A built-in approach to information literacy teaching can help\nto ensure relevancy, avoiding the scenario whereby library workshops are viewed\nas extra-curricular activities, attended only by a minority of highly motivated\nstudents and evaded by those students who might most need to improve their skills. When we embed our teaching\nwithin your modules, we work with you to ensure that subject content is\nrelevant. That way, your students are more likely to grasp the key concepts of\ninformation literacy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Information literacy teaching also needs to be timely.\nIdeally, we see students at the start of their academic journey and then\ncontinue to support them throughout their studies. By taking a scaffolded\napproach to learning, we can match relevant learning outcomes at each level of\nstudy with relevant skills. As an example, first year undergraduates need to\nunderstand the purpose of referencing but they probably don\u2019t need to be\nintroduced to Zotero or Endnote when they first arrive. By contrast, we would\nbe doing our masters students a disservice if we didn\u2019t <\/em>tell them about reference management tools in good time for\nthem to take advantage of the tools for their extended projects and\ndissertations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n We have developed our information literacy skills teaching\nby mapping learning outcomes to the American Library Association Information\nLiteracy framework[ii]<\/a> .\nThis framework categorises information literacy into six key areas:<\/p>\n\n\n\n As an example, under the \u2018Authority is constructed and\nContextual\u2019 heading, we have mapped the learning outcome to evaluate the appropriateness of sources<\/em> with \u2018Use research tools\nand indicators of authority to determine the credibility of sources,\nunderstanding the elements that might temper this credibility\u2019. This would then\ntranslate into an aim of the teaching session to: \u2018Critically evaluate resources:\nnot just material type but bias\/currency within similar resources\u2019. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Another example is the higher level learning outcome for\nstudents to manage their own learning which we have mapped to: \u2018Organise\ninformation in meaningful ways\u2019. An aim of our teaching in this instance would\nbe to introduce research data management (RDM) principles. This approach has\nbeen working well with our teaching this year, illustrated by recent student\nand tutor feedback:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI previously did not know about RDM. It is\ndirectly related to my course and useful for my dissertation.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThank you for a great session! My students really appreciated it and I\ndid too. We learnt a lot!\u201d<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n And\nactually, how do<\/em> we expect students learn good data management\nskills, if we don\u2019t teach them? <\/p>\n\n\n\n There are many ways that we can embed information literacy\nskills into teaching. A further example is the introduction of digital note\ntaking and annotating tools, within the context of teaching how to read a\njournal article. This particular skill has the added financial benefit for\nstudents of reducing dependence on printing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Under the heading of \u2018Research as Inquiry\u2019 we ask students\nto analyse their topic or research question and produce appropriate keywords.\nWe teach them how to string together these keywords logically to enable them to\nsearch effectively. We then explain how to analyse results and how to modify their\nsearch strategies accordingly. It is\nclear from our observations of students carrying out searches that these\nresearch skills to be learnt. <\/p>\n\n\n\n We have access to a great range of online resources at Sussex, from Nexis and Mintel to Orbis and Thomson One, and we know from the analytics that these aren\u2019t always well used. By embedding this content into teaching, we can ensure that students are engaging with the highest quality and industry leading sources for their research. This approach has worked well for Business Strategy teaching. For the last few years, the Library has delivered a lecture for the Business Strategy module, taking students through the process of searching for case study resources, and understanding how to navigate and manipulate the data for company and industry reports. In addition, we offer follow up support through our 1-2-1 tutorials and instant messaging, hopefully taking some of the pressure off the tutor for dealing with queries. <\/p>\n\n\n\n We would love to work with you to embed these essential\nskills into teaching at all levels within the School. Please get in touch if\nyou would like to work with us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Suzanne Tatham, Library Academic Services Manager <\/p>\n\n\n\n Tel: 01273 877632<\/p>\n\n\n\n Email: s.tatham@sussex.ac.uk<\/p>\n\n\n\n [i]<\/a> Wingate,\nU 2006. Doing away with \u2018study skills\u2019. Teaching in Higher Education, 11(4),\npp. 457- 469.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [ii]<\/a> http:\/\/www.ala.org\/acrl\/standards\/ilframework<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Suzanne Tatham When students embark on academic life at university, they have lots of new things to deal with. For many students, it may be the first time they\u2019ve been asked to write a substantial piece of work using…<\/span><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/business-school-teaching\/files\/2019\/03\/TL-blog2-1024x576.jpg\")
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