Panel session chaired by Sheila Corrall, with Ethan Pullman, Alexis Macklin, Charlie Inskip and Sheila Webber, on 6th April 2018 at the LILAC conference in Liverpool, UK
Z Score,T Score, Percential Rank and Box Plot Graph
Advancing Information Literacy in Higher Education: four questions for debate
1. Advancing Information
Literacy In Higher Education
Four Questions For Debate
Sheila Corrall, Ethan Pullman, Charlie Inskip,
Sheila Webber & Alexis Macklin
Corrall, Pullman, Inskip, Webber & Macklin, 2018
2. Four Questions For Debate
1. Which model(s) should we use?
– How should we define/frame educational interventions,
in terms of a theoretical lens and/or orientation,
conceptual framework, process model, professional
standards or guidelines?
2. What should our purpose be?
– Improve academic performance, prepare graduates for
employment, or help people interact with information
for lifewide and lifelong learning as informed citizens?
Corrall, Pullman, Inskip, Webber & Macklin, 2018
3. Four Questions For Debate
3. How should we position information literacy?
– As a transferable, measurable skillset; a higher-order,
knowledge-based meta-competence; or a soft applied
discipline, with its own distinct identity?
4. How should we assess information literacy?
– What types of measures should we use, e.g., affective,
behavioral, cognitive? How should we collect evidence,
e.g., exercises, tests, course products, narratives,
observation, interviews? When should we do it?
Corrall, Pullman, Inskip, Webber & Macklin, 2018
4. Presenters
Sheila Corrall, University of Pittsburgh School of Computing
and Information (Moderator/Timekeeper)
Ethan Pullman, Carnegie Mellon University Libraries (Q. 1)
Charlie Inskip, University College London Department of
Information Studies (Q. 2)
Sheila Webber, University of Sheffield Information School
(Q. 3)
Alexis Macklin, Purdue University Fort Wayne Library (Q. 4)
Corrall, Pullman, Inskip, Webber & Macklin, 2018
5. Which Model(s) Should We Use
To Frame Our Interventions?
Corrall, Pullman, Inskip, Webber & Macklin, 2018
6. An ‘IL Model by any other name’, would it be as sweet?
Visual representation based on Models & Frameworks, ILG
Corrall, Pullman, Inskip, Webber & Macklin, 2018
7. Then came IL types
And all in 50 minutes or less!
Corrall, Pullman, Inskip, Webber & Macklin, 2018
8. IL at IATUL
Members of International Association of University Libraries
2015 IATUL Special Interest Group Information Literacy
Corrall, Pullman, Inskip, Webber & Macklin, 2018
9. How are U.S. librarians using the standards?
(Julien, Gross, Latham, Survey of IL Practices in US, CRL 2018)
And all in 50 minutes or less!
87%
87%
81%
60%
53%
52%
51%
Hands-on instruction in computer lab
Individualized instruction (one-on-one)
Lectures/demonstrations in subject classes
Group instruction courses/subjects in the library
Video recordings (such as YouTube videos)
Web tutorials
Library guides/handouts web format
Method of Instruction
Corrall, Pullman, Inskip, Webber & Macklin, 2018
10. How are U.S. librarians using the standards?
(ibid)
5.99
5.03
4.38
4.36
4.1
2.64
2.48
2.36
Awareness of Tech Innovations
How to Manage Information
How databases work
Other
Locating
find info in various sources
general strategies
critical thinking
Ranking of Objectives
Corrall, Pullman, Inskip, Webber & Macklin, 2018
11. How are U.S. librarians using the standards?
(ibid)
Assessment Method
58%
41%
40%
Faculty
formative
self-assessments
Corrall, Pullman, Inskip, Webber & Macklin, 2018
12. Back to Our Question (i.e. your turn)
“How should we define and/or frame our educational
interventions? In terms of a theoretical lens or orientation,
conceptual framework, process model, professional
standards, or guidelines?
Corrall, Pullman, Inskip, Webber & Macklin, 2018
13. A Librarian’s Perspective
• Standards help you develop learning outcomes
• Frameworks help guide teaching & learning philosophies
• Keep your eyes on the ball: Literacy not Expertise
• Learning is contextual: some context need a process approach,
some need theory, the challenge is knowing the difference
• If assessment is easy, we’d all be doing it
• Learning doesn’t stop, nor does teaching
Corrall, Pullman, Inskip, Webber & Macklin, 2018
14. What Should Our Purpose Be As
Information Literacy Educators?
Corrall, Pullman, Inskip, Webber & Macklin, 2018
15. What should our purpose be as information
literacy educators?
Improve academic performance?
Prepare graduates for employment?
Help people interact with information
for life-wide and lifelong learning as
informed citizens?
All of the above?
Corrall, Pullman, Inskip, Webber & Macklin, 2018
17. What should our purpose be as information
literacy educators?
