Education Commons^™

Ithaka S+R: Teaching With Data In The Social Sciences, Gayle Schaub, Samantha Minnis

Scholarly Papers and Articles

In the Winter of 2021, Grand Valley State University (GVSU) joined 20 other institutions to participate in an Ithaka S+R study to understand the instructional and technical support needs of social science faculty using data in their courses. Each participating institution served as a research site with a local team of researchers. This report outlines the methodology, findings, and recommendations for instructional faculty, librarians, and administrators.

Visualizing The Convergence Of Metaliteracy And The Information Literacy Framework, Trudi E. Jacobson, Thomas P. Mackey, Kelsey L. O'Brien

University Libraries Faculty Scholarship

Displaying information in a visual manner frequently enhances clarity. Highlighting thematic elements and their interrelationships can lead to understanding, even insights, that might not otherwise happen. While words describe, well-conceived graphics illuminate in both subtle and overt ways. Synergies between word and image are especially powerful.

The visualization at the heart of this chapter makes connections between two separate but related frameworks: information literacy and metaliteracy. The ACRL Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education acknowledges that it was influenced by metaliteracy, and in particular metacognition.1 Metaliteracy emerged prior to the development of the ACRL Framework and was similarly designed …

The Perceptions Of Academic Librarians On Their Role In Lifelong Learning, Self-Directed Learning And Heutagogy, Anna Ferri

Instructional Design Capstones Collection

This paper uses a qualitative methodology to explore the perceptions of academic librarian on the definition of lifelong learning and their roles in supporting lifelong learning. Existing research on the topic was aligned to the emergent educational model of heutagogy to identify key concepts including self-directed learning, learner agency, and the impact of technology. Heutagogy is a learning model focused on self-determined learning, often in a high technology environment, for mature learners who have high degrees of agency over the entire learning process including identifying learning goals and methods, locating resources, and designing assessments. Using loosely structured interviews of academic …

Reconceptualising The Instructional Roles Of Academic Librarians In Order To Better Serve Underserved Students At A California Public University, Ahmed Alwan

The Dissertation in Practice at Western University

The need to equip society with information literacy (IL) has become essential, as evidenced by the 2016 and 2020 U.S. elections, COVID 19 pandemic, and QAnon. A deficiency in information provenance and credibility, combined with internet users’ poor information-seeking habits, has fostered the perfect environment for misinformation. In this atmosphere, higher education institutions (HEIs) must take the lead in developing a citizenry with the necessary IL skills to make informed judgments. The need to impart IL is even more crucial among the underserved student population (i.e., low-income, first-generation college students, and students of colour) who suffer from a deficiency in …

Active Learning: Overcoming Barriers And Changing Culture, Laura Barrett, Katie Harding

Dartmouth Library Staff Publications

Active learning is a student-centered and effective pedagogical approach, but there are practical barriers that can make it difficult to employ. As instructors and facilitators in Dartmouth’s Librarians Active Learning Institute, we’ve experienced and heard about the challenges librarians face when trying to incorporate active learning in their teaching, including faculty expectations, time constraints, class sizes, space constraints, and virtual learning environments.

In this session, we will share strategies for helping librarians to overcome these challenges and incorporate active learning pedagogy into their teaching practice. We will present approaches for communicating with faculty about our roles as teachers and partnering …

Getting To Work: Information Literacy Instruction, Career Courses, And Digitally Proficient Students, Alexandra Hamlett

Publications and Research

This article discusses how following graduation, students often enter the job market unprepared to find, evaluate, and use information in the digital environment effectively. Essentially, there is a disparity between the skills students attain in college coursework, including information literacy (IL) skills, and those required in the workplace, which impacts graduates’ success as new members of the labour market. The article highlights how collaboration between a librarian and an instructor of a career centered course influenced instructional design for IL instruction in their courses. Librarians and instructors will benefit from practical examples from Guttman Community College’s innovative IL Program and …

Beyond The Checklist Approach: A Librarian-Faculty Collaboration To Teach The Beam Method Of Source Evaluation, Jenny Mills, Rachael Flynn, Nicole Fox, Dana Shaw, Claire Wiley

