Nordic Journal of Information Literacy in Higher Education
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Teaching Information Literacy for Lifelong Professional Use
Get PDFThis paper presents a pilot study carried out in 2015-2016. The main aims of the project was to map information literacy practices among nurses in primary health care and make a summary of previous research focusing on known obstacles. A further aim of the literature review was to identify good solutions and best practice. In spring 2016 a questionnaire was sent out to nurses working in nursing homes in Bergen, Norway. This presentation will outline specificities of IL in the health care context and will then present a few results from the questionnaire connected to this specific context.
Implementing Team Based Learning in an Information Literacy Course
No full textIntroduction: Motivating students to improve their Information Literacy (IL) skills can be a challenge. As a pilot, we implemented Team Based Learning (TBL) in our IL lessons. TBL is an interactive learning approach based on the “flipped classroom” concept, offering students opportunities to gather skills via immediate feedback during individual and team activities. Moreover, TBL promises to be an attractive and activating way of learning. We were interested if TBL, A) indeed activates students and B) improves their IL skills more than with lectures and self-tuition.Methods: TBL was implemented in a first year bachelor IL course in the year 2015-2016. Student were asked to study three IL e-learning modules before class. The obtained knowledge was assessed individually during an Individual Readiness Assessment test (IRAT) and in a team via a Team Readiness Assessment test (TRAT) using “scratch and win cards”. After this, teams were given an IL case and the members had to come to a consensus about the best solution out of a couple options provided. Finally, students took a written exam, which was the same as used in this course in the year 2014-2015, when TBL was not applied yet.We compared the grades of the written exam between the two academic years using a Mann Whitney U test (P<0.05). Students’ opinion about TBL was polled using a 34 question student survey.Results: The mean written exam grades were significantly higher in the TBL year than in the preceding year without TBL (respectively, 7.6 ± 1.42 vs 6.5 ± 1.31, P<0.001). The student survey showed that students were positive about the IRATs and TRATs, but neutral about other TBL parts.Conclusion: TBL seems to be a good didactical method to motivate students and enhance their IL skills.
A Late Night at the University Library: Supporting Students in the Final Phases of Essay and Thesis Writing
No full textThis poster outlines a strategy for both efficient use of library resources towards the end of semesters – when the library is filled with students stressed about essays and theses – and at the same time for caterings to students’ needs. For the past four semesters, the Karolinska Institutet University Library has arranged “a late evening at the library”, with a special program designed to help students. Our goal is that the students should be able to finish their work during the evening. We seek to provide an opportunity for focused work with access to the resources that the students are asking for: drop-in consultations and mini lectures with writing tutors and librarians. To help the students stay focused and energized, the student health center offers advice on how to end procrastination, an instructor from the campus gym leads mini-exercise and yoga breaks, and complimentary snacks are offered. The event was inspired by the international “long night against procrastination”, which started in Germany 2010.The late night at the library makes for a new way of reaching students and catering to their needs in a time-efficient manner. Although these evenings require some preparation, we are able to reach many students. In addition, students have the opportunity to get iterative support during their working process, allowing for highly efficient and stimulating work. Student response has been positive, and many students have used the opportunity to work intensely and make use of the support offered – some of them have also managed to finish their work during the evening
We Have to Talk about Collaboration: How a University Library and Writing Centre Work Together to Better Help Students with Information Literacy
No full textMany academic libraries are asked to do more for less money. By reaching out to other academic services, for example, the writing centre, might make it easier to fulfil the expected goals placed upon the library by the University administration (Ferer, 2012). However, there are also pedagogical reasons for collaboration. Academic librarians and academic writing tutors who transcend the traditional organizational boundaries within a university can together provide a more integrated picture of information seeking and the writing process for their students. This team approach, which emphasizes helping students become independent and active learners, can strengthen their academic skills, such as information literacy, that are essential when attending university.Nevertheless, in Sweden the few university libraries that house writing centres simply share a location rather than collaborate on a routine basis. Umeå University Library is unusual because the Library and Writing Centre are organized in the same unit, Scholarly Communication, and work as a team. Collecting this expertise into one location allows students more comprehensive support and convenient access: "one-stop shopping" (Cooke & Bledsoe, 2008). Drawing on our practices, we will describe Umeå University Library’s collaborative approach to teaching information literacy.Academic librarians are taking a greater role as literacy educators in helping students create personal knowledge (Elmborg, 2006). This personal knowledge is then transferred into writing where students demonstrate their evaluation and understanding of sources and through writing enter the conversations in their field, thereby finding their own voice. Rather than compartmentalizing these information seeking and writing processes, librarians and writing tutors can work together with students to help them navigate and come to understand that these processes are intricately linked
Constructive Alignment as a Means to Establish Information Literacy in the Curriculum
Get PDFConstructive alignment is the pedagogical principal which connects learning goals and learning activities with assessment. Learning goals should inform the student about what they’ll know once they finish the course. Learning activities is what the student needs to do to fulfill the goals. The assessment measures to what degree the student reaches the learning goals. The principal of constructive alignment permeates Swedish higher education. Regulatory documents at both national and local level talk about the importance of having a logical connection between the three parts that make out the principle of constructive alignment. But can we use Constructive Alignment as a means to establish courses in information literacy? I think we can if we align the structure of IL-courses with existing syllabus and formalize this connection.
