Information Literacy Modular Tutorials through

BlackboardCarol Franck

SUNY PotsdamSUNYLA 2003

Initial Project Motivation

• Frustration with the one-shot

• Not enough time to cover material

• Variability in student’s backgrounds

• Repetition for student (and instructor) in most sessions

• Challenges for assessment

Other Driving Forces

• SUNY Potsdam General Education

• SUNY Administration– GER (General Education Requirements)– GEAR (General Education Assessment

Review)

• Middle States

• Employer Expectations of Graduates

Information Literacy

• ACRL (Association of College & Research Libraries) Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education

– http://www.ala.org/acrl/ilcomstan.html

Information Literacy

Formulating questions Knowing what type of resources to look for Knowing how to look for those resources Evaluating search results Interpreting the information found

The Past: One-shot library “bibliographic instruction” sessions

The Future: A coordinated, programmatic, and developmental approach to Information Literacy.

The Project

Goal:

To provide instruction in basic Information Literacy skills/concepts that is flexible, assessable, and reduces duplication on the part of the student.

The Project

Objectives:

• To determine what constitutes the core set of “basic” skills and concepts

• To create an electronic tutorial for each item in the core set

• To incorporate interactive assessment measures within each tutorial

• To be able to track which students have successfully completed each tutorial

The Project

The Reality

• Existing online tutorials

• Significant body of literature on BI

• Blackboard

Blackboard 5

PROS

• Familiar to students

• Familiar to faculty

• Assessment features built in

• Grades/tracking recorded automatically

Blackboard 5

CONS

• Not designed for content, but for access

• Limited flexibility in what you can do

• Limited flexibility across courses

What do the tutorials look like?

Well…….

Implementation

• General Education – Revision of First Year Experience

– Committee work completed Spring 2003

– Approval process Fall 2003

– Implementation planning Spring 2004

– Implement new program Fall 2004

First Year General Education

• Four required competencies: – Writing (FW)

– Speaking (FS)

– Mathematics (FM)

– Critical Thinking (FC)

• Information Literacy requirements explicitly required in FW, FS, and FC.

Required Info Lit Components

• For each of the three designators (FW, FS, FC), IL learning outcomes are detailed and specific tutorials are required

• A required assignment coordinated with the tutorials reinforces skills and concepts

• At least one class session must be devoted to IL material, so three sessions in the first year

Beyond the Basics

• Several departments on campus designing pilot approaches to developmental information literacy extending throughout a major.

• Library director committed to supporting this across campus

Contact Information

This presentation, including screen shots of an actual tutorial, may be downloaded at:

www2.potsdam.edu/franckcr/SUNYLA2003

e-mail: franckcr@potsdam.edu