About this guide
This guide is intended for UW-Green Bay instructors who are developing an information literacy course to fulfill the revised general education program outcome for information literacy. The purpose of this guide is to provide assistance in planning a course that meaningfully fulfills the required learning outcomes:
- IL 1: Students will use appropriate search strategies and tools to locate information relevant to their information need, refining strategies based on search results.
- IL 2: Students will critically evaluate sources of information, considering both the expertise and credibility of the creators and the contextual factors that influence the information’s creation, dissemination, and purpose.
- IL 3: Students will give credit to the original ideas of others through proper attribution and citation and contribute to the scholarly conversation at an appropriate level.
An ideal information literacy course will both explore a topic related to the information landscape and teach the essential practices and skills needed to find, evaluate, and use information effectively and ethically. This guide will focus on methods to integrate those essential practices and skills into your course.
Visit the Request a Consultation tab to learn how the library can directly support your IL course development.
Defining Information Literacy
Information literacy is an understanding of our current information landscape, including how information is created, shared, accessed, and valued. It is also a mindset, reinforced by habits, allowing one to find, evaluate, use, and create information in an ethical manner.
Make Room for Practice
Developing information literacy is an ongoing process that can't be fully taught in a single session or assignment. Undergraduate students often encounter bottlenecks with these skills, that can be overcome through a deeper understanding of information literacy concepts and regular, intentional practice. To effectively teach these skills, it's important to introduce them, provide opportunities for practice, reinforce learning, assess progress, and repeat this process as needed. Building information literacy is a habit that needs practice.
When planning your course, incorporate multiple opportunities for students to practice and receive feedback on these key skills. One effective strategy is to break down large research assignments into smaller tasks, awarding points and providing feedback for each part. Examples of larger projects that work well for teaching information literacy include annotated bibliographies, group presentations, research-based infographics or visual artifacts, and traditional research papers. By scaffolding assignments, students can develop and refine their skills step by step.
Encourage Reflection
Information literacy goes hand-in-hand with metacognition and critical self-reflection. To support this in your course, create space in both class time and your grading structure for students to engage in ongoing metacognitive practice on their developing information literacy skills.Introduce a research log or other reflective tool where students can track their progress over time. Providing feedback on these reflections will help students better understand their growth and work toward achieving their information literacy outcomes. This ongoing practice encourages deeper learning and self-awareness.
Next Steps
- Fall 2024: Working with your department chair submit IL course proposal via Courseleaf.
- Winter 2024/25: Core curriculum course proposals approved
- Spring 2025: Work with a librarian on the the skills and practices portion of your course
For timeline updates and other details, please refer to the Provost's website for General Education Realignment.
**This guide will be updated with specific assignment, assessment, and rubric examples for practicing and reflecting on information literacy skills as they are developed.**
Bibliography
General Education Council. (2024). University of Wisconsin-Green Bay Office of the Provost. https://www.uwgb.edu/provost/mission-strategic-planning/general-education-council/
Hostetler, K., Luo, T., & Stefaniak, J. E. (2018). Aligning information literacy assessment with metacognitive strategies. Journal of University Teaching & Learning Practice, 15(5). https://doi.org/10.53761/1.15.5.2
McCoy, E. J. (2022). Teaching and assessment of metacognition in the information literacy classroom. Communications in Information Literacy, 16 (1), 42–52. https://doi.org/10.15760/comminfolit.2022.16.1.5
Middendorf, J. & Baer, A. (2019). Bottlenecks of information literacy. In C. Gibson & S. Mader (Eds.), Building teaching and learning communities: Creating shared meaning and purpose (pp.51-68). Association of College and Research Libraries.