Institutionalizing Information Literacy: Implementing a Comprehensive Information Literacy Program

This presentation was given by Monica D.T. Rysavy, Ph.D. and Russell Michalak at the Middle States Commission on Higher Education Conference (MSCHE) at their annual conference in 2018 in Washington D.C.

1. Institutionalizing Information Literacy: Implementing A Comprehensive Information Literacy Program Monica D.T. Rysavy, Ph.D. ( [email protected] ) Russell Michalak, MLIS ( [email protected] ) MSCHE Annual Conference 2018 Washington D.C.

2. About Us: Russell Michalak & Monica Rysavy Monica D.T. Rysavy, Ph.D . is the Director of Institutional Research and Training for Goldey-Beacom College in Wilmington, Delaware. In this role she leads all institutional research and data analysis projects for the College. Her office provides faculty and staff training support by developing new training offerings (asynchronous and synchronous face-to-face and online programs) on a variety of instructional technology, survey research, and data management/interpretation topics. Russell Michalak, MLIS is the Director of the Library, Archives, & Learning Center at Goldey-Beacom College. He oversees the annual budget, supervises librarians and paraprofessionals, manages the delivery of research, information, instructional services, the tutoring center, and archives. Before joining GBC, he worked in various roles at the Libraries of the Claremont Colleges, Duke University, and the University of Utah. Russell earned his MA in Library and Information Studies from the University of Wisconsin, Madison and a BA in History from Occidental College. [email protected] [email protected]

3. What We Used to Do Re: Information Literacy Librarians offered traditional “one-shot” information literacy (IL) information sessions. These sessions were offered in courses that requested the sessions, typically first-year composition courses and the capstone English course (plus a graduate level marketing course) Student comprehension was assessed by a post-session, in-person Yes/No survey Data was analyzed using Excel and used to inform reports prepared by the library for institutional assessment.

4. What We Do Now Re: Information Literacy The library director (Rusty) and the educational technology coordinator, now director of institutional research & training (Monica) were asked by our college president, Dr. Gary L. Wirt, the current MSCHE Chair Commission President, to collaborate to develop a series of training modules that addressed the IL topics and a post-test that assessed the trainings. The goal of this project was to deploy the trainings and new assessment instruments with various populations of students at the college.

5. MSCHE Standards re: Information Literacy Standard III, #5 An accredited institution possesses and demonstrates the following attributes or activities at institutions that offer undergraduate education, a general education program, free standing or integrated into academic disciplines, that: offers a curriculum designed so that students acquire and demonstrate essential skills including at least oral and written communication, scientific and quantitative reasoning, critical analysis and reasoning, technological competency, and information literacy .

6. The Information Literacy Assessment (ILA) Program contains two instruments:

7. Information Literacy (IL) Assessment The IL assessment tool contains questions that address six topics: Develop a topic Locate information Access information Evaluate Write Cite The assessment was designed to align with the original Association of College and Research Libraries’ (ACRL, 2004) five standards for information literate students.

8. Students’ Perceptions of Information Literacy Skills Questionnaire (SPIL-Q) I feel I have the skills necessary to select a relevant topic for any written papers required in my graduate classes at the college. I feel I have the skills necessary to locate relevant research on my chosen research topic using a variety of resources, including the Library, online databases, and online resources. I feel I have the skills necessary to select appropriate keywords, Boolean searching, and connector words to find relevant research when searching online databases and websites. 4. I feel I have the skills necessary to evaluate reference resources for relevance to my topic and accuracy of content 5. I feel I have the skills necessary to write my research papers. I am familiar with note taking and outlining as methods to help layout the structure of my papers. 6. I understand the difference between paraphrasing and quoting authors. I know when I should paraphrase an author versus when I should quote, and I am comfortable using both methods when referencing existing work. Students responded to what extent they agreed with the following six statements:

9. Information Literacy Education @ GBC

10. Information Literacy Education @ GBC (continued)

11. Deployment #1 Summer 2015 Population: International Graduate students The purpose of the 1 st deployment was to gather benchmark data for our internally developed (homegrown) instruments. Deployment Tools: Google Forms & Flubaroo Michalak, R., & Rysavy, M. (2016). Information literacy in 2015: International graduate business students’ perceptions of information literacy skills compared to test-assessed skills. Journal of Business & Finance Librarianship, 21 (2), 152-174. Michalak, R., Rysavy, M. & Wessel, A. (2017). Students’ perceptions of their information literacy skills: The confidence gap between male and female international graduate students . The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 43 (2), 104-108.

12. Deployment #2 Fall 2015 Population: All students from Deployment #1 Deployment Tools: Training videos and quizzes using Office Mix & PowerPoint

13. Deployment #3 Fall 2015 Population: An English instructor uses the ILA as an optional supplemental resource Deployment Tools: Training videos and quizzes using Office Mix & PowerPoint

14. Deployment #4 Summer 2016 Students in Summer Bridge Program course Librarian provides a one-shot IL instructional session Pre-Test with Qualtrics, Training Videos and Quizzes with Knovio.

15. Deployment #5 Spring 2017 ENG 176 ILA pilot program Pre-Test with Qualtrics, Training Videos and Quizzes with Knovio. Post-Test with Qualtrics Rysavy, M., Michalak, R., & Hunt, K. (2018). Information literacy assessment for 1st year composition students: A case study of three deployment modes. In Handbook of Research on Learner Experience and Usability in Online Education. IGI. Hershey, PA.  

16. Deployment #6 Summer 2017 Students in Summer Bridge Program course LibGuide landing page that contains links to Pre-Test with Qualtrics, Training Videos and Quizzes with Knovio. Post-Test with Qualtrics

17. Deployment #7 Summer 2017 / Ongoing All incoming graduate students are invited upon enrollment to the college. Pre-Test with Qualtrics, Training Videos and Quizzes with Knovio. Post-Test with Qualtrics Invitation E-mail

18. Deployment #8 Spring 2018/ Ongoing ENG 176 Hybrid ILA program Librarian provides a one-shot IL instructional session Pre-Test with Qualtrics, Training Videos and Quizzes with Knovio. Post-Test with Qualtrics

19. Benefits of Implementing an Institution-wide Information Literacy Assessment (ILA) Program We learned how confident or unconfident our students were regarding their IL skills as measured by the SPIL-Q in a variety of classes on a consistent basis. We learned how competent or incompetent our students were regarding their IL skills as measured by the IL instrument in a variety of classes on a consistent basis. We strengthened collaborations across departments , particularly between the Library & Learning Center and the Office of Institutional Research & Training. We strengthened partnerships with college faculty , especially the English department, by frequently meeting with them to solicit their feedback about the ILA program and by deploying the ILA regularly with their course sections in partnership with them.

20. Questions? Would you like to collaborate or use our instruments? Please feel free to contact us! We’d love to discuss how you can implement a similar Information Literacy Assessment (ILA) at your institution. Monica D.T. Rysavy, Ph.D. ( [email protected] ) Russell Michalak, MLIS ( [email protected] )