A Design-Based Research Project on Information Literacy Focusing on Process, Reflections and Self-Feedback
No full textMany curriculums assume that the new generation of students are digital natives and information literate. However, studies show that this is not often the case. From these studies and our own experiences working with multidisciplinary students in the Health Sciences we found that students were not as information literate as required in the curriculum. Using Design Based Research as a method (following the four phases below), we developed a new information search process and a web-based tool with feedback opportunities from teachers and librarians in order to qualify the students competencies.Problem identification: Despite earlier initiatives from library and department, the students didn’t achieve higher levels of information literacy. Prototyping: Requirements and educational material were merged and tested while gathering feedback.Iterations: The prototype and feedback were evaluated and developed into a new information search process, which was tested and evaluated. Reflection and generalization: Initiative was taken to develope a web-based application visualizing the steps with the learning points: self-feedback, peer-feedback and counselor feedback.The result of the project is a new information search process model and a web-based learning environment called B!NKO 2.0. The evaluations have shown positive feedback on both the process and the web tool. The project has opened up new possibilities that go beyond the Health multidisciplinary students. A new project concerning the Humanities and Social Sciences is incipient. In this project new functionalities are also expected. B!NKO 2.0 has to a great extent shown its worth to help Health multidisciplinary students to get a deeper understanding of information literacy, and how to develop and change searches to get better results. B!NKO 2.0 has also given a positive "side effect” on the librarians work. Time spend on the "Book a Librarian” service have decreased for the librarians using B!NKO 2.0
Information literacy is not a one-man show
Get PDFThis article will discuss the issues at stake when cooperation between library and faculty on information literacy (IL) is initiated and explored by using an action research approach. Research on and experiences from cooperation between faculty libraries and faculties indicate that several teaching programmes have not integrated IL into the curriculum nor have they established a formalised cooperation between library and faculty on IL. Participants in the project were three librarians, six lecturers, one library manager, two directors of programme and two project managers from VIA University College, Denmark. The data for this study originates from focus group interviews, process protocols, records of reflective sessions and support meetings as well as from mail correspondences. Results indicate that formal cooperation between librarians and educators is necessary and provides the needed access to the other’s understanding of IL, the curriculum, pedagogical professionalism and mutual roles. A joint conceptual understanding of IL is important for making this teamwork work. Librarians need access to programme documents and knowledge on students’ level of learning and on course work. Co-teaching supports the librarian in developing pedagogical skills. Educators have diverging experiences with IL which can be a problem when challenging students on IL for their assignments. IL is everyone’s business and local dissemination of an agreed curriculum intervention throughout a programme is important. Leadership and re-sources are also significant if the integration of IL is to be possible
Bibliotekariernas roll i skolan
Get PDFThe purpose of the study is to critically discuss the role of librarians and libraries in educational processes. The study is done as a theoretical discussion that is built up from two different angles. And none of them have earlier been discussed in connection with the concept of information literacy.The first is about how the library as a tool has been functioning. This angle is worked out by using semiotic theories, sociological theories and learning theories. It is proposed that cultural and social processes involved in creating meaning and mediated by libraries, are dependent on structural qualities built up by the bibliographic system. Learning processes are dependent on situations and this means that library users have easier to get to the knowledge they need if they are able to use these structural capacities in libraries on their own.The second angle comes from a cognitive science discussion about how modern computer technology extends the human minds capacity to learn. It is pointed out that this technology means that it gets even easier to use the information searching tools. It is also pointed out that the critical stance towards this Extended Mind theory is about to what extend cognitive processes need to be done in the human mind. If these processes need to be done in the mind, it is also an argument that can be directed against intermediation activities from librarians. If this it is not true and the thesis main claim is true, this means that these computer tools functions better than help from mediators because they can at least be used without the need of interfering with another person. The knowledge seeker then does not need to translate their information question to another person. When possibilities to observe knowledge is mediated through situations this also means that trial and error are better pedagogical methods than instructions.The conclusion is that the most important strategy is to develop a good library structure and effective library tools as part of an electronic library. Librarians are needed to build and develop these libraries but it is the library and the tools in themselves that are of importance in the mediating process. These electronic libraries can be managed on a centralized level, which means small educational units can do without hiring librarians as personal mediators
Information and Communication Technology Literacy Skills and Class Instruction: a Comprehensive Perception Survey of University of Benin First Year Students
Get PDFThis study investigates the influence of class instruction (GST 111 – use of library) on University of Benin (UNIBEN) first year students’ information and communication technology (ICT) literacy skills. The study adopted the survey research method using the questionnaire as research instrument. First year students in the 2013/2014 academic session constituted the population of study. Simple random and total enumeration sampling methods were used to collect data from students in five out of twelve faculties in the university. The questionnaire used is a 4-point likert scale instrument: SA (Strongly agreed) = 4; A (Agreed) = 3; D (Disagreed) = 2; and SD (Strongly disagreed) = 1. Data was collected at the end of the first semester when the GST 111 – use of library was concluded. Results revealed that Computer, Software, Internet, WWW and ICT literacy skills of the students are high. There is a significant difference in Computer, Software, Internet and WWW and ICT literacy skills of the students per faculty. Majority (65%) of the students are skillful in ICT use. Class instruction is very well perceived by the students and it positively influenced students’ ICT literacy skills. Gender and secondary school attended did not influence students’ ICT literacy skills. There is no significant difference between male and female students’ ICT literacy skills as well as students that attended private or public secondary schools. It is therefore concluded that the students are highly ICT literate and class instruction (GST 111 – use of library) course mainly influenced the students’ ICT literacy skills thus the class instruction programme in the university is adequate and effective