Tools of the Trade

Designing Templates to Teach a General Education Outcome

Lakeland Community College

General Education Outcome 5

The information literate learner accesses and uses information effectively and responsibly:

Develops an effective search strategy Evaluates, selects, and critically analyzes information Uses and manipulates information responsibly,

ethically, and legally Uses technology to access and manage information

The Lakeland Information Literacy GEO is based on the Association of College & Research Libraries’ Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education.

General Education Outcomes: A Chronology2000

General Education Outcomes Task Force (GETForce) formed.

2001 The Lakeland Library faculty championed the

inclusion of information literacy as one of the GEOs.

On Nov. 2nd, Lakeland presented an Information

Literacy Retreat for faculty and administrators. 2002

GETForce began to determine which abilities were to be measured in the Outcomes.

GEO Chronology, 2

2002 continued Subcommittees for the current 5 Outcomes were created

and charged with designing Performance Indicators. On February 2nd, Lakeland librarians presented the first

assignment design workshop.

2003 Revised Statement of General Education Outcomes with

Performance Indicators submitted. Committee charge reiterated.

2004 Draft of new General Education Outcomes worksheet

distributed to committee members.

GEO Chronology, 3

2004 continued Committee determined a standardized format for

rubrics should be developed to measure each outcome.

2005 In the Fall, Lakeland librarians received a Faculty

Challenge Grant to present 2 IL workshops.

General Education Outcome Worksheet and a revised version of the guidelines were reviewed and approved.

Pilot Assessment done on Dec. 14th.

GEO Chronology, 4

2006 April--second round of Rubric Testing.

Subcommittees revised GEO rubrics based on recommendations from rubric testing sessions.

Lakeland librarians again awarded a Faculty Challenge Grant to present 2 IL workshops.

Capstone Pilot & E-portfolio Pilot.

Conversion of all course outlines to the new General Education Outcomes Worksheet.

Information Resources & Libraries: Some Statistics These statistics are from OCLC’s report

Perception of Libraries and Information Resources, 2005.

First Choice for Information Source by College Students across All Regions

Search Engines: 72%Library (physical): 14%Online Library: 10%

Some Statistics, 2

Where Electronic Information Searches Begin by College Students across All Regions

Search Engines: 89%Library (physical): 14%Online Library: 10%

Some Statistics, 3

Usage of Electronic Resources by College Students across All Regions:

Search Engine: 82%Library Website: 61%Online Database: 34%Electronic Books (digital): 31%Online Librarian Question Service: 8%

Some Statistics, 4

Learning about Electronic Information Sources by College Students across All Regions

Friend: 67%Links from Electronic Sources or Websites: 61%Teacher: 50%Librarian: 33%

The Knowledge Environment in the Information Age

Why is Information Literacy Important? Information overload Uncertain quality of web information Promotes critical thinking & lifelong learning

Challenges to Information Literacy Easiest content is best content Web versus Library Resources

The Knowledge Environment in the Information Age, 2

Challenges to Technological Literacy IT focuses on means of accessing content

IT skills enable individual to use computers, databases, software and other technologies

Evolving skills – IM, text messaging, MySpace, Napster. How do popular web skills apply to information seeking?

Information & TechnologyLiteracy Applied

GEO 5 cumulative over course of college study Successful assignments do not need to

address all GEO 5 Performance Indicators Any research assignment can be adapted to

include GEO 5 Adapt non-research assignments or integrate

active learning games into coursework

Library/Faculty Collaboration - GEO 5

Library Instruction sessions in library classroom can be adapted to specific disciplines

Library Liaisons will assist faculty with assignment design to incorporate GEO 5 into their own assignments

Library Website offers assignment templateshttp://library.lakelandcc.edu/ILgateway.html

