Debate topics: August 2002

I have been reading the discussions on this issue with interest and hopefully may be able to contribute to this forum.

I teach the Diploma of Library and Information Services at the Sydney Institute Ultimo College. This course leads to the qualification of library technician.

In 2001, we implemented this new national course which was developed from our industry's training package.

For the first time we teach a module named Information Literacy which has been developed from the competency standard: develop own personal information literacy. This is an example of IL being integrated into a curriculum.

I presented a short paper on the delivery, content and assessment of this module at a NSW ALIA TAFE section seminar on Information Literacy in June this year. I have extracted the description of the assessment in this e-mail. If you are interested in more, I will sent you a copy of the paper as an attachment.

The assessment is graded and has caused discussion in TAFE on what method should best be employed. There were still many who clung to the traditional view of 'class test': give the students a few questions and ask them to locate the information from a few select sources. It was felt that this was only assessing lower order skills as you described Mandy in your discussion starter.

This was removed and we now assess by students who provide a report of their progress and process in locating information for a particular information need. They need to provide a clear analysis and explanation of their use of the IL process.

The assessment for Information Literacy is a project which allows students to use the knowledge and skills they have acquired during the course of the module. It reflects the six stages of the information literacy process and students are required not only to find information but more importantly to provide an outline and evaluation of their process in locating that information.

The assessment is completed by students in their own time but some class time is made available for some exploration and consultation.

Students are required firstly to submit a project proposal which reflects the first 2 steps of the information literacy process: defining and locating. This has a weighting of 35 per cent of the final mark.

They are required to:

define a personal information need which is discussed with their teacher. At this stage of the course we try to ensure that the topics chosen are not too complex and are achievable within the context of the module.
Examples of topics include: philosophy of Buddhism; growing succulent plants in Australia; traditional Russian cuisine; keeping rabbits as pets; the role of Mao Zedong in the Chinese Revolution; designing mosaics; is Pluto really a planet? and the life and work of the Australian artist Joy Hester.
conduct a preliminary search in a library catalogue to locate any items on their topic. They need to outline which search options and search terms were used and how many results were obtained, whether they refined their search strategy and to state what were the most appropriate LC subject headings for their topic.
They are then required to provide an accurate citation for a monograph.
from their knowledge of the range of information sources, students need to propose which types of sources would be the most appropriate to meet their information need and provide reasons for their choice.

They also need to include a search strategy on how they will go about locating these sources. This proposal needs to be submitted by week 12 of the module, after students have developed their searching skills in using the catalogue and the Internet, and after they have been introduced to the range of sources.

This proposal enables teachers to provide feedback and guidance on students search strategies and selection of sources.

The second part of the assessment encompasses all six steps of the information literacy process. The project enables students to select and evaluate the most appropriate sources for their information need and present this in the form of a brief report. This constitutes 65% of the final mark.

Students are required to:

State their information need and may include any slight adjustments to a particular aspect of their topic if needed after their feedback from their proposal.
Select four relevant sources appropriate to their information need. These need to encompass a range sources and for each source they need to provide:
- correct citation appropriate to the source
- summary of information provided by the source
- search strategy used in locating the source
- search strategy used in locating information within the source

From the sources presented, they need to evaluate and recommend which of these are the most valuable in satisfying their information need.

Students have about 5-6 weeks to complete this project and is submitted by the last week of the semester.

This module is undertaken in stage 1 of the course, runs for 18 weeks and is a foundation for more developed information modules.

In TAFE courses there are common core modules relating to communication and management skills such as workteam communications and effective workplace relationships. They are taught in almost all TAFE courses, just imagine if IL was seen to be as important and was intergrated in all curricula. As our course was developed from the training package which in turn was driven by our industry, it has to be at that level where the importance of IL needs to be communicated. How this could be done, I'm not sure.

I hope I have provided something of interest to this discussion.

Wendy Simmonds
Teacher
Library and Information Studies
Sydney Institute: Ultimo

A message from Julie Badger....

Dear All,

A brief outline of how we assess information literacy at Swinburne University's Lilydale campus:

How do we assess?
All first year students undertake a subject called Information Methods and the library staff are responsible for the development, delivery and assessment of the information literacy module which comprises 20 per cent of the final grade for the subject.

Within the first few weeks of semester the students complete an online exercise which is designed both to teach and assess (formative assessment). In the past manual grading of student achievement had been an onerous and time-consuming task so the move to online assessment was a great relief. Now we can run a report on individual students and test items to uncover any patterns in the responses. This helps us identify areas in our teaching that need to be addressed.

The challenge has been to assess higher level skills in this format. Limitations of the software and of the type of questions that can be asked (multiple choice, multiple answer, true and false, etc) means that devising the questions has been an exacting task. It is possible, for example, to frame a question in such a manner that the student is obliged to carry out a number of searches of different databases before they can attempt an answer.

However, we rely on the end of semester exam (summative assessment) for more intensive assessment of higher skills. Under exam conditions and without access to a computer students have to answer some questions in paragraph form. The library staff are responsible for grading students' exam scripts in the relevant questions.

Why do we assess?
To be fully accepted as part of the core curriculum we felt it was important to apply the same rigorous standards to our part of the subject as occurred in the rest of it. We didn't want to be a tacked on glorified 'library tour' but an integral part of the curriculum. The skills we teach support Swinburne's graduate attributes and we are able to demonstrate this objectively with data derived from student assessment tasks.

It had often struck me in the past that at the end of user ed. classes we asked students to fill out an evaluation form of the program but that we did nothing to evaluate what they had learnt or how they used it. I am glad this has changed.

Julie Badger
Liaison librarian (Business, Applied Science, e-Business)
Lilydale Campus
Swinburne University

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