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COMM A111 - Information Literacy Integration

Information Literacy Activities and Assessment Incorporated into COMM A111, Fundamentals of Oral Communication, during 2013-2014

Project Findings

Information literacy improvements emerged in the majority of students through activity engagement, reflection on the research process; and assessment of information literacy skill development.  Improvements were made in the students' ability to:

  • Refine search strategies for improved results
  • Recognize and utilize search tools (i.e. searching with a wildcard symbol (psychol*), phrase searching, and Boolean searching)
  • Identify, access and use resources available at a research library (i.e. differences between internet search and university library resources)
  • Identify credible sources and integrate them into speeches and outlines
  • Contribute to the scholarly conversation on their topic

Improvements are still needed in:

  • Students' familiarity with academic research vocabulary (i.e. bibliography)
  • Reinforcement of information literacy skills in partnership with course content
  • Assessment of transferability of information literacy skills
  • Development and use of reality-based application activities

Assessment as Learning

After assessing Information Literacy activities and survey findings in early spring 2014, consideration has been made to do the following:

Create a glossary of information literacy terms for students.

When teaching about the importance of citing resources consistently, according to required format, explain to students that even the title of a list of references may vary based on the citation style used.  (References versus Works Cited versus Bibliography)

Distribute or post a "Cheat Sheet" of most common APA Style citations for students to use when reviewing the list of References created by RefWorks, or another citation manager.

Subject Guide

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Deb Mole
Contact:
301H UAA/APU Consortium Library
907-786-1967