Learning outcome
Demonstrate capability as inquirers to locate, evaluate, manage, and use information and research to develop and guide their own knowledge, learning, and practice.
Student Benefits
Information literacy is a building block for lifelong learning, it encourages and informs problem solving and critical thinking. Information literate people can access authoritative information, empowering them to make critical decisions about their personal and professional lives, creating a greater impact on their communities and helping to solve real world problems.
In the Curriculum
To ensure Information & Research Literacies (I&RL) are effectively embedded into courses and subjects:
- Map I&RL across a course.
- Plan and scaffold I&RL throughout the entire degree.
- Include I&RL in the objectives and learning outcomes in several subjects and assessment tasks.
- Assess I&RL using a variety of methods.
- Include I&RL in your marking criteria
Scaffolding
A graduated or tiered approach to the implementation of the Information and Research Literacies GLO is recommended. The GLO elements need to be made explicit in several core subjects throughout the course. They may also be implicit in many other subjects in the course.
The recommended development of information literacy skills:
- Foundation level: Students transitioning to academic study typically need assistance understanding the difference between scholarly and non-scholarly materials, learning what library resources are available to them, and evaluating the information sources they’ve found.
- Proficient level: Students should now feel comfortable using Primo Search to locate subject readings and to find their own material beyond the recommended reading list. They will benefit from learning advanced search techniques and searching in journal databases or discipline specific sources. Learning how to use EndNote will assist with managing reading material and more efficient referencing.
- Advanced level: Students should be using a wide range of resources and understand the key discipline specific sources in their field. They will benefit from learning the difference between primary, secondary, and tertiary information sources, the information cycle, and how the process of information creation underpins their ethical use of information as consumers, workers and lifelong learners. Students can use existing knowledge to identify information gaps and creates new research questions.
Course Requirements
Explicitly acknowledge the knowledge, skill and application of the Information and Research Literacies GLO in the learning outcomes, assessment tasks and rubrics of at least 3 assessments in core subjects in a course. This should be supplemented by learning activities to ensure students acquire these skills. The library can provide support and suggestions for this.
Teaching Practices
- Tell students what kind of sources they are expected to use and help them make distinctions where ambiguities occur.
- Make clear to students that you will pay close attention to the sources that they choose, and that their grade for the assessment will depend partly on the quality of their reference list. Engage with the Library to identify the support resources available for students.
- Set assessments and learning activities that emphasise comparing, contrasting, and evaluating ideas are more likely to spur independent thought in students.
- For research papers or presentations, break longer assessments into steps by having students first submit an outline with their research question, a short outline of what will be covered, and an annotated bibliography.
- Encourage students to seek support for research and information evaluation from the library.
Assessment
Information and Research Literacies can be explicitly assessed or used discretely with focused criteria. The library’s Information and Research Literacies Guide provides a range of effective assessment examples.
Support
For additional support, please see the library guide below or contact your library faculty support team:
