Information LiteracyEmbedded in the Curriculum:

A Collaborative Process or

One way to spend your grant money

Jennifer Groome, Reference LibrarianJack Dougherty, Assistant Professor

David Tatem, Academic Computing SpecialistTrinity College, Hartford CT

CTW Mellon Grant for Information Literacy Overview

• CTW Mellon Grant for Information Literacy– Focus on CTW as a consortium

– $660,000 grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to support collaborative programs in information literacy for CTW Consortium (Connecticut College, Trinity College, Wesleyan University)

– Co-written by library and academic computing staff of the CTW Consortium.

– Each school developed projects specific to the individual campus, and then shared the projects

Information Literacy at Trinity College

• Information Literacy for First Year Seminars and Special Programs (Sessions built around assignments specific to the individual seminar)

• Discipline-specific information literacy skills for majors

• Courses designed to integrate information literacy skills

Course-Development Grants

• For gateway classes, to meet the specific Information Literacy needs of the major

• Developed within the course; Information Literacy component remains even if another faculty member teaches the course

• Awarded to Trinity faculty for the integration of information literacy instruction into teaching and assignments.

Call for Proposals • Up to twelve course-development grants of $2000 each

• Courses offered in Spring 04, Fall 04 or Spring 05

• Support the collaboration of faculty with library and academic computing liaisons in the development of syllabi, assignments and teaching tools that address the established standards for information literacy

• Courses that are required for all majors or constitute core introductory courses for a discipline or program.

• Courses developed with grant support should become part of the departmental grid for information literacy skills (see the model developed for Chemistry at http://www.trincoll.edu/prog/infolit/Projects/Chemistry/default.htm).

• Outcomes will be shared with other colleagues, both locally and in the CTW consortium

• Syllabi to include assignments and assessment of student learning.

Review of Proposals

• Trinity’s Implementation Team for the CTW Mellon Grant consisting of Librarians and Director of Academic Computing

• Payment – partial payment for upfront development costs; final payment after evaluation of project

• Course Development Grants to Integrate Information Literacy Instruction list of courses selected.

Process

• Each course assigned a support team of a Librarian and Academic Computing Specialist who serve as liaisons to the academic departments, as well as a member of the Implementation Team.

• Support team to work with faculty throughout the course development.

Process• Support Team and Faculty meet in early stages

of planning– Clarify pedagogy, if necessary– Standards to be incorporated– Assignments to be used– Appropriate methods and approaches to be used– Articulation of assessment of the student.

• Ongoing meetings to address specific tasks.

• Teach course

• Assessment of standards. Evaluate what worked

• Final payment, after assessment of project.

Criteria• Absolutely articulating which competencies to be

practiced

• Embedding into the course and directly tied to class assignments– How will it be addressed within the assignment (either long-term

or short-term assignments)– Where in the syllabus will the instruction and assignments fall?

• During class time

• Assessment of standards addressed– What are the outcomes to be assessed?

• Share results within CTW Consortium, when appropriate and possible, share with a wider audience.

Information LiteracyEmbedded in the Curriculum.

One Example:

Educational Studies 300Education Reform – Past

& Present

Jack Dougherty, Assistant Professor

Previous assignment:

Revised assignment:

Revised assignment:

Revised assignment:

Revised assignment:

Previous assignment:

Improved assignment:

Improved assignment:

Information Literacy at Trinity College

Academic Computing’s role

David TatemResource Specialist for the Social Sciences

Part of the Team

• A member of Academic Computing worked with the faculty member and librarian on each grant

• Each department has a Resource Specialist assigned to it

• Usually Resource Specialist and Librarian had worked with the faculty member before

Information Literacy Standardscondensed from ALA

1. Identify Information Needs and Resources

2. Collect Information Effectively and Efficiently

3. Evaluate Collected Information Critically and Creatively

4. Present Information for a Specific Purpose

5. Use Information Ethically and Legally

Present Information for a Specific Purpose

• Identifies the purpose, audience and format of the presentation (e.g. research papers, poster sessions, web sites, oral presentations, creative productions)

• Chooses appropriate technologies for the display of information

• Utilizes digital text, images, and data and reformats them into a new context, as needed

Present Information for a Specific Purpose

• PowerPoint Presentations

• GIS Mapping

• Charts and Graphs using Excel

• Web Page Design – Web Essays

• Displaying Digital Images or Video

Technical Support

• Ensure use of technology was appropriate for instructor’s goals in the course

• Give suggestions on the use of technology including email, Blackboard, Software such as SPSS or GIS

• Feasibility of projects such as web pages or digital video

• Building specific modules – Plagiarism, Math self-assessments etc

Dissemination

• LOLA – Learning Objects Learning Activities

• http://www.lolaexchange.org

• ALL final products will be cataloged here

• ALL projects were designed to be shared and reused by other faculty members both at Trinity and other schools

Items in LOLA

• Library modules for First Year Seminars– Web Evaluation– Database Searching

• Watkinson Activity

• Plagiarism Module – still to come

Additional Information

• Information Literacy at Trinity College• Course Development Grants to Integrate

Information Literacy Instruction• CTW Mellon Project for Information Literac

yMore information will be loaded to these

pages over the course of the grant, which concludes at the end of Fall 2004 semester.