Effective Information Literacy Programs and Instruction: Collaborating with Faculty, Developing Scal

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Effective Information Literacy Programs and
Instruction Collaborating with Faculty,
Developing Scalable Models, and Designing
Classroom Activities
The Education Institute Ontario College and
University Library Association Thursday, March 31
2005 Thomas P. Mackey and Trudi E. Jacobson
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Todays Workshop Topics

• Background IL at the University at Albany
• 3 Models for Faculty/Librarian Collaboration
• Scalable/Tiered Models for Teaching IL
• Collaboration Case Studies
• Developing Strategies for IL Assessment

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Background Information Literacyat the
University at Albany
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• Pre- General Education Mandate at UAlbany
• Traditional course-related instruction
• Technology classes
• Project Renaissance (first-year experience
  program)

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• General Education Mandate (1998)
• SUNY Board of Trustees
• Information Management Requirement
• Course requirement changed to competency

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• Information Literacy Requirement (2000)
• IL subcommittee established
• Interdisciplinary
• Review courses for IL
• Provide feedback to faculty about IL
• http//library.albany.edu/usered/faculty/newgencom
  p.doc

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• Information Literacy Requirement (2000)
• Course development
• Library as resource and as key player
• Tutorials
• http//library.albany.edu/usered/tut.html

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• Information Literacy Requirement
• Credit-bearing quarter courses taught by faculty
  librarians
• Credit-bearing discipline-specific courses taught
  by departmental faculty

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• Learning Objectives for General Education
  Information Literacy Courses at the University at
  Albany, SUNY
• locate, evaluate, synthesize and use information
  from a variety of sources
• understand and use basic research techniques
  appropriate to the course discipline
• understand the various ways in which information
  is organized and structured
• understand the ethical issues involved in
  accessing and using information
• http//www.albany.edu/gened/learnoutcome.htmlil

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3 Models for Collaboration

• Flexible collaborative models that involve
  Faculty, Librarians, Administrators, and Support
  Staff.

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3 Models for Collaboration

• Teaching Alliances
• Campus Partnerships
• Virtual Collaboration

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3 Models for Collaboration

• 1) Teaching Alliances
• Understand faculty culture and develop strategies
  for promoting IL
• Need for faculty buy-in
• Respond to resistance and enthusiasm
• Define needs on campus

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3 Models for Collaboration

• 1) Teaching Alliances
• Reasons for faculty resistance
• Lack of time to tackle yet another initiative
• Lack of awareness of students information
  literacy needs
• Belief that students learn these skills and gain
  this knowledge elsewhere, most likely in high
  school

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3 Models for Collaboration

• 1) Teaching Alliances
• Reasons for faculty resistance
• Lack of institutional support for collaboration,
  information literacy, and/or information
  technology development
• Belief that information literacy instruction is
  the job of the library

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3 Models for Collaboration

• 1) Teaching Alliances
• Reasons for faculty involvement
• Knowledge of their disciplines
• Understanding of key resources in field
• Awareness of course goals and objectives
• Teaching experience
• Understanding of student population and campus
  culture

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3 Models for Collaboration

• 1) Teaching Alliances
• Advantages of faculty/librarian collaboration
• determining what course material might be
  replaced by IL
• deciding how assignments might be revised to
  become effective information literacy learning
  tools

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3 Models for Collaboration

• 1) Teaching Alliances
• Advantages of faculty/librarian collaboration
• identifying and making effective use of other
  information literacy resources on campus and
• addressing possible student resistance to these
  new components.

