scholarly journals The Evolution of Information Literacy Outcomes in Interdisciplinary Undergraduate Science Courses

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melanie Gainey ◽  
Neelam Bharti ◽  
Matthew Marsteller ◽  
Huajin Wang ◽  
Sarah Young ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Information Literacy ◽  
Assessment Tool ◽  
Literacy Learning ◽  
Learning Objectives ◽  
Learning Objective ◽  
First Year ◽  
Science Courses ◽  
Literacy Outcomes ◽  
Refinement Process ◽  
Undergraduate Science

The ACRL Framework for Information Literacy presents opportunities for moving beyond ‘one-shot’ information literacy sessions and creating a more scaffolded and embedded approach for instruction. We collaborated with faculty at Carnegie Mellon University to create Framework-inspired information literacy learning objectives for first-year and third-year science undergraduates and are continuously refining the objectives as the curriculum continues to evolve. This article describes our learning objective design and refinement process, challenges encountered, and ideas on how to create opportunities for embedding information literacy into a curriculum. We also share our full activity lesson plans and assessment tool.

scholarly journals Integrating Information Literacy into the Science Curriculum

2002 ◽  
Vol 63 (2) ◽  
pp. 111-123 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cecelia Brown ◽  
Lee R. Krumholz
Keyword(s):  
Information Literacy ◽  
Information Seeking ◽  
Science Curriculum ◽  
Science Courses ◽  
University Of Oklahoma ◽  
Survey Results ◽  
Upper Level ◽  
Initial Survey ◽  
Undergraduate Science ◽  
The University

A science librarian and a microbiology professor collaborated to assess information-seeking, evaluating, and usage abilities before, during, and at the end of a senior-level geomicrobiology course. ACRL’s Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education was used as a guide in designing a survey and checklists to measure literacy levels. Following an initial survey of the students’ information literacy level, two instruction sessions were provided in the use of bibliographic finding tools available from the University of Oklahoma Libraries. During each subsequent class meeting, students presented, critiqued, and discussed a referred article. The cycle was repeated, and the survey was administered again at the end of the semester. The survey results indicated an 11 percent increase in information literacy, but no significant improvement in the students’ ability to present, critique, and discuss information. A model for incorporating information literacy into upper-level undergraduate science courses and an instrument for measuring information literacy are proposed.

scholarly journals First Year University Students Arrive with Some Search Skills, But Struggle with Scholarly Sources

2014 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 22
Author(s):  
Cari Merkley
Keyword(s):  
Information Literacy ◽  
Assessment Tool ◽  
Tertiary Education ◽  
Information Source ◽  
Health Sciences ◽  
Literacy Skills ◽  
First Year ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
Scholarly Literature ◽  
Information Literacy Skills

A Review of: Salisbury, F., & Karasmanis, S. (2011). Are they ready? Exploring student information literacy skills in the transition from secondary to tertiary education. Australian Academic & Research Libraries, 42(1), 43-58. Objective – To determine what existing information literacy skills first year students possess upon entering university. Design – Quantitative survey questionnaire. Setting – A research university in Australia. Subjects – 1,029 first year students in the health sciences. Methods – First year students enrolled in the health sciences were asked to complete a paper questionnaire in their first week of classes in 2009. The 20 question survey was distributed in student tutorial groups. The first 10 questions collected information on student demographics, expected library use, and existing information seeking behaviour. The remaining 10 questions tested students’ understanding of information literacy concepts. Data collected from the survey were analyzed using the statistical software SPSS. Main Results – Most of the students who responded to the questionnaire were between the ages of 16 and 21 (84.3%) with only 2.2% over the age of 40. Approximately 15% of respondents had completed some postsecondary university or vocational education prior to enrolling in their current program. The students ranked Google, a friend, and a book as the top three places they would go to find information on something they knew little about. Google was also the most popular choice for finding a scholarly article (35% of respondents), followed by the library catalogue (21%). A large proportion of students correctly answered questions relating to identifying appropriate search terms. For example, one third of the students selected the correct combination of search concepts for a provided topic, and 77% identified that the choice of search phrase could negatively impact search results. Students also demonstrated prior knowledge of the Boolean operator AND, with 38% correctly identifying its use in the related question. Most students were also able to identify key markers of a website’s credibility. Questions relating to ethical information use and scholarly literature proved more challenging. Almost half (45%) of the students said that they did not know the characteristics of a peer reviewed journal article. Twenty five percent of respondents indicated that citing an information source was only necessary in the case of direct quotes, with only 28% correctly identifying the need for citing both quotes and paraphrasing. Only 23% were able to select the example of a journal citation from the list presented. Conclusion – Students enter university with existing strengths in concept identification and basic search formulation, but require the most assistance with locating and identifying scholarly literature and how to cite it appropriately in their work. The findings will inform the development of an online information literacy assessment tool to assist incoming students in identifying areas where they may require additional support as they transition to university.

