Presentation at the 2013 annual meeting of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC).

1. Centering Student Success on
Information Literacy: One Institution’s
Information Literacy Modules
Dr. Kelvin Thompson
University of Central Florida
Elizabeth Killingsworth
Southern Methodist University
@kthompso
#infolitmods
@ekilling

2. http://bit.ly/thompson_sacs13

3. CONNECTING TO INFORMATION

4. All Rights Reserved by Flickr user The Great Work
Used with permission.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/graywolfouroboros/7000028698

5. “A Wall of Books” by mikecogh on Flickr
CC BY 2.0 license
http://www.flickr.com/photos/activeside/2367540964/

6. “Personal Ecosystem” by ActiveSide on Flickr
CC BY 2.0 license
http://www.flickr.com/photos/activeside/2367540964/

7. 1 Internet Minute: 2012 v. 2013
Data: GP Bullhound, Intel, Facebook, Twitter Quartz
All Rights Reserved by Quartz
Used with permission.
http://qz.com/150861/a-snapshot-of-one-minute-on-the-internet-today-and-in-2012

8. Students “Very Likely to Use…”
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Google, etc. (94%)
Wikipedia, etc. (75%)
YouTube, etc. (52%)
Their peers (42%)
Cliff Notes, etc. (41%)
News sites of major news organizations (25%)
Print or electronic textbooks (18%)
Online databases (EBSCO, etc.) (17%)
A research librarian (16%)
http://bit.ly/pewreport_full

9. “…the internet has opened up a
vast world of information for
today’s students, yet students’
digital literacy skills have yet to
catch up…”
http://bit.ly/pew_summary

10. Employer Expectations
“…baseline information competencies…
knowing how and where to find information
online, without much guidance, to use a search
strategy beyond the first page of Google results,
and to articulate a “best solution” and
conclusion from all that was found.”
[emphasis added]
http://bit.ly/employer_study

11. For Discussion
• What brought you to this session today?
• What specific information literacy needs are
you facing at your institution?
• What is preventing you from addressing
current needs?

12. ENTER UCF’S INFORMATION
LITERACY MODULES

13. Origins
• QEP on Information Fluency
• “create or acquire accessible information
literacy learning modules… easily incorporated
into existing discipline courses and… available
to students at all times”
plus
• “Alpha” stage learning object system

14. What’s So Special?
Other Modules
UCF’s Info Lit Mods
Very short/very lengthy
Complete-able in one sitting
Extra-curricular
Designed for integration
Derivatives impractical
Designed for instructor customization
No assessment
Competency-based assessment
Limited user data
Robust user data

15. What Is a Module?
• A module is a complete, automated instructional
resource (no instructor intervention required).
• Each module based upon one identified learning
outcome and contains content presentation,
practice with feedback, and assessment of learning.
• Each module object is completable in one sitting
(no more than 30 minutes).
• Designed for assigning by instructors or student
self-selection

16. What is a Module?
• Content presentation may be text, graphics,
video, interactive media, or a combination as
appropriate.
• Practice/Assessment may be “traditional” (i.e.,
true/false or multiple choice) or “nontraditional” (e.g., simulation/authentic
assessment) as appropriate.

21. Start Time
End Time
Time spent on each page
within each section
Total Elapsed Time

22. Demo Video: Module Platform
http://bit.ly/module_platform
See info about WCET WOW Award
http://bit.ly/platform_award

23. Module Topics
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Topics derived from ACRL standards + felt needs
15 modules total
Includes several style-guide-specific versions
12 discrete module topics with terminal learning
objectives guiding assessments
• “Avoiding Plagiarism” remains most
assigned/completed module
See topics/outcomes
http://bit.ly/infolit_topics

24. Faculty Use Cases
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Reference material (no record of completion)
Completion "check off" (no connection to grades)
Extra credit opportunity
Score contributes to grade of another assignment
Stand-alone graded assignment
See elaboration at
http://bit.ly/infolit_faculty

