Enhancing Information Literacy Curriculum at PSU DuBois
PSU DuBois is working to improve its information literacy curriculum for Communication and Human Development & Family Studies programs. The focus is on integrating tools and skills across courses to better prepare students for research, reduce repetition, and facilitate faculty collaboration.
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Instructional Community of Practice Discussion Dream Information Literacy Curriculum December 9, 2014
Curriculum Map for the COMM Program COMM 100: Mass Media and Society (Amy Rustic) Learning Outcome: Students will be able to locate articles in mass media and compare coverage of the same news story from different sources. Tools Taught: Lexis-Nexis. This class is taught multiple times to small groups. CAS 201: Introduction to Rhetorical Theory (Jennifer Gilley) Learning Outcomes: Students will be able to find scholarly articles demonstrating rhetorical analysis on topics similar to theirs Students will be able to find historical background information contributing to the rhetorical context of the artifact they are analyzing. Tools Taught: Communication and Mass Media Complete, CAT, Academic Search Complete, Gale Virtual Reference. This is taught over the course of several class periods, workshop-style CAS 404: Conflict Resolution (Amy Rustic) Learning Outcomes: Students will be able to find information from conflicting viewpoints on a controversial topic. Students will be able to use the bibliographies of good sources to find further sources Tools Taught: News Magazine page on Library website, Congressional Research Service Reports, CQ Researcher, Opposing Viewpoints, Citation Linker
Two-Class Senior Sequence CAS 204: Communication Research Methods (Jennifer Gilley) Learning Outcomes: Student will understand that research is an iterative process that involves different phases of emotion. (Affective learning) Students will be able to find and analyze scholarly articles demonstrating various research methods in the discipline of communications. Students will be able to follow a citation tree to follow the scholarly conversation about a particular topic. Tools Taught: Communication and Mass Media Complete, Google Scholar (librarian embedded) COMM 494: Senior Research Project (Amy Rustic and Jennifer Gilley) Learning Outcomes: Students will be able to amass and write a literature review. Students will be able to use all relevant tools to amass all published information on a narrow topic. Student will recognize that scholarship is a conversation that they can contribute to. Tools Taught: WorldCat, ILLIAD, other relevant subject databases Students generally know how to do research by this time and need help with things like focusing their topic, organizing their paper, and coming up with their own opinion.
Issues and Problems Comm majors frequently come to their major late and therefore may not take COMM 100 in their first year. Our students tend to take classes wildly out of order sometimes. This partnership with the Communications department rests on the shoulders of two professors, one of whom is now withdrawing from most of her classes to be the Disciplinary Coordinator for the Liberal Arts in the University College. This may seriously weaken our partnership as some of her classes get taken over by adjuncts. (Example, CAS 404)
Curriculum Mapping at PSU DuBois Human Development & Family Studies Goals: Better prepare students for the research they were being asked to do in upper-division classes. Reduce repetition in IL instruction between classes. Use as a starting point for discussion with faculty to bring IL into more classes, have more time with classes, and assist in designing assignments that require information literacy concepts. Plan in Action: Developed in Spring 2014 Began implementation in Fall 2014 will definitely be making changes Curriculum map only half implemented due to resignation of HDFS instructor Standardized ENG 15 we teach IL in every section of ENG 15 and cover the same learning outcomes
Curriculum Map for Human Development & Family Studies HDFS 129 Introduction to HDFS Learning Outcomes: Students will be able to locate the Penn State Libraries online and contact a librarian in several ways for help. Students will be able to locate HDFS material through the HDFS research guide. Students will begin to understand the scholarly conversation and literature of the field through associations and scholarly journals. ENGL 15 Rhetoric & Composition Out-of-class and in-class component Learning Outcomes: Students will identify and utilize background readings to increase familiarity with the topic. Students will develop a topic that is manageable in scope and is researchable. Students will define the topic as a research question in order to establish a clear understanding of the information need. Students will list broad, narrow and related terms and use these terms to construct effective search strategies. Students will identify the purpose and audience of potential resources and select the most appropriate resource for the information need. Students will apply appropriate search strategies in LionSearch to find books and journal articles. Out of class In class
Curriculum Map for Human Development & Family Studies ENGL 202A: Effective Writing in the Social Sciences Taught over three days Learning Outcomes: Students will recognize that scholarship is a conversation and be able to find, analyze and summarize changes in scholarly perspective over time. Students will analyze information sources to determine the level of authority and reliability needed for differing information needs. Students will apply their understanding of information as intellectual property through demonstrating proper attribution and citation. HDFS 312: Empirical Inquiry in Human Development Learning Outcomes: Students will recognize that methods of research vary by need, circumstance, and type of inquiry and will be able to locate and recognize articles reporting results of empirical studies. Students will utilize advanced tools and search techniques to discover all published information on a narrow topic.
