“Real Deal” Information Literacy Designing & implementing meaningful instruction and assessment Janet Cottrell & Sarah Faye Cohen Champlain College, Burlington, Vermont, USA

What does IL instruction look like?

It looks like..  Databases  Catalogs  Boolean & keyword searching  Citation styles...otherwise known as libraries.

How does “real deal” IL differ from other IL models?

The focus of instruction.  Library-centric instruction revolves around introducing students to the library, its resources, and how to use those resources in an academic context.

Real Deal IL does not focus on the library  Real Deal instruction is “info-centric”, focusing on the wider information landscape.

What does that look like in the classroom?

Understanding search habits and preferences

The Web 296 People97 TV20 Other20 Total393 Where do you like to get information?

How do you search? Google357 Yahoo10 Bing20 The Library18 Other13 Total418

Filter Bubbles  Getting to know the real web.  Unraveling the implications of personalization of information.  Familiarizing students with business of information.

Where their idea ends & yours begins  Exploring the ethics behind sharing ideas and content.  Directly related to professional situations.  Plagiarism in wider context.

What else makes it Real Deal?

Students say it matters to them:  2011: Ranked Technology and Information Literacy as most important of 7 college competencies

Students say it matters to them:  And ranked first in satisfaction with the College’s contribution to their development of this competency

What else makes it Real Deal?

Authentic Assessment: How can we measure student progress?

Measuring student outcomes  We thought we would use standard tests…. But they don’t work well in our environment….

“Real deal” assessment  We needed something less “test-track,” more real-world  Based on actual student work

“Real deal” assessment  Mirrors the reflective focus of curriculum  Includes evaluation of reflective writing

“Real deal” assessment  “Map” our desired student outcomes to course rubrics  Allows us to embed our assessment directly in course…and also track our “route”

“Real deal” assessment  Portfolio-based  Student work, faculty feedback  Allows us to capture and track progress by group or individual

Results to date

Real Deal asks librarians hard questions  Do we want our students to know something about libraries? Or, something about information?  Do we want our students to have skills that work in every information environment, or just ours?

Real Deal requires a shift in our thinking  Away from success in an assignment.  Info-centric instruction enables student success when they are no longer our students.

Thank you. Questions? Janet Cottrell: Sarah Cohen: