A Profile of Information Literacy Programs in the First Year of College: Initial Findings from a National Survey

Transcription

1 A Profile of Information Literacy Programs in the First Year of College: Initial Findings from a National Survey Debbie Malone, DeSales University Cindy Kilgo & Jennifer Keup, University of South Carolina Ryan Padgett, Northern Kentucky University Colleen Boff, Bowling Green State University

2 Many years ago I once heard the former president of the Urban League, Vernon Jordan, say in a speech in Columbia, S.C. if you ain t in the room, you ain t part of the action! Ladies and gentlemen, it is my thesis that you aren t as much in this larger room I am calling the first-year experience reform movement as I think you should be and this concerns me greatly. John Gardner in a keynote address at the 2003 ACRL National Conference in Charlotte

3 Results of that challenge Hardesty, L. (2007). The role of the library in the first college year (Monograph No. 45). Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina, National Resource Center for The First-Year Experience and Students in Transition. Boff & Johnson. (2002). The library and first-year experience courses. Reference Services Review, 30(4)

4 The more we teach information literacy the more our faculty want us to teach it to first year students because they see the positive impact it has upon preparing students for advanced work- -thus, the reason it has become the key learning outcome for our FYE course Quote from survey participant

5 Literature Context - Assessment - Collaboration - Pedagogy

6 Assessment Conducted mostly in English courses, first-year seminars, and orientation programs Variety of instruments used: The Information Literacy Test information-literacy-test/ The Library Anxiety Scale iskills Institution specific pre/post tests Assessing/grading student bibliographies etc.

7 Collaborating with FYS Information literacy is not always a required component Library tours Some librarians teach seminars Librarians participate in design of assignments Librarians may provide one or multiple instruction sessions Often includes a combination of online modules and face-to-face sessions

8 Librarians Collaborating with English Composition Instructors Librarians act as consultants on assignment design Librarians team teach the course Librarians train teaching assistants Librarians grade assignments Librarians teach one-shot information literacy sessions Librarians teach multiple information literacy sessions in each course section Librarians provide one-one-one research help

9 Collaboration beyond FYS & Eng. Comp Academic learning centers First year science laboratory courses Student Services First-Year Engineering courses Computer Science departments High risk student programs School librarians

10 A wide variety of Pedagogies are in use Interactive Online tutorials Problem based learning Multiple active learning strategies Librarians embedded in courses (online & f to f) Clickers (audience response systems) Gaming

11 National Survey of Information Literacy Programs in the First Year Methodology for administration Administration: Sept. 14 Nov. 4, 2011 Invitation sent to 3,684 instructional librarians in 4 waves Instructional section of ACRL member database 510 responses (13.8% response rate) 91.2% of respondents (n = 465) reported integrating information literacy in the first year

12 Survey Characteristics

13 Percentage Percentage of First-Year Students who Participate in Some Form of Formalized IL Percent of FY Students

14 Required? Is the information literacy course/module/ component required for all first-year students? Yes 47.5% No 50.5% Don t know 2.0 %

15 Discrete Information Literacy Course, Module, or Component Number Percentage One-on-one appointments with librarians outside of class Within an English course Orientation session Tutorials Within a first-year seminar Course management systems Drop-in workshops sponsored by the library Videos Within another type of first-year course Workshops as part of other campus units Learning Community Within an independent information literacy course Other Podcasts Freshmen Interest Groups (FIGS)

16 Primary Information Literacy Course, Module, or Component Number Percentage Within an English course Within a first-year seminar Within another type of first-year course Orientation session Other Within an independent information literacy course Tutorials Course management systems Workshops as part of other campus units Freshmen Interest Groups (FIGS) Learning Community Videos Drop-in workshops sponsored by the library One-on-one appointments with librarians outside of class Podcasts 0 0.0

17 Instruction and Pedagogy

18 Primary Person(s) Responsible for Development of IL Librarian(s) % Non-librarian faculty % Program/course coordinator - 9.2% Other - 3.7% Academic affairs professional - 1.9% Graduate student - 0.9% Student affairs professional - 0.0% Undergraduate student - 0.0%

19 Primary Person(s) who Instructs/Delivers IL Librarian(s) % Non-librarian faculty - 9.9% Other - 5.6% Graduate student - 4.1% Program/course coordinator - 2.8% Academic affairs professional - 1.1% Undergraduate peer leaders - 0.4% Student affairs professional - 0.2% Undergraduate student - 0.2%

