Loughborough University Library: Open Journals
Not a member yet
1614 research outputs found
Sort by
Source evaluation behaviours of first-year university students
Get PDFResearchers at Brigham Young University studied first-year students’ information evaluation behaviours of open-access, popular news-based, non-academic source material on a variety of subjects. Using think-aloud protocols and screen-recording, researchers coded most and least used evaluation behaviours. Students most used an article’s sources, previous experience with the source or subject matter, or a bias judgement to decide whether the source was reliable. Researchers also compared what students said was important when evaluating information vs. what behaviours students actually exhibited and found significant differences between the two. Namely, students did not think their previous experience or bias judgement affected the way they assessed sources; however, both behaviours played prominently in their observed source evaluation techniques across the study
Trace
No full textHow does an in-situ encounter with an original drawing offer a connection to the thought processes and observational activities of the artist? How might I create evidence of my own investigative observational processes of a historic drawing? The nucleus of this essay focuses on one of a series of encounters with works on paper found in museum archives. I investigate a self portrait by Dante Gabriel Rossetti and contend that meaningful connections may be made between the physical traces left by the artist and wider conceptual frameworks, uncovering associations with visual perception, phenomenology, semiotics, and memory. I argue that these paradigms create a dialogue with the complex thought processes and observational activity of Rossetti at the event of his observing and recording his own reflection. In parallel I suggest that connections are made with the physical traces of the historic artist through the activity of tracing my own observational evidence of the encounter. I suggest that drawing in-situ from an artefact held in an archive brings wider theoretical questions about drawing as observation, recording, memory and fragmentation. Finally, I contend that this encounter with a historic work, and the larger framework of research supporting it, creates new constructs that inform my own contemporary practice
Information literacy as a measurable construct
Get PDFThough definitions of Information Literacy (IL) vary, there is consensus in the literature that it is one coherent variable or measurable construct so important it has been called a human right (Sturges & Gastinger, 2010). This paper reviews existing IL measures, treating them as psychometric tests, aiming to address two questions: do existing IL tests sufficiently meet the needs of researchers and what do the tests tell us about whether or not there truly is a single variable identifiable as IL?
Existing instruments for testing IL will be assessed. Only validated, freely available, testing instruments are considered. All of the current IL tests of this type are context bound to education, and are often domain-specific. These are only useful for researchers looking to assess these particular populations. However, if IL is a human right it ought to be a construct that exists across all human populations. The context and domain specificity of existing IL tests is therefore surprising; it implies that IL is something specific to higher education, not a factor in the population at large.
This paper therefore argues for a need to develop validated testing instruments for IL that are context and domain independent and made freely available. The review of IL tests will benefit researchers looking to investigate IL. The broader argument of this paper aims to be of interest to a wider library and information science audience seeking to understand whether IL is indeed a coherent singular construct
The seven voices of information literacy (IL)
Get PDFThe purpose of this research was to discover the conceptions of information literacy (IL) prevalent across multiple stakeholder groups in an international middle school community. The research involved students, parents, teachers, librarians, IT personnel, administrators and leadership in recorded focus group discussions. Using a phenomenographic approach the qualitatively different ways that stakeholder groups understood IL were revealed. The study found extensive variation in the ways IL is understood, revealing 27 different conceptions of IL shared to varying degrees across stakeholder groups. The findings add to our knowledge of IL in several ways: several new conceptions of IL surfaced from this more diverse sample and new light was shed on the way that people’s perceptions and experience of their information context influences their thinking about IL. The article fills a gap in the literature on two levels: firstly, by providing a multi-stakeholder perspective on IL offsetting the multitude of single stakeholder IL studies and secondly by focusing on an international middle school environment which has not been a context for IL research in the recent past
Faces/Places
Get PDFThis project was carried out by the author in the summer of 2001 in New York. It comprises episodes that entail the sketch of a specific place, two sketches of the city traveller at that location who volunteered to be sketched and the author’s journal entries on each episode following the experience. One sketch is kept by the participant and the other by the author, which is presented in this paper. Since the boundaries of the project are fluid, it is formed and re-formed through the unfolding of each encounter. This paper provides an inquiry into the encounter between self-other-environment created and transformed by the project
Flipping the classroom for information literacy instruction
Get PDFThis study examined the possibility of enabling personalised, collaborative information literacy (IL) instruction through a flipped class model. Two-stage interviews were conducted before and after a pilot project was given to participants, which was designed according to guiding principles of personalised learning and online collaborative learning (OCL) theory. The study used a qualitative framework to gauge learners’ perceptions regarding the effectiveness and feasibility of the design. Samples were taken from learners who had previously been involved in a flipped classroom. The data collected from the two-stage interviews were compared and further discussed in light of Giorgi’s (1999) understanding of learning through a phenomenological perspective. Five participants were involved in the study. For the first-stage interviews, the five participants all responded positively towards the prospectus of a flipped, personalised and collaborative IL instruction. For the second-stage interviews, three participants offered feedback regarding an interactive PowerPoint specifically designed for a flipped IL instruction, which had incorporated elements of personalisation and group activities. All three participants in the second stage interviews spoke favourably of the content of the interactive PowerPoint, but they also all exhibited a degree of hesitation when multiple options were presented to them. They were still expecting clear instructions instead of taking control of the process. This study discovered a gap between learners’ positivity towards a flipped, personalised and collaborative learning model, and the fact that learners are fundamentally accustomed to traditional learning paths. This implies there are hurdles to overcome before the flipped model can deliver results, especially when learners are expected to take more control over their own learning. Further research is needed to explore ways of altering learner mind sets in order to enable learners to embrace the full potential of flipped learning
Escape the welcome cliché
Get PDFThe University of Surrey Library and Learning Support Services (LLSS) recognised an increasing need to transform its welcome, induction and orientation activities for students. Past activities have entailed delivering information to students in ways which may have led to information overload and lack of engagement by students with library services. The LLSS have been exploring innovative ways to welcome students to university, moving away from didactic approaches. This paper presents one such innovation produced among a series of activities during 2017/18, an educational escape room, informed by the work of Walsh (2017). This activity invited students to solve a series of themed puzzles in the escape room, introducing them to library services and information literacy (IL) skills to support their studies. This report provides an account of the challenges and positive outcomes encountered in designing the escape room, with a view to sharing good learning and teaching practice
