Preparing Today’s Learners: The Role of Information Literacy in the Adoption of Innovative Pedagogies

This presentation was given at the University of Southern Queensland in Toowoomba, Australia on April 20, 2015 as part of the Salon Series. The presentation described how Purdue University supports teachers developing new classroom experiences through an educational initiative called Instruction Matters: Purdue Academic Course Transformation (IMPACT), which draws together expertise from areas of specialization throughout the campus to support course transformation. Drawing from four years of IMPACT programming and related research, two beneficial aspects of Purdue’s approach to this work were discussed in the presentation: The creation of productive partnerships between teachers, instructional designers, instructional technologists and librarians, whose separate skill sets combine to make a stronger course. The practice of leveraging information literacy as a support for innovative pedagogic approaches. Since founded in 2011, a hundred and thirty-nine courses have been re-designed through the IMPACT program, whose goal is to develop student-centered learning through research-based educational practices. IMPACT is a collaborative partnership of several units at Purdue that provide educational support, including the Center for Instructional Excellence, IT and the Libraries. Working with teachers to bring active-learning strategies into large foundational courses, the IMPACT teams are comprised of an instructional designer, an instructional technologist and a librarian. Teams meet throughout a semester to discuss goals for learning and how these goals may be addressed through assignments and in-class activities. While typically the instructional designers suggest pedagogies, technologists recommend learning technologies, and librarians focus on critical thinking and information literacy, the group has recognized that these elements are interrelated. For example, information literacy may be perceived by many as an add-on to existing course curricula, however, examples of courses developed through the IMPACT program, some of which have developed into classroom research projects, will be used to show how active learning pedagogies are supported by information literacy

Understanding Undergraduates: What Does Phenomenography Tell Us About Learners

It has been ten years since Christine Bruce\u27s (1997) Seven Faces of Information Literacy was published, sharing the results of her phenomenographic research project revealing how librarians and other higher educators understood information literacy. Bruce\u27s research impacted the way we think about information literacy by providing us with an expanded definition derived from people\u27s experience. Applied to undergraduate students, phenomenography provides a powerful tool for understanding how students experience information literacy. The results of the presenter\u27s two research projects verifies what some of us may have realized intuitively –that often there is a gap between the student approach to finding and evaluating information and their actual goals, e.g., making a convincing argument, learning more about the topic, etc. Knowing how students understand information literacy provides instructional librarians with important tools for designing pedagogy aimed at getting undergraduates to move beyond the gap by applying an integrated approach to using information. The presenter will provide a brief overview of phenomenographic research as applied to information literacy, describe phenomenographic methodology and discuss the results of the research projects conducted to examine the ways that undergraduate students understand information use. Attendees should expect to leave the session with a new understanding of: phenomenographic methodology; different ways that undergraduates experience information literacy; and pedagogic strategies for getting undergraduates to use information more complexly

Making an IMPACT: Transforming academic courses through student-centered teaching

Describing how the Instruction Matters: Purdue Academic Course Transformation (IMPACT) program supports multiple educational initiatives, including informed learning, this keynote presentation was given on April 21, 2016 as part of the Visiting Scholar Lecture Series hosted by the University of Nebraska, Lincoln

Experiences of Informed Learning in the Undergraduate Classroom

The same thing can be experienced in a variety of ways. For example, think of a time that you and a friend read the same book, but each got something quite different out of it. Essentially you experienced different aspects of the book. Applying this to higher education, we cannot assume that all students are experiencing their coursework in the same way. In fact, a number of studies reveal that this is not the case. Learning occurs when students begin to experience the thing being learned about in a new way. Learning designs that teach undergraduates to use information require knowing how students and teachers experience using information in the learning process. That is to say that it requires knowing the information experiences of students and teachers. While information behavior is associated with a cognitive viewpoint wherein handing information is typically triggered by needs and motives, information experience is a more inclusive concept that encompasses the variety of different ways that people engage with and use information. Research exploring information experience over the past two decades has resulted in the development of informed learning, a pedagogy emphasizing the role that information plays in learning. Building on prior research, this chapter describes a current study that explores different experiences of informed learning lessons taking place in an undergraduate writing course at a small university in the United States. The preliminary findings from the study will be used to explain how a teacher’s understandings of information experiences can inform the development of an effective learning design

Out of the Box: Exploring Purdue Through Undergraduate Institutional Research

The snapshots in this section describe research projects that explore the university’s institutional data to investigate some aspect of Purdue. In different ways, each of the projects described below aims to better understand and improve Purdue’s ability to educate students, discover knowledge, or foster engagement promoting the common good. These projects were all part of the Undergraduate Institutional Research Fellow Program offered by the Honors College and the Office for Institutional Research, Assessment and Effectiveness (OIRAE)

Worksheet from POD Interactive Session - Shaping Deep Learning through Rich Engagement with Information

This worksheet was used with participants of an interactive session at the Professional and Organizational Development Network in Higher Education (POD) conference held in Louisville, KY, November 9 -13, 2016

Academic librarians as informed learning developers

Abstract from book Implications – Drawing upon their expertise in how learners use information, academic librarians can use the findings to concentrate their consultative efforts to effectively partner with teachers to transform student learning experiences in higher education. partnering with teachers to develop informed learning experiences by leveraging the expertise of the teacher and the librarian; applying an informed learning pedagogic approach, and drawing from and sharing information literacy scholarship illuminating how information is used in the learning process; creating informed learning experiences that are responsive to institutional and disciplinary perspectives; and encouraging teachers to reflect on their intentions for content-focused learning and how learning outcomes may be shaped through interactions with information