Moving From Traditional BI to an Integrated Information Literacy Program

1
Moving From Traditional BI to an Integrated
Information Literacy Program

• Ilene F. Rockman, Ph.D.
• Manager, Information Competence Initiative
• The California State University
• Office of the Chancellor
• Presentation to SCIL Spring Program
• May 16, 2003

2
Why Important?

• Electronic information increasingly comes to us
  in unfiltered formats, raising questions about
  authenticity, validity, and reliability
• The uncertain quality and expanding quantity of
  information (text, graphic, aural, spatial) poses
  new and special challenges for users

3
Why Important?

• Students are entering colleges and universities
  lacking basic research and information competence
  skills (including critical thinking, decision
  making, self-directed learning)
• Technology is transforming teaching and learning
• concomitant with a proliferation of information
  formats and choices
• Assessment efforts are indicating student over
  reliance on the web as an information source

4
Why Important?

• Faculty want to see an improvement in the quality
  of student work, an increase in the effectiveness
  of student research, and students taking more
  responsibility for their own learning
• Students want to complete assignments with less
  difficulty and more satisfaction
• Employers want to hire graduates who are
  competent, take responsibility, can solve
  problems, and produce new ideas/directions

5
Why Important?

• Accreditation bodies (regional, state,
  professional) want to see a change in past
  practices
• Society wants an educated, informed and
  productive citizenry
• Not limited to USA also in Denmark and Australia
  (Apr 22, 2003 workshop, Emerging Visions for
  Access in the 21st Century Library, presented by
  the Council on Library and Information Resources
  and the California Digital Library

6
The Reality

• For many teens, the Internet has replaced the
  library as the primary tool for doing research
• (The Internet and Education. Findings of the
  Pew Internet American Life Project, September
  1, 2001. http//www.pewinternet.org)

7
The Reality

• Less than half (48) feel confident in their
  ability to find informationessentially, in the
  skills needed to research a topic.
• A Report to Stakeholders on the Conditions and
  Effectiveness of Postsecondary Education. Change
  333 (May/June 2001), p. 29.

8
The Reality

• More than 31 of all respondents use Internet
  search engines to find answers to their
  questions. However, people who use Internet
  search engines express frustration because they
  estimate that half of their searches are
  unsuccessful.
• OCLC White Paper on the Information Habits of
  College Students.
• June 2002, p. 2.
• (http//www2.oclc.org/oclc/pdf/printondemand/infor
  mationhabits.pdf)

9
Business Community

• We are no longer teaching about technology,
  but about information literacywhich is a process
  of turning information into meaning,
  understanding, and new ideas. Students need the
  thinking, reasoning, and civic abilities that
  enable them to succeed inand ultimately leada
  contemporary, democratic economy, workforce, and
  society.
• --Terry Crane, VP, AOL, Converge, Sept. 2000

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Governmental Community

• Information literacy is needed to guarantee
  the survival of democratic institutions
• US Representative, Major Owens (D-NY), 1976,
  quoted in Student Learning in the Information
  Age, p. 34.

11
Educational Community

• Within todays information society, the most
  important learning outcome for all students is
  their being able to function as independent
  lifelong learners. The essential enabler to
  reaching that goal is information literacy.
• --Patricia Breivik, Information Literacy and
  Lifelong Learning The Magical Partnership.
  International Lifelong Learning Conference,
  Central Queensland University, 2000,
  http//elvis.cqu.edu.au/conference/2000/home.htm

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Making the Case

• Content mastered by graduation is soon outdated
  and/or forgotten
• Ongoing personal and professional competence
  depends on knowing how to find, evaluate, and use
  information
• Ability to find data, absorb and synthesize key
  concepts, organize and present information are
  desired knowledge economy skills

13
Making the Case

• The first year is the period when you are going
  to succeed in the greatest proportion of
  students, and conversely, youre going to not
  succeed or lose the greatest proportion of
  students. Most institutions in the country have
  decided if they want to make students more
  successful, they have to pay more attention to
  the beginning college experience and make things
  happen by design.
• --John Gardner, Senior Fellow of the National
  Resource Center for the First-Year Experience and
  Students in Transition at the University of South
  Carolina, Director of the Policy Center on the
  First Year of College at Brevard College, and
  Professor Emeritus of Library and Information
  Science, University of South Carolina

14
Lets Get Clear on Terms

• BI
• coined 30 years ago in print world
• traditionally, skill-based approach
• focus on tools and search interfaces (how to use
  an index, abstract, OPAC)
• tied to course assignment from professor not
  all courses --in or outside the department
• isolated with limited transference of student
  learning within the curriculum

