COLG 191: Developing and Implementing a 1 Credit Required Online Information Literacy Course at Chadron State College, Nebraska

Harvey BrenneiseAssociate Dean for Research ServicesUniversity of Southern Mississippi LibrariesOctober 25, 2012For slides and PDF: www.slideshare.net/Sky7Bear/

Goal:

To develop the student’s “information literacy” as defined by the American Library Assn.:

Recognize when information is needed and have the ability to locate, evaluate, and use effectively the needed information.

Outcomes

Student will:

• Be able to recognize an information need,

• Create a successful strategy for finding academic information and access it in multiple formats,

• Evaluate/authenticate the information found,

• Explain issues of academic honesty and plagiarism, and

• Organize bibliographic information using the APA style of citation in a works cited list.

Learning activities

• View online tutorials from the web and instructional information via the Sakai learning management system.

• Participate in online discussion Forums (original posts and response posts).

• Take quizzes and final test with immediate feedback of correct answers (1 retake of quizzes).

• Complete assignments based on course instructional materials with resubmission allowed.

• Complete a Course Project of an annotated bibliography in APA format of 10 items on an approved topic.

Course schedule/outline

Week 1: Starting a college research project• What is college-level research?

• How do I identify and develop a research topic?

Week 2: Finding research (scholarly) articles• The world beyond Google: The invisible web.

• Articles in academic and peer-reviewed journals, magazines and newspapers, What’s the difference?

Week 3: Citing and documenting sources and avoiding plagiarism

• How do I cite sources I’ve used and use citations others have written?

• How do I use information ethically and avoid plagiarism?

Week 4: Finding information at the CSC King Library• How Do I Find Electronic and Print Resources at the CSC King

Library? • How do I find electronic books that I can use for free?• Where do I go for research help?

Week 5: Literature reviews, annotated bibliographies and managing the research process

• What are literature reviews and annotated bibliographies and what’s the difference?

• How do I manage the research process?

Week 6: Search techniques for electronic resources• How do I do better searches in electronic resources using

advanced search techniques?

Week 7: Using the World Wide Web for research; Evaluating information resources

• What strategies do I use to find the best material on the World Wide Web?

• How do I evaluate the information resources that I find?

Sample tutorials

Peer Review in Five Minutes: What’s So Special About Peer-Reviewed Articles? [5:00]

In this screencast from North Carolina State University, you will learn how scholarly (peer-reviewed) articles are written and published, and why this is important in your college-level research.

How to Read Citations [90 sec.]

From Cornell University, this Youtube Research Minute video gives additional hints about how to read and interpret citations.

Diagnosis: Plagiarism [16:45]

In this screencast, Yavapai College explains what plagiarism is and the consequences for plagiarizing, along with tips for avoiding it. It includes how to summarize, paraphrase and give proper citations.

Goblin Threat [est. 10 to 15 min.]

This online game from Lycoming College will test your knowledge of the issues of plagiarism and information ethics. Find the hidden goblins and answer the questions.

Wikipedia: Beneath the Surface [6:41]

In this screencast you will learn about how Wikipedia is created, its various parts, and how it can be used responsibly for your college-level research. It discusses both its strengths and weaknesses and how it compares with peer-reviewed research. It cautions against using Wikipedia as an authoritative research source, and yet correctly states that it can be a good starting point, especially if the topic is a new one to you, and can lead to other resources through the sources/bibliography section of the entry.

Issues & Questions

• Relationship to other courses, including interdisciplinary courses under development, research courses in major and capstones.

• Replication, multiple teachers, and how/when additional sections are added.

• Can adjuncts be used?

• Can it be taught over 16 weeks? 5? For developmental students? Graduate students in need of remediation?

More issues and questions

• How does the library support students after completion of the course, particularly upper division students doing their capstone project?

• Would there be benefit to having upper-division “add ons” for disciplines with specialized research tools such as PubMed?

• Would there be benefit to having discipline- or course-related sections such as in Music so that additional issues and research tools are explored?

• Can requiring scheduled consultations with a librarian, particularly for upper division students working on a capstone, be a good plan for moving a student’s information literacy to a higher level?

What Was Learned

• In classes with a 30-student enrollment cap, usually around 20 completed the course successfully, most with A’s and B’s (students were allowed to resubmit assignments for a higher grade and could take quizzes twice)

• Some students registered and did nothing else (including dropping), earning an F that they also paid for. Not smart.

• Some students would benefit from “hands-on labs” (like Khan Academy) after the lessons in order to complete their assignments.

• Instructors should be available to students on weekends, as many assignments are due early in the following week (hard to do when librarians are considered 40-hour/week “hired help” rather than being fully faculty).

More What Was Learned

• 8-day “weeks” beginning on Monday and ending on the following Monday night make handling weekends easier.

• Evening and weekend IT support is necessary if a school is going to offer online classes. Many students, particularly non-traditional ones, do their schoolwork at that time.

• Many students, at the conclusion of the class, admitted that they learned much more than they expected to, and that they believed it would help them in their further college careers.

Further Research

• Is successful completion of this course a reliable predictor of graduation? Success in college? Is success in this course more strongly related to a person’s character, habits, personality or innate ability or some combination of these traits?

• How do adult learners or transfer students from community colleges compare with college freshmen taking this class?

• Can this class be taught to high school students before they arrive at college?

• Is a course like this more effective if taught in conjunction with a content course that actually requires a research assignment?