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3 Models for Collaboration

• 1) Teaching Alliances
• How to make it work
• Make the time to discuss the IL course goals and
  objectives, and how this process will benefit
  from a shared teaching responsibility
• Consider team-taught sessions integral to the
  course and student learning (rather than as a
  separate or ancillary component)

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3 Models for Collaboration

• 1) Teaching Alliances
• How to make it work
• Develop effective classroom visits by librarians
  to teach students research skills
• Work together on course syllabus before the start
  of the semester
• Collaborate on specific course assignments
• Co-develop hand-outs and in-class assignments
• Define active teaching roles for both faculty and
  librarian in classroom and/or computer lab
• Faculty must be present and actively involved in
  IL instruction

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3 Models for Collaboration

• 1) Teaching Alliances
• If team teaching is not an option yet
• Share a copy of course syllabus and assignments
  with the librarian (if he or she was not involved
  in the planning process) and discuss goals for
  the session.
• Time the session so that students are familiar
  with their research assignment and are ready to
  begin work on it.
• If students do not yet know what their assignment
  will be, or only hear about it for the first time
  as the librarian is introduced, most will not be
  motivated to learn.

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3 Models for Collaboration

• Teaching Alliances
• If team teaching is not an option yet
• Discuss ways team teaching might capitalize upon
  the librarians involvement.
• The librarian might survey students concerns
  about the research process in order to
  effectively design the content of his or her
  instruction.
• Ask the librarian to be involved in the course
  bulletin board or discussion list.

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3 Models for Collaboration

• 1) Teaching Alliances
• Require students to utilize a range of library
  resources and encourage follow-up in the library
• Databases and library catalog
• Government Documents
• Books and book chapters
• Scholarly Journal Articles
• Archives
• Interactive Media Center

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3 Models for Collaboration

• 2) Campus Partnerships
• Collaborative efforts go beyond those of
  individual faculty members and teaching
  librarians
• Developing a larger network on campus for IL will
  help to counter faculty resistance and may
  provide opportunities to make IL initiatives a
  part of the campus culture
• General Education Requirement is taken seriously
  and integrates IL throughout curriculum

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3 Models for Collaboration

• 2) Campus Partnerships
• Center for Excellence in Teaching Learning
  (CETL)
• Workshops
• Assessment strategy
• Technology efforts (smart classrooms,
  instructional technology, WebCT)

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3 Models for Collaboration

• 2) Campus Partnerships
• Campus-wide committees
• General Education Committee
• IL Subcommittee
• Departmental Curriculum Committee

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3 Models for Collaboration

• 3) Virtual Collaboration
• Online resources
• Integrate web-based resources into course as
  follow-up to lectures/lab and in support of
  course materials and assignments
• Research guides
• Tutorials (on campus)
• Tutorials and Web pages (beyond campus)
• Resources for Writing
• Plagiarism Prevention

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3 Models for Collaboration

• 3) Virtual Collaboration
• Example of Web Assignment that integrates Library
  Tutorial
• Web Site Evaluations

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3 Models for Collaboration

• 3) Virtual Collaboration
• Course management systems (WebCT, Blackboard,
  etc.)
• Interactivity with faculty, librarians, teaching
  assistants, and peers.
• IL and IT Skills assessment (at the start and end
  of course)
• Course materials and tests to reinforce concepts

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3 Models for Collaboration

• 3) Virtual Collaboration
• WebCT Tools
• Bulletin board
• Chat
• Survey instrument
• Links to online resources
• File Upload (PowerPoint Presentations and
  hand-outs)
• Quizzes and practice exams
• Student project proposals
• Student Presentation Tool for web teams for
  collaborative projects

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Breakout Session 1
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• Collaboration in your setting
• 1. What are your goals for collaboration?
• 2. How can librarians and faculty members most
  effectively work together?

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15-Minute break!
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Scalable/Tiered Models for Teaching IL
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Models for Teaching Information Literacy in Lower
and Upper Level Courses

• Art of Annotation
• Research and Composition
• Writing for the Web

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• 1) The Art of Annotation
• Teaching students to conduct research in the
  library and online to synthesize and document
  information for the development of an annotated
  bibliography
• 2) Research and Composition
• Teaching students to incorporate discipline
  specific resources (i.e., scholarly journal
  articles and professional web sites) in properly
  documented research essays.
• 3) Writing for the Web
• Teaching students to develop content for the web
  with a specific focus on primary and secondary
  research methods

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• The Art of Annotation
• Skills Set
• evaluate an authors expertise
• determine the scope and main purpose of the
  material
• recognize any standpoint or bias
• identify the intended audience
• compare with other sources on the topic
• select appropriate information sources.