scholarly journals A Framework for Analyzing Interdisciplinary Tasks: Implications for Student Learning and Curricular Design

2013 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 187-205 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia Svoboda Gouvea ◽  
Vashti Sawtelle ◽  
Benjamin D. Geller ◽  
Chandra Turpen
Keyword(s):  
Design Research ◽  
Learning Objectives ◽  
Interdisciplinary Learning ◽  
Science Courses ◽  
Interdisciplinary Design ◽  
Curricular Design ◽  
National Conversation ◽  
Undergraduate Science ◽  
Interdisciplinary Interaction ◽  
Different Characteristics

The national conversation around undergraduate science instruction is calling for increased interdisciplinarity. As these calls increase, there is a need to consider the learning objectives of interdisciplinary science courses and how to design curricula to support those objectives. We present a framework that can help support interdisciplinary design research. We developed this framework in an introductory physics for life sciences majors (IPLS) course for which we designed a series of interdisciplinary tasks that bridge physics and biology. We illustrate how this framework can be used to describe the variation in the nature and degree of interdisciplinary interaction in tasks, to aid in redesigning tasks to better align with interdisciplinary learning objectives, and finally, to articulate design conjectures that posit how different characteristics of these tasks might support or impede interdisciplinary learning objectives. This framework will be useful for both curriculum designers and education researchers seeking to understand, in more concrete terms, what interdisciplinary learning means and how integrated science curricula can be designed to support interdisciplinary learning objectives.

scholarly journals Impacting Information Literacy Learning in First-Year Seminars: A Rubric-Based Evaluation

2015 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 489-512 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Sara Lowe ◽  
Char Booth ◽  
Sean Stone ◽  
Natalie Tagge
Keyword(s):  
Information Literacy ◽  
Literacy Learning ◽  
First Year ◽  
First Year Seminars

Information literacy in an inquiry course for first-year science undergraduates: a simplified 3C approach

2007 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 176-179 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. K. Rangachari ◽  
Usha Rangachari
Keyword(s):  
World Wide Web ◽  
Information Literacy ◽  
World Wide ◽  
First Year ◽  
Science Program ◽  
Scholarly Journals ◽  
Simplified Approach ◽  
The World ◽  
Popular Magazines ◽  
Undergraduate Science

In this article, we describe a simplified approach to teach students to assess information obtained from diverse sources. Three broad categories (credibility, content, and currency; 3C) were used to evaluate information from textbooks, monographs, popular magazines, scholarly journals, and the World Wide Web. This 3C approach used in an inquiry course for freshmen in an undergraduate science program can be readily transferred to other settings.

scholarly journals Students May Demonstrate Information Literacy Skills Following Library Instruction

2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 100-102
Author(s):  
Robin Elizabeth Miller
Keyword(s):  
General Education ◽  
Learning Outcomes ◽  
Information Literacy ◽  
Literacy Learning ◽  
Ordinary Least Squares ◽  
Literacy Skills ◽  
Literacy Skill ◽  
First Year ◽  
Library Instruction ◽  
Least Squares Regression

A Review of: Luetkenhaus, H., Hvizdak, E., Johnson, C., & Schiller, N. (2017). Measuring library impacts through first year course assessment. Communications in Information Literacy, 11(2), 339-353. http://comminfolit.org/index.php Abstract Objective – To determine whether there is a correlation between information literacy skill development and participation in one or more library instruction sessions. Design – Learning outcomes assessment. Setting – A public research institution with multiple campuses. Subjects – 244 first-year undergraduates enrolled in a compulsory general education course during the 2014-2015 academic year. All subjects completed a series of library research assignments, followed by a final research paper. 65% of subjects participated in at least one library instruction session as part of the course, and 35% did not. Methods – The researchers convened six librarians and six instructors/faculty to score 244 research papers using a rubric designed to measure six possible information literacy learning outcomes. Evaluators established inter-rater reliability through a norming session, and each artifact was scored twice. The authors analyzed rubric scores using Ordinary Least Squares regression modeling. Main Results – Participation in a library instruction session correlated with higher rubric scores in three information literacy learning outcomes: argument building; source type integration; and ethical source citation. Conclusion – Students may achieve greater information literacy learning outcomes when they participate in course-integrated library instruction.

scholarly journals A Novel Assessment Tool for Quantitative Evaluation of Science Literature Search Performance: Application to First-Year and Senior Undergraduate Biology Majors

2017 ◽  
Vol 77 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason M. Blank ◽  
Karen J. McGaughey ◽  
Elena L. Keeling ◽  
Kristen L. Thorp ◽  
Conor C. Shannon ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Information Literacy ◽  
Scientific Literature ◽  
Assessment Tool ◽  
First Year ◽  
Search Performance ◽  
Science Literature ◽  
Science Students ◽  
Sources Of Information ◽  
Literature Searching ◽  
Biology Majors

Expertise in searching and evaluating scientific literature is a requisite skill of trained scientists and science students, yet information literacy instruction varies greatly among institutions and programs. To ensure that science students acquire information literacy skills, robust methods of assessment are needed. Here, we describe a novel tool for longitudinal, crossover assessment of literature-searching skills in science students and apply it to a cross-sectional assessment of literature-searching performance in 145 first-year and 43 senior biology majors. Subjects were given an open-ended prompt requiring them to find multiple sources of information addressing a particular scientific topic. A blinded scorer used a rubric to score the resources identified by the subjects and generate numerical scores for source quality, source relevance, and citation quality. Two versions of the assessment prompt were given to facilitate eventual longitudinal study of individual students in a crossover design. Seniors were significantly more likely to find relevant, peer-reviewed journal articles, provide appropriate citations, and provide correct answers to other questions about scientific literature. This assessment tool accommodates large numbers of students and can be modified easily for use in other disciplines or at other levels of education.

Crowdsourcing the curriculum

2014 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 277-292 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jamie White-Farnham ◽  
Carolyn Caffrey Gardner
Keyword(s):  
Student Performance ◽  
Information Literacy ◽  
First Year ◽  
Writing Program ◽  
First Year Writing ◽  
Writing Assignments ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Literacy Outcomes ◽  
Writing Program Administrator ◽  
Writing Instructors

Purpose – The purpose of this article is to describe the rationale, process and results of an integrated curricular intervention for information literacy instruction in a first-year writing program. Design/methodology/approach – The information literacy coordinator collaborated with writing instructors and the Writing Program Administrator on the initial design of information literacy outcomes. The librarian and instructors created a modular curriculum with multiple lessons and activities aligned to each outcome. The curriculum was housed in the course management system for easy updating and distribution. Finally, instructors taught the embedded information literacy activities for two semesters and measured student improvement through a pre-/post-survey and a rubric-based assessment of students’ citation and documentation. Findings – Students saw significant gains over the course of the semester in their ability to use Boolean operators, identify the purpose of sources and understand citation styles. As a related and valuable measure, writing program assessment results showed an improvement in students’ performance in citation and documentation in researched writing assignments after a one-year implementation of the intervention. Writing instructors reported an increased awareness of information literacy pedagogy and intentionality in their teaching. Finally, the librarian was able to leverage this collaboration to highlight the teaching roles of librarians beyond the one-shot. Originality/value – Well-known temporal and logistical limits exist in regard to embedded, one-shot and multi-shot approaches to information literacy. The latter two are especially unsustainable when implemented at scale, such as within a first-year writing program that serves hundreds or thousands of students each semester. This study documents a faculty development approach in which writing instructors integrate information literacy (IL) into their own instruction. This offers a model that makes explicit IL processes and skills to writing instructors, results in high student performance and allows especially the small college librarian to manage his/her other strategic information literacy partnerships.

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