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Information Literacy

• Integral part of the curriculum (foundational
  underpinning)
• Supports learning outcomes of academic programs
  (e.g. GE, degree, and non degree upper and lower
  division electives, pre-professional programs,
  courses in the major)
• Contributes to an increase in retention, student
  achievement, and graduation rates (GCC, CSUH)

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Information Literacy

• Speaks in higher education terms (critical
  thinking, first year experience, learning
  communities, distant education, educational
  engagement, information fluency, etc.)
• Focuses on campus collaboration (Faculty, General
  Education, Assessment, Centers for Excellence,
  Student Affairs Professionals, Academic Programs,
  University Governance groups, Instructional Media
  ServicesBlackboard, WebCT)

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Information Literacy

• Recognizes relationship to institutions mission
  and goals, program review, accreditation
  criteria, outcomes-based assessment strategies
• Reflects a collaborative responsibility and
  partnership between dept faculty (content) and
  librarians (process)

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From Library Skills to Information Literacy

• Past Emphasis
• Passive tours, lectures, etc
• Prof-identified topics
• Locate information
• Print only
• Established authority
• Term paper product
• Course level
• Adapted from
• Library Skills to Information Literacy A
  Handbook for the 21st Century. CSLA, 1997.

• Current Emphasis
• Active coordinated
• Student identified topics
• Evaluate, use, comm info
• Multiple formats and choices
• Determine authority
• Multiple options
• Discipline/program level

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What Does an IL Curriculum Look Like?

• College or university-wide
• Inquiry, problem, performance, and resource based
• Makes effective use of instructional technologies
  
• Learner centered
• Integrated with learning outcomes

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Ideal

• Student introduced to information literacy in
  first year reinforced in general education and
  courses in the major (vertically and
  horizontally)
• Student continues to encounter IL throughout the
  curriculum, culminating in a senior level
  experience
• Rather than graduating based on which courses
  you have taken, you will graduate based on what
  you have learned (CSU Monterey Bayoutcomes
  based campus).

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Why Move?

• Impact on learningresearch by Keith Curry Lance
  and colleaguestest scores rise with
  collaboration between teachers and librarians
• Increased student learning results when multiple
  opportunities to learn occur
• Need process for helping students to address
  their immediate information needs, and to
  continue learning after they leave the college or
  university

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How Move?

• Find an administrative championProvost, VP of
  Student Affairs, Director of Residential Life,
  Coordinator of the First Year Experience, Head of
  Educational Mentoring, Coordinator of Distance
  Learning, Dean of Liberal Arts, etc.
• Find a faculty championChair of dept or college
  curriculum committee, Coordinator of GE, Director
  of English composition or the campus writing
  program, Chair of Academic Senate or chair of key
  campus committee (curriculum)

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How Move?

• Be a champion yourselfteam up with new faculty
  at orientation, mentor new students, meet with
  career center or alumni director, become an
  indispensable campus leader as a member of a key
  campus committee (e.g. curriculum/instruction so
  strategic placement of IL within learning
  outcomes of new course proposal submissions, and
  degree programs)
• Ask questions of facultyare you pleased with the
  performance of your students? How do you define
  IL in your discipline? How can I help you?

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How Move?

• College or university-wide IL committee to
  recommend action agenda and take next steps
• Cal Poly, SLO Visionary Pragmatism
• (http//www.calpoly.edu/communic/univ/visionary.h
  tml)
• GCC Research Across the Curriculum TF
• (http//www.glendale.edu/senate/RAC20Report.htm)

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How Move?

• Take advantage of timingaccreditation or program
  review, strategic planning efforts, grants
• Start smallbuild support one dept/program at a
  time then move from dept to college or
  university level
• Learn from experiences of WACJim Elmborgs
  article in RSR 311 (2003)Information literacy
  and writing across the curriculum sharing the
  vision (find common ground right place in curr)

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How Move?

• Refer to professional association documents for
  support
• --WPA Outcomes Statements for First-Year
  Composition, adopted by the Council of Writing
  Program Administrators, April 2000
• --includes critical thinking, reading, and
  writing and notes that by the end of the first
  year, composition students should understand a
  writing assignment as a series of tasks including
  finding, evaluating, analyzing, and synthesizing
  appropriate primary and secondary sources.
• (http//www.english.ilstu.edu/Hesse/outcomes
  .html)

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How Move?