“In HE the primary purpose of information
literacy interventions is to enable students to
independently seek information and use it
appropriately and conform to academic
information norms. One could call this
‘academic information literacy’.”
(Information Literacy Group, n.d.)
Corrall, Pullman, Inskip, Webber & Macklin, 2018
18. What should our purpose be as information
literacy educators?
https://lydiaarnold.wordpress.com/2016/10/03/the-process-of-defining-graduate-attributes/
Corrall, Pullman, Inskip, Webber & Macklin, 2018
21. What Should Our Purpose Be As Information
Literacy Educators?
Or should we be asking,
• what is the role of our institution?
• should we contribute to the development of
graduate attributes? How?
• are we / should we be preparing students for
the wider world?
• should we concentrate on ‘academic
information literacy’ and leave employability
to careers consultants?
• what is the role of faculty?
Over to you…
Corrall, Pullman, Inskip, Webber & Macklin, 2018
22. How Should We Position
Information Literacy?
Corrall, Pullman, Inskip, Webber & Macklin, 2018
23. Information literacy
• A complex, dynamic concept
• A discipline (Johnston & Webber, 2006; Webber &
Johnston, 2017) or at least a subject domain
• Like many social science disciplines: development
comes about through both practice and research
Corrall, Pullman, Inskip, Webber & Macklin, 2018
24. How to position IL?
• Depends on your motivation e.g.
– Signalling allegiance
– Carving out an academic reputation
– Aligning with organisational goals and strategy
– Fitting in with an existing initative
– Developing an information literate curriculum
– Helping a specific group of people to engage with the
information that will enable them to life their life
• IL is rich enough to accommodate all this!
Corrall, Pullman, Inskip, Webber & Macklin, 2018
25. Observations
• Needs to be contextually interpreted, culturally
relevant
• “Literacies” “Meta” “Critical” don’t replace IL
• Digital Literacy – in short/medium term will be old
fashioned (Floridi’s (2015) idea of offline and online
blending to onlife) – don’t get trapped there
• Positioning with UNESCO concept of Media &
Information Literacy may have more mileage, but
need to be assertive about Information component
Corrall, Pullman, Inskip, Webber & Macklin, 2018
26. How Should We Assess Our
Information Literacy Activities ?
Corrall, Pullman, Inskip, Webber & Macklin, 2018
27. What are we doing?
• Information literacy assessment in higher education
(ILAHE) – theoretical framework (Pinto, 2015)
– 5 consolidated lines of research (clusters)
o Evaluation-Education
o Assessment
o Students-Efficacy
o Learning/research
o Library
Corrall, Pullman, Inskip, Webber & Macklin, 2018
28. Why are we doing this?
• Three primary functions of information literacy
instruction assessment (Erlinger, in press)
– Providing feedback to learners
– Providing feedback to instructors
– Demonstrating value of programs to stakeholders and
administrators
Corrall, Pullman, Inskip, Webber & Macklin, 2018
29. Does it matter?
• Are students more information literate as a result of
IL instruction (one-shots or embedded)? Do they
retain IL skills?
• Are more faculty collaborating with librarians and/or
embedding IL into their curriculum?
• Have IL assessment measures demonstrated
impact (student retention; improved graduation
rates)?
Corrall, Pullman, Inskip, Webber & Macklin, 2018
30. References
Bates, M. J. (2015). The information professions: Knowledge, memory, heritage.
Information Research, 20(1). Retrieved from http://InformationR.net/ir/20-
1/paper655.html
Erlinger, A. (2017). Outcomes assessment in undergraduate information literacy
instruction: A systematic review. College & Research Libraries. Advance online
publication. Retrieved from https://crl.acrl.org/index.php/crl/article/view/16600
Floridi, L. (ed.). (2015). The onlife manifesto. Heidelberg: Springer.
Johnston, B., & Webber, S. (2006). As we may think: Information literacy as a discipline
for the information age. Research Strategies, 20(3), 108-121.
Julien, H., Gross, M., & Latham, D. (2018). Survey of information literacy instructional
practices in US academic libraries. College & Research Libraries, 79(2), 179-199.
Pinto, M. (2015). Viewing and exploring the subject area of information literacy
assessment in higher education (2000–2011). Scientometrics, 102(1), 227-245.
Webber, S., & Johnston, B. (2017). Information literacy: Conceptions, context and the
formation of a discipline. Journal of Information Literacy, 11(1), 156-183.
UNESCO MIL initiatives: https://en.unesco.org/themes/media-and-information-literacy;
http://www.unesco.org/new/en/gapmil/
Corrall, Pullman, Inskip, Webber & Macklin, 2018
31. Advancing Information Literacy
in Higher Education
Four Questions For Debate
1. Which model(s) should we use?
2. What should our purpose be as IL educators?
3. How should we position information literacy?
4. How should we assess information literacy?
Your Turn – Reactions and Discussion