Information Literacy in the CORE

Ben De Biasio Community Learning & Outreach Librarian

 

New Beginnings:

It was a well-timed coincidence that in my first year as the Community Learning & Outreach Librarian at Dominican University, a framework for a new core curriculum was passed. Because this framework includes information literacy as a required component, the RCL Instruction Team was tasked with generating assignments and activities that both incorporate and assess information literacy skills. We used the summer of 2023 to research and design the assignments, fall of 2023 to run a pilot program with 10 faculty members, and are currently using Spring 2024 to analyze the results and iterate on our materials.

You can find our materials here: Information Literacy CORE Documents 

Cover ArtFocus on Assessment: 

As we began thinking about this work, the RCL Instruction Team relied heavily on the Understanding by Design Framework for instructional design. This framework foregrounds the importance of careful alignment between instructional objectives/goals, activities, and assessments. The focus on assessment was essential as we began and helped the team ensure that our efforts would align with the wider assessment infrastructure at Dominican. Understanding by Design also empowered us with Backwards Design as an instructional design tool. Using Backwards Design, we selected several real-world deliverables (podcast, infographic) that we were going to ask students to generate. From that endpoint, we worked backward to design instructional materials and content. 

Moving Beyond the Traditional Research Paper:

Our initial research confirmed that the podcast and infographic assignments require valuable research skills. They find, critically evaluate, and incorporate the work/voices of others. To highlight this to faculty (and students), we decided to include a "Research Brief" component of the assignments which could serve as a traditional annotated bibliography or something much less formal (hyperlinked show notes, infographic references). In addition to the skills that are required to complete a traditional research paper or annotated bibliography, these assignments also require students to engage with emerging technologies and develop potentially important job readiness skills. After meeting with the Director of the Core Curriculum and proposing our ideas, we were given the go-ahead to begin planning the assignments. 

Establishing an Information Literacy Rubric and next steps:

We knew that flexibility was going to be key - some faculty would work on these assignments for a week, while others had decided to devote much of their semester. Some sections would use the podcast assignment while others favored the infographic - some used both. Asynchronous sections of the course would require additional planning. For each assignment, we created a modifiable lesson plan, student/faculty checklists, and an Information Literacy Rubric. We created online learning modules and research guides to supplement our instruction. While this rubric is certainly a work in progress, our team has found it to be a useful tool outside of this pilot program. It has given us shared language/criteria in thinking about information literacy and has hopefully helped unify our assessment efforts as we reintegrate information literacy into the core curriculum.

Additional Resources:

ACRL Framework

AAC&U Information Literacy Rubric

“Backward Design: The Basics.” Cult of Pedagogy, 22 June 2020, https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/backward-design-basics/.

Infographics Resources (RCL Guide)

Podcast Resources (RCL Guide)