• Refer to non-library publications
• Bean, John C. Engaging ideas the professors
  guide to integrating writing, critical thinking,
  and active learning in the classroom. SF Jossey
  Bass, 1996.
• (ch 12 Encouraging engagement and inquiry in
  research papersincludes how to ask research
  questions find, manage, cite sources)

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How Move?

• Give presentation to student clubs build
  advocacy
• Work with IT on development of smart classrooms
• Work with Faculty Development to co-sponsor
  programs on plagiarism (natural tie-in to IL)
• Work with any/all campus stakeholders to find
  window of opportunity to promote IL

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Gentle Reminders

• IL skills are vital to future growth,
  development, and success
• IL skills contribute to a higher level of
  learning which is long-lasting
• Students need multiple opportunities to acquire,
  practice, and hone IL skills inside and outside
  of the classroom

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Gentle Reminders

• Not easy to write good assignmentsfaculty can
  benefit from working with librarians and Faculty
  Development Center personnel
• Assignments need to be creative, structured, and
  focused on identifying, locating, accessing,
  evaluating, and integrating information into the
  content presented (lead to student success)
• Research is not always a linear process

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Gentle Reminders

• Decades of research on college student
  development shows that the more time energy
  students invest in activities related to desired
  college outcomes, the more likely they are to
  benefit. (same holds true for IL)
• (George Kuh, ACRL 2003 Conference)

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Use Appropriate Language

• Use language understandable to faculty and
  administrators
• Speak to their issues so they will (in turn)
  support yours (relationship building)
• Teaching-learning-technology, educational
  mentoring, portfolio assessment, residential
  learning communities, service learning, honors
  program, first yr experience, international educ,
  interdisciplinary learning, capstone experiences

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Language of 21st Century Literary

• Technological literacyability to use media
  (Internet) to communicate effectively
• Media Literacyability to produce and distribute
  content ethically and responsibly
• Global Literacyability to collaborate
  effectively across cultures
• 21st Century Literacy Summit, Mar 7-8, 2002,
  Berlin, Germany, sponsored by AOL Time Warner
  Foundation and Bertelsmann Foundation.
  http//www.21stcenturyliteracy.org/

34
Add More Language

• Emotional literacy
• --develop self esteem
• --fit into information society
• --become socially and educationally successful

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Language of Accreditation

• Baccalaureate programs engage students in an
  integrated course of studythese programs also
  ensure the development of core learning abilities
  and competencies including college-level written
  and oral communication, quantitative skills,
  information literacy andcritical analysis of
  data.
• (WASC Handbook of Accreditation, Standard 2,
  January 2001 p. 20.
• http//www.wascweb.org/senior/handbook.pdf)

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More Language

• They (teacher education candidates) are able
  to appropriately and effectively integrate
  technology and information literacy in
  instruction to support student learning
• National Council for Accreditation of Teacher
  Education (NCATE). Professional Standards for the
  Accreditation of Schools, Colleges, and
  Departments of Education, 2002, page 19.
• (http//www.ncate.org/2000/unit_stnds_2002.pd
  f)

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More Language

• Each participating teacher designs, adapts,
  and uses lessons which address students needs to
  develop information literacy and problem solving
  skills as tools for lifelong learning
• California Commission on Teacher
  Credentialing. (CTC). Standards of Quality and
  Effectiveness for Professional Teacher Induction
  Programs. Program Standard 16. September 2001, p.
  21.
• (http//www.ctc.ca.gov/educator-standards/Adopt
  edPreparation/Standards.pdf)

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More Language

• Students will demonstrate information
  competence and the ability to use computers and
  other technology for many purposes
• American Psychological Association. Board of
  Educational Affairs. Undergraduate Psychology
  Major Learning Goals and Outcomes A Report,
  2000. http//www.apa.org/ed/pcue/taskforcereport.p
  df

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More Language

• The American Chemical Society states that a
  student who intends to become a practicing
  chemist, or who will use chemistry in allied
  fields of science and medicine, should know how
  to use the chemical literature effectively and
  efficiently
• http//www.chemistry.org/portal/Chemistry?PIDacsd
  isplay.htmlDOCeducation5Ccpt5Cts_cheminfo.html

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More Language

• The Accrediting Council on Education in
  Journalism and Mass Communication requires that,
  irrespective of their particular specialization,
  all graduates should be aware of certain core
  values and competencies and be able to conduct
  research and evaluate information by methods
  appropriate to the communications professions,
  audiences, and purposes they serve.
• ACEJMC Committee on Standards and Assessment.
  Accrediting Standards, 2002.
• (http//www.ukans.edu/acejmc).