Template Design Model

Satisfy one or more Information Literacy Performance Indicators

Be adaptable to many disciplines Be complete (all vignettes, worksheets,

websites, required reading included) Be easy for faculty to integrate into their

classroom and curriculum Emphasize active learning when possible

Developing the Assignments

The template for assignment design had 4 components: Objectives Preparation required Assignment itself Review points

3-4 assignments per Performance Indicator developed for first Faculty Workshop

Librarians chose a performance indicator and researched possible assignments, formatted them into the template

Librarians reviewed each other’s assignments Approved assignments uploaded onto website

The Workshops

Funded through Faculty Challenge Grants

Began offering assignment design workshops in 2002

For the past 2 years, we’ve offered these workshops with the focus on assignment templates that we created to address the IL GEO.

The Workshops: Goals

Expose both full- and part-time faculty to Lakeland’s General Education Outcomes

Help the faculty locate, in existing assignments, where they are already teaching the IL GEO

Help them incorporate the IL GEO into assignments where one or more of the Performance Indicators would be relevant

Help them create IL assignments addressing the IL GEO

The Workshops: Publicity & Incentives

Publicity included posting flyers, emailing to all faculty, encouraging department chairs to contact full- and part-time department members, and word of mouth.

Incentives were offered: a continental breakfast, a stipend, and a Library Services for Faculty Booklet. Part-time faculty could have the workshop count as a Points-to-Certificate class.

Lakeland Library’s IL Gateway

http://library.lakelandcc.edu

1. Library Services

2. For Faculty and Staff

3. Information Literacy (GEO 5)

IL Gateway Page Left margin links to:

1. ACRL IL Standards

2. Faculty Services

3. GEO 5 (IL) Rubric

4. Sample Faculty Assignments

5. OATYC Materials

Content:

Performance Indicators

and their Assignments

OATYC Materials OnlineLeft margin links to:

1. Tools of the Trade

2. Library IL Gateway Page

3. Sample Faculty Assignments

4. Lakeland’s Academic Honesty Policy

5. Lakeland’s GEOs

6. ACRL IL Websites

Content

1. Short History of GEO 5

2. Collaboration with Faculty

3. Implementation

Fact or Fiction? Assignment

Urban legend phenomena applies to all disciplines, is active learning and easy to teach.

PI 2 - Evaluates and selects information Objectives: search strategy, selection of best

information, critical thinking re: persuasive arguments

Preparation: worksheet, scenarios, method for working in groups

Fact or Fiction? English 1120 Test Run

1. Used by English 1120 instructor for oral presentations 2. Class researched their scenario in the library.3. Class organized the information they had gathered. 4. Each group presented their findings to the class.5. They told of their process in discovering

whether the statement was true/false and why. 6. They admitted surprise that what was out there could

be false and how hard sometimes it is to prove.

Feedback to Librarians: On instructor’s recommendation, some scenarios were updated. (Go to urban legends and hoax sites for ideas.)

Web Evaluation Assignment

The web has had an incredible impact on scholarly

research, every academic discipline affected. More

resources than ever in many different formats can be

found simply by entering a few words into a search box. PI 2—Evaluates and selects information Objectives: consider criteria for analyzing the

quality of content, apply criteria during evaluation process, find authoritative research resources.

Preparation: Review web searching; distribute, discuss and apply evaluation criteria.

Web Evaluation Assignment

In Practice Used multiple times with different BIOL classes

To complete the assignment from demonstrating web search techniques and explaining criteria to evaluating websites took approximately 2 hours

Usually had the class in groups evaluate only 3 websites instead of 5

Rank process allowed us to discuss how they applied the criteria and whether they would use the websites in a research project

Workshop Participants Respond

Evaluation Responses from 11 Workshop Attendees Were you introduced to an assignment template

that you would like to adapt to use with your class? Y 8 N 1 NA 2

Would you like a librarian to instruct your class in this assignment? Y 5 N 6

Did this workshop answer the questions you had about information literacy? Y 11

Should this workshop be repeated so more faculty can attend? Y 11