Is number 5 alive? What does ‘the information literate graduate’ mean to our students?UoS Learning and Teaching Conference, January 14th 2008

Sheila Corrall, Laura Jenkins, Philippa Levy, Clare Scott, Peter Stubley, Sheila Webber and CILASS Student Ambassadors, for the CILASS Information Literacy Network

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Number 5 – a strategic focus“We will provide all students at Sheffield with the opportunity to….

5. “Access high quality learning and information resources in a variety of formats and become information literate by seeking out, evaluating and engaging with a wide range of information resources effectively and ethically in support of their critical engagement with their discipline”.University of Sheffield Learning, Teaching and Assessment Strategy, 2005-2010

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The workshop - exploring

• The links between inquiry-based learning and information literacy

• Perspectives on information literacy and its development (students; academic staff; professional services staff)

• Examples of information literacy learning/teaching activities and approaches

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Overview

• Introduction to IBL

• Capabilities for IBL

• Information literacy

• Information literacy capabilities for IBL

• Sharing perspectives and strategies

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Inquiry-based learning

• Student-led exploration, investigation and research

• Open-ended, critical inquiry• Guided and supported by

academic and learning support staff

• Problems; case scenarios; field-work; experiential learning; small- and large-scale research projects…

• ‘Full’ IBL – design principle for whole modules/programmes

• ‘Hybrid’ IBL – activities incorporated into more traditional curricula

• Often, more directed inquiry approaches at lower levels, leading to more open-ended, freer approaches at higher levels

“Modelling the process of research in the student learning experience”

6IBL involves• Students and/or tutors establishing

question/problem etc• Students pursuing lines of inquiry (often

in groups) • Drawing on existing knowledge• Identifying new learning and

information needs• Seeking information, evidence, e.g.

interacting with (digital) resources, datasets, archives

• Discussing, receiving feedback, synthesising information, constructing knowledge

• Analysing and communicating ideas and results

• Working with staff as partners, participating in a research community

The core of inquiry is the QUESTION – a process of discovery

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UoS, Dept. of Archaeology

Field work

“I've picked up things from that module - just things like, you can answer 'no' rather than 'yes'; different ways of looking at things from different angles rather than just your textbook and 'this is what someone says'  […]  It's like, thinking for yourself, and asking different questions, and different ways of analyzing things and going through processes, rather than just looking at books”.

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‘Understanding Law 2’• 250 students• Online workbooks, structured tasks• Learning journals• Supported by online discussions (WebCT)• 45 research groups, developing multimedia

resources (film, podcast, powerpoints)• Presented at ‘celebration of inquiry’ event

(attended by other students, staff and invited law professionals)

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Inquiry at Level 1‘Understanding Law 2’

“At the end of the module, I felt I´d taught myself something, but with a little bit of guidance, talking to people…and in the seminars, you got to discuss why you did things in a certain way, and you did it yourself, but you got the input as well…that was really good”.

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Information Management (UoS)• First-years generating their

own research questions • Working together and with

tutors on small-scale research projects

• Interacting with researchers and practitioners

• Using technologies – blogs, WebCT Vista

• Accessing info resources in class – Library, web

• Collecting and analysing data• Presenting posters at

research ‘conference’

Does Facebook support students’ personal information management?

What does mobile phone user behaviour contribute to detrimental environmental effects and how can these be reduced?

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Close of module researchposter conference, May 2007

INF106 ‘Inquiry in Information Management’

“What made us pick this particular topic was that we were all fascinated by something non-one within the department really knew the answer to […] someone out there had the facts we needed to successfully answer the question, it was the challenge of finding this that drew us to the idea of [the topic]…

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A classic lab exercise transformed into part of an existing research project.

1st year Biology at the University of Sydney: 1000 students provide an ideal research team for carrying out a survey of airborne fungal spores in the Sydney Basin. Such an extensive survey has proved impossible as part of staff’s existing research because of the expense and time constraints in surveying such a large area.

Each student collected samples from their home suburbs in Sydney and surrounding areas and identified the colonies growing on their plates. The resulting data set (1000 samples) was then analysed using GIS to map distributions of fungal genera across the Sydney Basin, and students wrote a short report on the findings.

(Example provided by Angela Brew, University of Sydney)

Lab work

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A student prepares his skating robot for a test run at the Olympic Ice Skating Rink (University of Calgary, Canada)

Example provided by Angela Brew, University of Sydney

Electronics

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Discovery-responsiveIBL activities are primarily designed to involve students in pursuing new questions, problems, scenarios or lines of inquiry, as formulated by tutors, in interaction with the knowledge-base of the discipline (“how can I answer this new question?”).

EXPLORING AND ACQUIRING EXISTING DISCIPLINARY KNOWLEDGE

PARTICIPATING IN BUILDING DISCIPLINARY KNOWLEDGE

Information-responsiveIBL activities are primarily designed to involve students in exploring the knowledge-base of the discipline in response to questions, problems, scenarios or lines of inquiry formulated by staff (“what is already known about this?”).

STAFF-LEDSTUDENT-LED

Discovery-activeIBL activities are primarily designed to involve students in identifying and pursuing their own new (or new to them) questions, problems, scenarios or lines of inquiry in interaction with the knowledge-base of the discipline (“how can I answer my (new) question?”).

Information-activeIBL activities are primarily designed to involve students in exploring the knowledge-base of the discipline by pursuing questions, problems, scenarios or lines of inquiry they themselves have formulated (“what is already known about this?”).

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What are the most important capabilities that students need for IBL?

• Move into cognate groups (students/staff)

• As individuals – one capability per post-it

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Mapping capabilities

• In turn, starting with the most important capability, explain ideas one by one and build up conceptual ‘clusters’ of capabilities on wall

• What are the differences and commonalities that emerge, within and between groups (including between students and staff)?

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What’s information literacy and how’s it experienced by students?

• Sheila Webber (Information Studies)

• Laura Jenkins (English)

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Which IBL capabilities are most closely connected to information literacy?• Working in groups, ‘spend’ your

coloured dots on identifying those IBL capabilities that are most closely connected with IL

• Importance can be signalled by assigning capabilities more than one dot

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Plenary

• ‘Top’ IL capabilities for IBL, from each group?

• Do staff and student perspectives differ?

• Issues arising, for developing IBL and IL pedagogies?

• Any changed or new views, arising from the discussions so far?

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• Number 5’s alive!

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References

• University of Sheffield Learning, Teaching and Assessment Strategy 2005-2010 http://www.shef.ac.uk/content/1/c6/04/83/65/TLSU%20report2.pdf [Accessed 13th January 2008]

• Short Circuit 1 Trailer, YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4TBcQ8h_kXU [Accessed 13th January 2008]