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More Language

• Academic Literacies A Statement of Competencies
  Expected of Students Entering Californias Public
  Colleges and Universities (Intersegmenal
  Committee of UC. CSU, CCC)includes information
  competence
• Information Competency Challenges and Strategies
  for Development (Academic Senate of the CCC, Fall
  2002)

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Focus on Outputs

• Measurable learning outcomes
• Embed IL in GE assessment
• What distinguishes a graduate of your program,
  department, college, or university from that of
  another?

43
More Roles For You!

• Be aware of obstacles and work with key
  peoplekeep your friends close, and your enemies
  closer (M. Brando, Godfather I)
• Add value to the curriculumprovide faculty with
  tools that are easily integrated into class (in
  class worksheets, out of class assignments,
  web-based tutorials, toolkits to integrate
  e-handouts into management systems)

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More Roles For You!

• Identify scope and sequence of competencies for
  your liaison departmentsdemonstrate how IL
  skills can build progressively within the
  major/discipline
• What is needed in the lower division, upper
  division, capstone experience?
• Be an integrationistconnect teaching and
  learning to library resources and services across
  communities

45
Successes Within CSU

• System-wide and campus level
• Academic Senate resolutions grant funds to
  reshape curriculum, offer summer faculty
  workshops, support faculty retreats and release
  time, create assessment instruments conduct
  research studiesinfo mounted on CSU website
• Share successes across campus through discipline
  IL workshops so all can reap benefits and share
  in the success

46
Successes Within CSU

• Introduction in freshmen transition courses,
  lower and upper division general education
  courses, junior level courses for transfer
  students, honors courses
• Reinforcement in courses in the major, service
  learning, senior capstone experiences, or
  portfolio assessmentsall raise visibility of IL
  on campus

47
Other Successes

• Small liberal arts colleges (St. Olaf and
  Gustavus Adolphus)Journal of Library
  Administration vol 361/2 (2002)
• Oberlin College (Information Literacy and the
  Oberlin Education)
• http//www.oberlin.edu/library/servinfo/reference/
  
• infolit/infolit.html

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Planning for Campus-wide Program

• Strong leadership (from top, middle, and bottom)
• Support of key teaching faculty/campus leaders
• Advocacy by Faculty Developmenthow IL and
  assignments can help faculty achieve (and exceed)
  their teaching goals
• Collaborative approachadministrators, faculty,
  librarians, IT, Media, Faculty Development, GE
  faculty, assessment staff, peer mentors (students)

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Planning for Campus-Wide Program

• Develop a definition of IL which suits your
  institution
• Determine if IL will be integrated into existing
  courses, be a separate course, part of GE, etc.
• Develop clear IL learning outcomes which can be
  included on course syllabi and successfully
  measured

50
Planning For Campus-wide Program

• Define appropriate instructional strategies
• Design effective student assignments
• Develop effective methods of evaluation

51
Remember

• Faculty commitments and capabilities make or
  break the implementation of curriculum change,
  and they are central to sustaining program
  vitality.
• Strong foundations twelve principles for
  effective general education programs. Washington,
  DC Association of American Colleges, 1994, p. 44.

52
Remember

• Faculty need learning opportunities to explore
  new ideas and build their confidence to implement
  new types of curriculum change.
• Jones, Elizabeth A. Transforming the curriculum
  preparing students for a changing world.
  ASHE-ERIC Higher Education Report, Vol 293,
  2002, p. 81.

53
Remember

• Building an IL program takes time
• Offering faculty professional development
  opportunities for redesigning courses to include
  IL components can lead to future success
• Integrating IL vertically and horizontally
  through the curriculum will reach a maximum of
  students

54
Remember

• Sharing campus successes (e.g. Faculty
  Development workshops, Teaching Tips listserv,
  etc.), can inspire and motivate faculty to move
  forward in a positive direction
• Experience-based learning activities can
  contribute to deep learning (behavioral change)
  and transference of knowledge from course to
  course

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Finally

• Help is available
• -Guidelines for Instruction Programs in Academic
  Libraries (CRL News, Nov 2002, pp. 732-735)
• -Characteristics of Programs of Information
  Literacy that Illustrate Best Practices
  (http//www.ala.org/Content/NavigationMenu/ACRL/St
  andards_and_Guidelines/Characteristics_of_Programs
  _of_Information_Literacy_that_Illustrate_Best_Prac
  tices.htm)
• --SCIL colleagues

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Thanks Very Much

• Dr. Ilene Rockman, Manager
• Information Competence Initiative
• Office of the Chancellor
• California State University
• [phone]
• irockman_at_calstate.edu
• http//www.calstate.edu/LS/infocomp.shtml