Information Literacy:

1

• Information Literacy
• The Teaching Perspective

Dr Alastair Greig Reader and Assistant Dean The
Faculty of Arts
2
The ILP for Arts Tutors Program

• Initiated in February 2002 as a one-off
  experiment
• Now a prototype for developing information
  literacy skills across the ANU faculties
• It has become a forum for teachers, tutors and
  university support staff to discuss the way we
  teach and the way students learn

3
HISTORY

• Universities have become more concerned about
  first-year retention rates
• The problems associated with the transition from
  school to university
• February 2002, Dean of Arts Adam Shoemaker
  proposes a Week 4 Blitz program
• First-year tutors would be paid extra to provide
  more pastoral care associated with the submission
  of the initial assignment

4
(No Transcript)
5
The Centrality of Information Literacy

• For learning the lie of the new land
• Familiarising students with the library i.e.,
  finding books and articles
• Accessing and assessing electronically-based
  information
• Understanding how to submit assignments
• Understanding university expectations

6
OBSTACLES

• What is Information Literacy? Another euphemism
  .. for what?

7
Faculty scepticism

• i-Learning ANUs 2001 response to the Boyer
  Report
• inquiry-based learning should begin at first
  year taking advantage of ANUs research strengths
• The introduction of the WebCT information-system
  platform
• Emphasis on information questioned by
  liberal-arts practitioners
• Rationalisation of university services

8
(No Transcript)
9

FEEDBACK from tutors

• A) greater recognition of the information
  literacy needs of students
• B) acknowledgement of benefits introducing IL
  into courses by various means
• C) greater awareness generated among both tutors
  and students of the availability of ILP courses
  and of the courses run by the Academic Skills and
  Learning Centre

Confirmed by positive responses from students at
Deans focus-group session
10
Confusion over where IL fitted into courses

• students were undertaking the same generic IL
  classes in different courses. IL principles
  needed to embedded in course content
• concern of too much emphasis on generic learning
  skills and not enough focus on discipline
• the designed program didnt suit some Schools
  no one-size-fits-all solution
• confusion over normal roles of tutors -
  especially the relationship between IL principles
  and pastoral care
• assumption that tutors knew how to access
  information
• Feeling of powerlessness to implement IL
  practices in the face of an existing course
  structure
• need to balance traditional IL needs with
  electronic IL
• tutors had problems accessing student information

11
Development of an ideal ILP Program for Arts
Tutors

• Tutors paid for 4 half-day seminars
• First seminar tutors rights and
  responsibilities getting started
• Second seminar preparing students for major
  assignment task
• Third seminar feedback on major assignment
• Fourth seminar reflection on experience and
  roundtable discussions

12

13
(No Transcript)
14
APPRAISAL

• Getting different part of the Faculty and the
  university to work together
• Ownership of program by tutors
• Leadership and information-sharing among tutors
• ILP as a grievance forum

15
Teaching Modules

• Consistent assessment and effective feedback
• Concepts for assessment in Higher Education
• Tutoring in languages
• Using IT as a language teaching tool
• Dealing with different levels of language
  competency
• Handing back assessment items
• Criterion-based assessment
• Feedback on tutoring using ANUSET
• Assessing and preparing students for oral
  examinations
• Prepare for your first tertiary exam
• Assessment from the students point of view
• WebCT tools for tutors

• Clarifying the role of the tutor
• Understanding the ANU Teaching and Learning Code
• Information literacy as a learning scaffold
• Embedding IL into your tutoring practice
• Building IL into your curriculum
• Encouraging a critical approach to information
• Information resources at your disposal
• Accessing resources electronically
• IL at ANU a case study of a first-year course
• Valuing cultural diversity
• Working together as a group
• Troubleshooting for beginning tutors

16
Ongoing Debating Issues

• To what extent should each first-year Arts course
  provide generic IL skills? Is there a danger of
  overlap?
• Can we provide the diagnostic sessions without
  ongoing additional resources devoted to tutors?
  Where will these resources come from?
• How do we balance the monitoring of information
  literacy and generic skills with the generation
  of interest in our course content?

17

• Experience suggests that IL cant be divorced
  from other teaching functions communicating with
  students, the roles of course coordinators,
  tutors and students, industrial relations
• Began with simple idea of bolting on more IL
  skills and ended up asking deeper questions about
  how Faculty structures its teaching
• Changed the way we view the division of labour
  within the university course coordinators,
  tutors, the ILP, ASL, the libraries and CEDAM
• IL has become a dialogue