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• Research and Composition
• Skills Set
• access and retrieve discipline-specific sources
  in the library and online
• differentiate between scholarly, popular, and
  trade sources
• develop concept map for topic ideas and essay
  organization
• outline essay structure
• participate in peer review and revision
• document sources based on discipline-specific
  style guides.

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• Writing for the Web
• Skills Set
• integrate complementary skills in a digital
  medium that is visual, textual, and potentially
  collaborative
• problem-solving, coding, software applications,
  and digital imaging
• accessing, evaluating, writing about, and
  documenting information

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Scalability Learning Goals for Evaluating Content
Based on Learning Goals across Academic Levels
(Figure 2) in Developing Research and
Communication Skills Guidelines for Information
Literacy in the Curriculum (Middle States)
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Scalability Learning Goals for Using Information
Based on Learning Goals across Academic Levels
(Figure 2) in Developing Research and
Communication Skills Guidelines for Information
Literacy in the Curriculum (Middle States)
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Breakout Session 2
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• Can you scale one of these models, or another
  model, to your setting?
• Art of Annotation
• Research and Composition
• Writing for the Web

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Lunch Break!
1215pm-115pm
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Collaboration in the ClassroomCase Studies

• UNL 205/206 Information Literacy
• http//library.albany.edu/usered/unl205/
• ISP301 The Information Environment
• http//www.albany.edu/dept/sisp/mackey/isp301/spri
  ng05/

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Developing Strategies for IL Assessment
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External Assessment (for university and
university system)
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• General Education Outcomes Assessment
• On-going review of existing General Education
  courses and approval of new ones
• Regular three year cycle for the assessment of
  student learning outcomes specific to the General
  Education category.
• Regular three year cycle for the assessment of
  students perceptions of their Gen Ed experience.

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• General Education Outcomes Assessment
• Part I (Assessment Form 1)
• Define Assessment Tools
• Describe assessment measures
• Identify mechanism for tracking student learning

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• General Education Outcomes Assessment
• Part II (Assessment Form 2)
• Describe Assessment Measures
• Indicate how assessment measures enabled
  assessment of learning objectives
• Identify number of students who achieved learning
  objectives

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• Learning Objectives for General Education
  Information Literacy Courses at the University at
  Albany, SUNY
• locate, evaluate, synthesize and use information
  from a variety of sources
• understand and use basic research techniques
  appropriate to the course discipline
• understand the various ways in which information
  is organized and structured
• understand the ethical issues involved in
  accessing and using information
• http//www.albany.edu/gened/learnoutcome.htmlil

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• General Education Outcomes Assessment
• Part III
• University at Albany Student Perceptions of
  General Education Course Experience Questionnaire

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Internal Assessment (for instructor)
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Ongoing Assessment Strategies

• Course Evaluations
• Conversations with students
• E-mail correspondence
• Quizzes and in-class assignments
• WebCT Surveys
• IL and IT Skills
• Open-ended questions
• Start of course
• mid-term evaluation
• end of semester evaluation

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Ongoing Assessment Strategies

• If no required assessment
• Faculty/librarian collaboration enables the
  development of an IL assessment component.

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• Questions

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(No Transcript)
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• Thomas P. Mackey, Ph.D.
• Assistant Professor
• School of Information Science Policy
• mackey_at_albany.edu
• http//www.albany.edu/mackey
• Trudi Jacobson, M.L.S.
• Coordinator of User Education Programs
• University Libraries
• tjacobson_at_uamail.albany.edu
• http//library.albany.edu/usered/faculty/infolit.h
  tml