Library Faculty Scholarship

Evaluating information is an essential skill, valued across disciplines. While librarians and instructors share the responsibility to teach this skill, they need a common framework in order to collaborate to design assignments that give students multiple opportunities to learn. Librarians and First Year Seminar faculty at Belmont University collaborated to design a unit of instruction on source evaluation using the BEAM method. BEAM requires students to apply a use-based approach to evaluation, to read and engage with sources more closely, and to think about how they might use a source for a specific purpose. Structured annotated bibliographies that included BEAM …

Teaching News Literacy During A Pandemic: Adapting To The Virtual Learning Environment, R. Alan Berry, Jennifer L. Bonnet, Judith E. Rosenbaum

Library Staff Publications

In the fall of 2020, as the coronavirus pandemic shuttered universities and sent much of higher education online, a team of media and information literacy experts at the University of Maine sought meaningful ways to collaboratively teach news literacy from a distance.

The result of their efforts was a weeklong virtual program, Friend, Enemy, or Frenemy? A News Literacy Challenge, open to anyone with an internet connection and an email address. This approach to remote learning scaffolded multiple literacies (critical media, news, and information) into five days, as participants examined different aspects of news production and consumption. The overall objective …

Information Literacy In A Post-Truth Era, Catherine Baird, Jonathan Howell

Sprague Library Scholarship and Creative Works

The founders of American democracy believed it could not survive without an “informed citizenry”. What does an informed citizenry look like in today’s world? And what role do we have as educators and students to support it?

First, we look at the significant challenges to institutional and media legitimacy that emerged in the second half of the 20th century, which rightfully called attention to the ways longstanding Western knowledge practices excluded marginalized communities and silenced important histories. We ask about the status of norms and mores in the aftermath of this challenge, in an era often called “post-truth.”

Second, we …

Fogler Library: Writing A Research Abstract Workshop, Nancy Lewis, Ally Hammond

UMaine Video

The abstract of your research paper is very important. Its purpose is not only to concisely summarize your work, but also to grab the reader’s attention and convince them that your research is valuable and relevant. An unclear abstract can set the stage for confusion, whereas a polished abstract prepares the reader by telling them what to expect from your paper.

This workshop will show you how to perfect your abstract (with an emphasis on the UMaine Student Symposium’s guidelines). We will begin with an overview of abstract-writing tips, followed by group activities for practice.

About the Speaker: Ally Hammond …

Research Mentor Program At Unh Manchester: Peer Learning Partnerships, Carolyn White Gamtso, Annie Donahue, Kimberly Donovan

Faculty Publications

At the University of New Hampshire at Manchester (UNH Manchester), the librarians, the Center for Academic Enrichment (CAE) professional staff, and the First-Year Writing Program faculty established a rich collaboration for supporting undergraduate students throughout the research process. This effort was realized by adapting a highly effective peer-tutoring program, integrating basic information literacy instruction skills into the tutor training curriculum, and incorporating the peer tutors within library instruction classes and activities. This chapter focuses on the current iteration of the Research Mentor Program, describes recent changes to the mentors’ information literacy training, and examines valuable lessons learned throughout the program’s …

The Neutrality Myth: Integrating Critical Media Literacy Into The Introductory Communication Course, Meggie Mapes, Lindsey Kraus, Elnaz Parviz, Joshua Morgan

Basic Communication Course Annual

Our current cultural moment requires reflective urgency. COVID-19 has forced a collective pedagogical confrontation with new media’s materiality, and how such materiality intersects with, for example, the public speaking traditions within introductory communication courses. While COVID-19 has spotlighted online-only educational conversations, our disciplinary need to refocus new media introductory course curricular practices pre-dates the pandemic. This essay extends Rhonda Hammer’s (2009) critical media literacy framework into the introductory course, a practice whereby students are empowered to “read, critique, and produce media” rather than be passive consumers. We explore critical media literacy as pedagogically fruitful in identifying and resisting dominant ideologies …