25. Timeline
Year One (2007-2008): 4 modules
Year Two (2008-2009): 4 new modules (8 total)
Year Three (2009-2010): 4 new modules (12 total)
Year Four (2010-2011): Add question bank
Year Five (2011-2012): HTML 5 + 1 new module
Year Six (2012-2013): 1 new module (14 total)
Year Seven (2013-2014): 1 new module (15 total)
Note: Revisions/maintenance annually

26. Terminology
• Module = complete, automated instructional
resource (no instructor intervention required).
• Instance = module version provided to one
group of students with group-specific settings
• Completion = submission of an assessment
attempt

27. How Are We Doing?
Between June 23, 2008 – September
30, 2013 there have been:
150,882 "completions" by
29,010 students taught by
349 faculty who created
5645 instances of
15 modules with an average
score of
84.6% across all modules’
summative assessments
In end-of-term questionnaires...
•Most faculty say they assign
modules as stand-alone graded
assignments.
•On average, faculty report
moderate impact on student
knowledge/skills.
•Few technical problems. (6% of
student respondents indicate
problems hindering completion. Tech
support logs show far fewer
numbers.)
•On average, students say they have
prior experience with content but get
value from practice/feedback and find
that the summative assessments
accurately gauge their
competence.

28. SUPPORT

29. http://infolit.ucf.edu

30. Tiered Help Desk
CDL Developers

31. An Institutional Pilot
BADGING THE INFOLITMODS

32. InfoLitMods Year One (2008-2009)
• 13,840 assessment completions by
• 4,433 students in
• 422 course sections taught or led by
• 94 faculty members who created
• 430 instances of
• 4 information literacy modules with an
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average score of
85.30% across all modules' summative
assessments.

33. InfoLitMods Year Four (2011-2012)
• 38,423 assessment completions by
• 8,082 students in
• 159 unique courses taught or led by
• 160 faculty members who created
• 1275 instances of
• 13 information literacy modules with an
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average score of
85.19% across all modules' summative
assessments.

34. What Can I Read?
BADGING MINI-PRIMER

35. http://bit.ly/CT_badge

36. http://bit.ly/7things_badges

37. Structure of Pilot Project
HOW DOES IT WORK?

39. http://credly.com

45. So How’s It Going?
Initial Findings (as of 11/13/2013)

46. Initial Data
11,254 - assessments that should have delivered a badge
11,566 - badges sent via institutional email addresses
4039 - individual students who’ve earned badges
53 - students earning badges from non-assigned mods
56 (10+ students) - Number of badges claimed via Credly

47. Observations
• Earners driven by assignment (currently)
• Watching for student-driven uptick later
• Potential value in each phase of badging:
○
Notification email
○
Claiming (“Save and Share”)
○
Making public
○
Linking to specific badges

48. CURRENT STATUS

49. Maintenance Mode
• Funding cuts after 5+ years
• New development on hiatus
• Maintenance = Annual review/revision

50. Guiding Principles/Lessons Learned
BOILING IT DOWN

51. Guiding Principles/Lessons Learned
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Student-centered
Faculty-focused
Technology-enabled
Design-conscious
See expanded list at
http://bit.ly/infolit_principles

52. Excerpted Principles/Lessons
• Look for complementary partnership(s)
• Ground modules in what students need to do
• Strategically align with faculty (make teaching
role easier)
• Get module topics right
• Get granularity right
• Collect data constantly
See expanded list at
http://bit.ly/infolit_principles

53. Your Personal Action Plan
• Reflect upon today’s session
• Review your notes
• Identify one or more ideas you can put into
action
• Write down how you will apply the idea
• Tell one other person what you plan to do
• Discuss 30-60-90 feasibility
• Exchange contact info and plan to touch base

54. QUESTIONS?
COMMENTS?
DISCUSSION?
54

55. Follow-Up
Dr. Kelvin Thompson
kelvin@ucf.edu
http://about.me/drkelvinthompson
Elizabeth Killingsworth
elizabethk@smu.edu
@ekilling
http://bit.ly/thompson_sacs13