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D2L Screenshot: Submit Feedback Tool

Library budgets are getting slashed left and right. A practical means of justifying their existence is to consistently evaluate the programs and services libraries offer, thereby quantifying the value to the customers and justifying the expenditures of the library. Many universities have programs to support teaching information literacy skills to students. Interestingly, Matthews (2007) explains

Teaching information literacy skills is generally viewed as affecting student outcomes because these skills support such educational outcomes as critical thinking, problem solving, and lifelong learning. Unfortunately, this view is an assumption that has yet to be proven in a series of studies that can be replicated. (p. 238)

In general, we think of an assessment as being for the benefit of the student, so that students can consider and reflect on their performance and be provided with suggestions for ways to improve and learn. Beyond the benefit to the student, an assessment for an information literacy class is also beneficial to the teacher, as it is potentially a measurement of the effectiveness of the lesson. Furthermore, the assessment is of value to the stakeholders of the library at large, as it can be used to justify the continued funding of information literacy instruction—that is, so long as the assessment is positive.

Matthews (2007) points out that it is a common assumption that information literacy classes provide valuable skills to students; however, this assumption is not consistently supported by data. When discussing a common method of information literacy instruction, namely skills testing, our own former SJSU SLIS Director Ken Haycock is quoted as saying, “We have years of study to indicate that isolated skills lessons are not effective, not even when they are related to a topic of study” (as cited in Matthews, 2007, p. 239). This is a problem.

As librarians/teachers, I think we generally focus on whether or not students learn and understand the content of our lessons, and we use assessments to gauge the students’ skills, as well as our own effectiveness as teachers; however, if we want the continued support (i.e. funding) to provide such programs, we also need to assess our choice of content and measure the overall appropriateness of the content for our audience. It seems to me that there are three areas of instruction that need to be assessed: 1) the value of the chosen content to the audience; 2) the method and effectiveness of presenting the content; and 3) the increase (if any) in knowledge, understanding, and/or skills of the audience as a result of the instruction.

As many of you know, SLIS is transitioning from ANGEL to Desire2Learn (D2L). Starting Summer term, all SLIS courses will be conducted in D2L. Although this only covers one of the three areas of assessment that I mentioned, one of the things I like about D2L is that it has a built in tool for students to give feedback to instructors. Students can give feedback and/or rate a course item, and they can do so anonymously (I tested this and can assure you it is anonymous). I like the concept of “ongoing formative assessments” as described by Wiggins and McTighe (2005, p. 169). Wiggins and McTighe give the example of the “one-minute essay” used at Harvard University, in which students respond at the end of each class to two questions: “1) What is the big point you learned in class today? and 2) What is the main unanswered question you leave class with today?” (p. 169). The feedback feature in D2L has the potential to fulfill a similar role in a virtual environment. I am particularly excited about this feature in D2L and I’m curious to see if students and teachers will use it.

D2L Screenshot: Submit Feedback Interface

 [LIBR250 Prompt: What is the role of assessment in learning?  Is assessment a tool for the teacher or student? How can assessment be both?]

References

Matthews, J. R. (2007). The evaluation and measurement of library services. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited.

Wiggins, G. & McTighe, J. (2005). Understanding by design (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.

Teaching about Information

In an effort to identify key/essential understandings of teaching about information, I decided to experiment by using the prompts in Figure 6.3, “Identifying Essential Questions and Understandings” (Wiggins & McTighe, 2005, p. 137). In the interest of space, I focused on five of the nine questions.

Topics and Big Ideas:

Everyone has to access and use information. There are more effective and less effective ways of doing so. Likewise, there is more valuable and less valuable information when applied to fulfilling a specific need.

Why study about information use? So what?

Anytime we are presented with a problem in life, we will seek out information to solve that problem. We might as well consider how we will go about getting the information we need, so as to not waste our time, money, energy, etc. repeatedly by ignoring the skills related to accessing and using information well.

What makes the study of using information universal?

By nature, information use is universal because it will play a role in every aspect of our lives. In education, we learn information from teachers and textbooks, and are expected to find and evaluate information on our own to fulfill our assignments. In our careers, we have specific tasks to accomplish, which will require us to access information. In our personal lives, we will have daily decisions, some requiring substantial thought, research, and evaluation.

What’s the Big Idea implied in the skill or process of information use?

The implied Big Idea is that we are not all inherently good at accessing, evaluating and using information. We have to make a conscience decision to improve in this area and work toward developing pertinent skills.

What larger concept, issue, or problem underlies information use?

One of the main problems of information use is the overwhelming nature of accessing information. There is so much irrelevant information through which one must sift in order to find what is needed. There are also many different avenues for accessing information (different types of books, different websites on the internet, friends/family, personal experiences, etc.). It can be difficult to decide which avenue to choose for a specific information need.

What couldn’t we do if we didn’t understand how to use information?

If we didn’t understand how to use information, we might make uninformed choices and miss out on opportunities. We might have misunderstandings or misinformation if we get our information from inappropriate sources. We may not be able to solve a problem if we cannot find the information we need on which to base our decision.

Essential Questions:

- How do you know if the information you found is accurate and appropriate to answer your question?

- Are there more efficient and less efficient ways of searching for information?

- How do you determine where you should search for information in order to answer a specific problem?

Understandings:

- The decisions we make daily require us to use information, and our ability to make decisions is improved when we are skilled at finding, evaluating, and putting information to use.

- Some sources of information are unreliable, so we should consider the validity of the information we encounter and the sources providing it.

Reflection: I think I need more practice with this. It was somewhat difficult because the topic was so general. It may have been better to have chosen a particular setting or context for a lesson on information use and then to answer the questions related to that. Nonetheless, I think it was a valuable exercise to try.

     As for information literacy, I sometimes get hung up on the idea of how pervasive information use is in society, and yet how foreign the concept of developing information literacy skills is to the general population. On the other hand, is the concept of information literacy foreign, or is it actually so deeply ingrained in daily activities that people don’t consider it to be a topic worth exploring (i.e. because they feel like they find the information they need on a daily basis and get by fine without giving it much thought)? I wonder…

[LIBR250 Prompt: What are the key understandings in teaching about information? Include thoughts on the nature of information and the nature of literacy.]

References

Wiggins, G. & McTighe, J. (2005). Understanding by design (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.