it was about
• looking up stuff
• a long paper
• school work
• No fun time

After this session, what the term "research" mean:

• looking up information
• somewhat positive
• fun work
• Making sure one is getting accurate info
• compare and know where I'm getting my info
• taking time to look up stuff
• looking for the real information

One student first said "school" then he said, "everything."

We asked what the perception of librarians was before and after this session:

• Before: 18 "very positive" 8 "somewhat positive" 1 "somewhat negative"
• After: 25 "very positive" 2 "somewhat positive"

Some students left final comments which included:

• Nice way to present to football players
• You guys are really positive and helpful
• I made the fantasy football connection to looking up school stuff quick, worked well.

The full results are just as positive as these and overall was successful in getting across criteria for evaluating sources and created a positive impression of the librarians and research.