Why Do Emailingerers Surf and Blog Collaborating With Faculty to Teach Information Literacy to Stude

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Why Do Emailingerers Surf and Blog?
Collaborating With Faculty to Teach Information
Literacy to Students Who Speak a Different
Language

• Molly Flaspohler Erika Rux
• Concordia College Carl B. Ylvisaker Library
• 7 October 2004

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A Little About Us

• Concordia College, Moorhead, MN2,814 students8
  full-time librarians220 full-time teaching
  faculty141 student/faculty ratioNearly 100
  majors/pre-professional programs in 24 academic
  departmentsPrivate, liberal arts college
  affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church
  in America

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Library Instruction at Concordia

• New Student Library Orientation71
  participation (Fall 2004)
• The Discourse Program101 - This course
  emphasizes expository writing as a means of
  introducing students to the complete writing
  process.102- This course emphasizes the written
  focus common in academic discourse.103 - This
  course emphasizes the research process, asking
  students to complete in-depth research projects
  using resources available in the library and
  elsewhere.109 - This course will emphasize the
  nature and management of public speaking.
• Individualized Upper-level Classes

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Identifying Student Challenges

• Lack of disciplinary background and
  vocabularytopic selection
• Overconfidence
• Library anxiety information overload
• Linear view vs. recursive processineffective
  one-shots reinforce this idea
• Ambiguous assignments
• Incorrect or misleading instructions
• Lack of relevancy busy work
• What have we missed?

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Identifying Faculty Challenges

• Expert-Researcher Model See Leckie
• Continuous change
• Time pressures inside and outside of the
  classroom
• Overconfidence
• Library anxiety
• What have we missed?

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Librarian-Faculty Collaboration

• 2004 Concordia Summer Workshop

Proposal Are you prepping a new course and in
search of innovative ideas for effective research
assignments? Are you planning to refine an
existing student research project that has not
been as effectual as you would like?
Participants of this two-day workshop should come
prepared to work on improving students research
competencies at the assignment level. Librarians
will introduce new library research tools,
demonstrate specific pedagogical strategies for
incorporating information literacy, provide
examples of research projects that are
interesting and effective, and discuss practical
strategies for assessing student research skills.
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Librarians to the Rescue

• Help Faculty Think Like StudentsResearch
  Challenges ActivityReference Room Romp Activity
• Help Faculty Think Like LibrariansLibrarian for
  a Day ActivityAssignment Activities (Making
  changes)

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Librarians to the Rescue

• Collaborate to create student-centered
  assignments utilizing engaged pedagogies and
  active learning.Reference materials Concept
  mapsResearch question gridDatabase Discovery
  projectCriteria for evaluating periodicals

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Librarians to the Rescue

• Help faculty structure research assignments to
  incorporate information literacy. Suggest
  breaking assignments into segments throughout the
  course.Project proposal/research
  question?annotated bibliography?project
  reassessment?final paper?revision
  opportunityResearch grading rubricLibrarian
  input

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Librarians to the Rescue

• Suggest strategies for creating high-quality
  research assignments.
• Explicitly identify measurable learning
  objectives
• Provide an understandable, specific purpose for
  the assignment.
• Use correct and unambiguous terminology.
• Ensure assignments contribute to an increased
  subject knowledge or improved awareness of the
  process of locating disciplinary information.
• Utilize a stratified methodology. Leckie
• Make students aware of a variety of sources and
  formats.
• Test the assignment yourself or ask a librarian
  to trouble-shoot.
• See also Queens University - Stauffer Library
  Designing Research Assignments

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Assessment Suggestions

• Informal
• Guided worksheets
• One-minute paper
• Muddiest point writings
• Start/Stop writing

• More Formal
• Pre- and Post-tests
• Electronic Surveys

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What Faculty Said

• The most important thing I gained was a
  clearer understanding of the jobs of librarians,
  the importance of faculty-librarian collaboration
  and the need for a curriculum-integrated approach
  (instructors taking more responsibility and being
  more intentional about teaching information
  literacy).

All of our participants said they would apply
elements of the workshop directly into their
syllabus and/or assignments.
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What Faculty Said
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More Information

• Burkhardt, Joanna M., Mary C. MacDonald and
  Andrée J. Rathemacher. Teaching Information
  Literacy Thirty-Five Practical, Standards-based
  Exercises for College Students. Chicago
  American Library Association, 2003.
•  
• Fister, Barbara. The Research Processes of
  Undergraduate Students. The Journal of Academic
  Librarianship 18.3 (1992) 163-169.
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• Flaspohler, Molly R. Information Literacy
  Program Assessment One Small College Takes the
  Big Plunge. Reference Services Review 31.2
  (2003) 129-140.
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• Grafstein, Ann. A Discipline-based Approach to
  Information Literacy. The Journal of Academic
  Librarianship 28.4 (2002) 197-204.
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• Leckie, Gloria J. Desperately Seeking
  Citations Uncovering Faculty Assumptions About
  the Undergraduate Research Process. The Journal
  of Academic Librarianship 22.3 (1996) 201-208.
•  
• Shapiro, Jeremy J. and Shelley K. Hughes.
  Information Literacy as a Liberal Art. Educom
  Review 31.2 (1996) 31-35.

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Questions?

• Thanks for coming!

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Contact Us

• Molly Flaspohler
• Concordia College
• Carl B. Ylvisaker Library
• mflaspoh_at_cord.edu

• Erika Rux
• Concordia College
• Carl B. Ylvisaker Library
• rux_at_cord.edu