20 Percentage 60 How the IL Component is Taught Face-to-face, one-shot session Within a formal classroom setting Librarian designed assignment Blended (part classroom, part online) Series of faceto-face sessions Other Online only Blogs Wikis Information Literacy Course/Module/Component Taught

21 Primary Instructional Methods Instructional Methods Percentage Active learning exercises 61.7 Lecture 45.2 Orientation session(s) 31.6 Library designed research assignment 28.6 Tutorials 18.3 Small group work 17.8

22 Course Content and Outcomes

23 Most Important Skills and Topics Important Skills and Topics Percentage Article searching 55.7 Evaluating sources 44.3 Search strategies (Boolean operators, key words, etc.) 34.4 Differences between scholarly and popular sources 31.2 Catalog searching 30.3 Topic exploration 15.9 Critical thinking 14.6 Citing sources 13.5

24 Percentage How do students demonstrate to their instructor their knowledge of IL competencies? Research paper Annotated bibliography Student presentation Pre-test/post-test Other Quizzes None Demonstrate Knowledge of IL

25 Percentage How do students demonstrate to their instructor their knowledge of IL competencies? Research paper Annotated bibliography Student presentation Pre-test/post-test Other Quizzes None Demonstrate Knowledge of IL

26 How do students demonstrate to their instructor their knowledge of IL competencies - OTHER - Multiple responses across items - Faculty determine competencies - Worksheets and game - In class assignment - Reflective essay - Clicker quiz - Passing a tutorial - Website evaluation exercise

27 Percentages Primary Learning Outcomes Efficiently access information Evaluate Demonstrate information and familiarity with sources critically library services and the layout of the library Differentiate between scholarly, popular, primary, and secondary sources Use information Use information effectively to ethically and accomplish a legally specific purpose Determine the extent of the information need We do not have established learning outcomes in place Primary Learning Outcomes

28 How is the IL Evaluated and Assessed Student evaluations of library session(s) 37.4 Observation of student behavior or track anecdotal observations 32.9 Librarian analysis of assignments and/or bibliographies 28.2 Librarian survey of participating faculty members at the end of the course 24.3 Pretest/posttest design 20.0 Quiz/test 19.6 Student reflection on his/her own learning 18.9 End of course evaluations 18.5 Rubric 17.4 Other 14.8 Student evaluations of instructor 14.6 No evaluation or assessment is conducted 11.2 Standardized test (such as SAILS or iskills) 6.7

29 Implications and Discussion

30 If 91.2 % of our participants integrate information literacy into some portion of their 1 st year curriculum, what are the other 7.7% (39 institutions) doing? This merits further investigation.

31 Primary Information Literacy Course, Module, or Component Number Percentage Within an English course Within a first-year seminar Within another type of first-year course Orientation session Other Within an independent information literacy course Tutorials Course management systems Workshops as part of other campus units Freshmen Interest Groups (FIGS) Learning Community Videos Drop-in workshops sponsored by the library One-on-one appointments with librarians outside of class Podcasts 0 0.0

32 Primary Instructional Methods Instructional Methods Percentage Active learning exercises 61.7 Lecture 45.2 Orientation session(s) 31.6 Library designed research assignment 28.6 Tutorials 18.3 Small group work 17.8

33 Most Important Skills and Topics Important Skills and Topics Percentage Article searching 55.7 Evaluating sources 44.3 Search strategies (Boolean operators, key words, etc.) 34.4 Differences between scholarly and popular sources 31.2 Catalog searching 30.3 Topic exploration 15.9 Critical thinking 14.6 Citing sources 13.5

34 Encouraging findings Librarians are planning (88%) and delivering (88.4%) IL component Face to face delivery most often (55%) Active learning exercises are being used most frequently (61.7%)

35 Encouraging findings cont. Evaluating sources is taught frequently (44.3%) and is also a frequently stated learning outcome (50.8%). Accessing and Evaluating most frequent Learning Outcomes addressed

36 Findings that make us pause The IL component is required of all first-year students at only 47.5% of the institutions Topic exploration (15.9%) Citing sources (13.5%)

37 Questions? Comments? Primary presentation contact: Debbie Malone Library Director DeSales University