Using technology to reach more students in tough times: an analysis on five semesters of data connecting students with the Information literacy skills they need to complete their assignments

Conference Year

Online Northwest 2010

Session

Type

Breakout Session

Presenters

Stephen Borrelli, Washington State University Libraries
Alex Merrill, Washington State University Libraries

Abstract

In the fall of 2007 Washington State University Libraries introduced the Information Literacy Education (ILE) learning environment to deliver scalable information literacy (IL) instruction to both on campus and distance courses. Slated to become an open source product in the spring 2010 ILE has provided instruction to over 5700 students in six colleges in 5 semesters. Utilizing ILE the total number of participants reached by the Instruction Department increased by nearly 20%. ILE is a flexible online learning environment which delivers IL instruction targeted to the needs of specific assignments. Librarians and course instructors collaborate to design a space comprised of instruction and assessment components focused on the skills students need to demonstrate in larger research projects. These skills often go unaddressed in the classroom, leaving students to their own devices to acquire an understanding of and build skills required to complete their assignment. Work completed in ILE provides students with an additional avenue of instruction and skill acquisition, while providing opportunities to assess learning, and transfer. This session will explore how ILE has been deployed across the colleges and partner programs to reach students more frequently providing greater depth of instruction and assessment. A statistical analysis of the results of approximately 48,000 instances of 150 IL related quiz questions that have been mapped to IL related concepts will be presented. Through the analysis, a picture of the types of IL competencies WSU students’ struggles with, and those they demonstrate proficiency with will be drawn.

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