Advancing Information Literacy in Higher Education: four questions for debate

Advancing Information
Literacy In Higher Education
Four Questions For Debate
Sheila Corrall, Ethan Pullman, Charlie Inskip,
Sheila Webber & Alexis Macklin
Corrall, Pullman, Inskip, Webber & Macklin, 2018

1. Which model(s) should we use?
– How should we define/frame educational interventions,
in terms of a theoretical lens and/or orientation,
conceptual framework, process model, professional
standards or guidelines?
2. What should our purpose be?
– Improve academic performance, prepare graduates for
employment, or help people interact with information
for lifewide and lifelong learning as informed citizens?

3. How should we position information literacy?
– As a transferable, measurable skillset; a higher-order,
knowledge-based meta-competence; or a soft applied
discipline, with its own distinct identity?
4. How should we assess information literacy?
– What types of measures should we use, e.g., affective,
behavioral, cognitive? How should we collect evidence,
e.g., exercises, tests, course products, narratives,
observation, interviews? When should we do it?

Presenters
Sheila Corrall, University of Pittsburgh School of Computing
and Information (Moderator/Timekeeper)
Ethan Pullman, Carnegie Mellon University Libraries (Q. 1)
Charlie Inskip, University College London Department of
Information Studies (Q. 2)
Sheila Webber, University of Sheffield Information School
(Q. 3)
Alexis Macklin, Purdue University Fort Wayne Library (Q. 4)

Which Model(s) Should We Use
To Frame Our Interventions?

An ‘IL Model by any other name’, would it be as sweet?
Visual representation based on Models & Frameworks, ILG

Then came IL types
And all in 50 minutes or less!

IL at IATUL
Members of International Association of University Libraries
2015 IATUL Special Interest Group Information Literacy

How are U.S. librarians using the standards?
(Julien, Gross, Latham, Survey of IL Practices in US, CRL 2018)
And all in 50 minutes or less!
87%
87%
81%
60%
53%
52%
51%
Hands-on instruction in computer lab
Individualized instruction (one-on-one)
Lectures/demonstrations in subject classes
Group instruction courses/subjects in the library
Video recordings (such as YouTube videos)
Web tutorials
Library guides/handouts web format
Method of Instruction

(ibid)
5.99
5.03
4.38
4.36
4.1
2.64
2.48
2.36
Awareness of Tech Innovations
How to Manage Information
How databases work
Other
Locating
find info in various sources
general strategies
critical thinking
Ranking of Objectives

(ibid)
Assessment Method
58%
41%
40%
Faculty
formative
self-assessments

Back to Our Question (i.e. your turn)
“How should we define and/or frame our educational
interventions? In terms of a theoretical lens or orientation,
conceptual framework, process model, professional
standards, or guidelines?

A Librarian’s Perspective
• Standards help you develop learning outcomes
• Frameworks help guide teaching & learning philosophies
• Keep your eyes on the ball: Literacy not Expertise
• Learning is contextual: some context need a process approach,
some need theory, the challenge is knowing the difference
• If assessment is easy, we’d all be doing it
• Learning doesn’t stop, nor does teaching

What Should Our Purpose Be As
Information Literacy Educators?

What should our purpose be as information
literacy educators?
Improve academic performance?
Prepare graduates for employment?
Help people interact with information
for life-wide and lifelong learning as
informed citizens?
All of the above?

literacy educators?
“In HE the primary purpose of information
literacy interventions is to enable students to
independently seek information and use it
appropriately and conform to academic
information norms. One could call this
‘academic information literacy’.”
(Information Literacy Group, n.d.)

literacy educators?
https://lydiaarnold.wordpress.com/2016/10/03/the-process-of-defining-graduate-attributes/

Russia, Office, Men, Women, Working, Workers, Complex – tpsdave - http://pixabay.com/en/russia-office-men-women-working-95311/ CC0 1.0
Teaching Chemistry – starmanseries - https://flic.kr/p/ciLwbon CC BY 2.0

What Should Our Purpose Be As Information
Literacy Educators?
Or should we be asking,
• what is the role of our institution?
• should we contribute to the development of
graduate attributes? How?
• are we / should we be preparing students for
the wider world?
• should we concentrate on ‘academic
information literacy’ and leave employability
to careers consultants?
• what is the role of faculty?
Over to you…

How Should We Position
Information Literacy?

Information literacy
• A complex, dynamic concept
• A discipline (Johnston & Webber, 2006; Webber &
Johnston, 2017) or at least a subject domain
• Like many social science disciplines: development
comes about through both practice and research

How to position IL?
• Depends on your motivation e.g.
– Signalling allegiance
– Carving out an academic reputation
– Aligning with organisational goals and strategy
– Fitting in with an existing initative
– Developing an information literate curriculum
– Helping a specific group of people to engage with the
information that will enable them to life their life
• IL is rich enough to accommodate all this!

Observations
• Needs to be contextually interpreted, culturally
relevant
• “Literacies” “Meta” “Critical” don’t replace IL
• Digital Literacy – in short/medium term will be old
fashioned (Floridi’s (2015) idea of offline and online
blending to onlife) – don’t get trapped there
• Positioning with UNESCO concept of Media &
Information Literacy may have more mileage, but
need to be assertive about Information component

How Should We Assess Our
Information Literacy Activities ?

What are we doing?
• Information literacy assessment in higher education
(ILAHE) – theoretical framework (Pinto, 2015)
– 5 consolidated lines of research (clusters)
o Evaluation-Education
o Assessment
o Students-Efficacy
o Learning/research
o Library

Why are we doing this?
• Three primary functions of information literacy
instruction assessment (Erlinger, in press)
– Providing feedback to learners
– Providing feedback to instructors
– Demonstrating value of programs to stakeholders and
administrators

Does it matter?
• Are students more information literate as a result of
IL instruction (one-shots or embedded)? Do they
retain IL skills?
• Are more faculty collaborating with librarians and/or
embedding IL into their curriculum?
• Have IL assessment measures demonstrated
impact (student retention; improved graduation
rates)?

References
Bates, M. J. (2015). The information professions: Knowledge, memory, heritage.
Information Research, 20(1). Retrieved from http://InformationR.net/ir/20-
1/paper655.html
Erlinger, A. (2017). Outcomes assessment in undergraduate information literacy
instruction: A systematic review. College & Research Libraries. Advance online
publication. Retrieved from https://crl.acrl.org/index.php/crl/article/view/16600
Floridi, L. (ed.). (2015). The onlife manifesto. Heidelberg: Springer.
Johnston, B., & Webber, S. (2006). As we may think: Information literacy as a discipline
for the information age. Research Strategies, 20(3), 108-121.
Julien, H., Gross, M., & Latham, D. (2018). Survey of information literacy instructional
practices in US academic libraries. College & Research Libraries, 79(2), 179-199.
Pinto, M. (2015). Viewing and exploring the subject area of information literacy
assessment in higher education (2000–2011). Scientometrics, 102(1), 227-245.
Webber, S., & Johnston, B. (2017). Information literacy: Conceptions, context and the
formation of a discipline. Journal of Information Literacy, 11(1), 156-183.
UNESCO MIL initiatives: https://en.unesco.org/themes/media-and-information-literacy;
http://www.unesco.org/new/en/gapmil/

Advancing Information Literacy
in Higher Education
1. Which model(s) should we use?
2. What should our purpose be as IL educators?
3. How should we position information literacy?
4. How should we assess information literacy?
Your Turn – Reactions and Discussion

Contacts
Sheila Corrall scorrall@pitt.edu
Charlie Inskip c.inskip@ucl.ac.uk
Alexis Macklin macklina@ipfw.edu
Ethan Pullman ethanp@cmu.edu
Sheila Webber s.webber@sheffield.ac.uk
@sheilayoshikawa http://information-literacy.blogspot.com

Please continue the debate at
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/IL4Qs

Advancing Information Literacy in Higher Education: four questions for debate

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Advancing Information Literacy in Higher Education: four questions for debate