In 2023, specialists from the university library’s Information Skills & Support (IS&S) team approached the educational developers at EDT with a proposal to review the range of information skills training on offer. Although information skills are addressed in every degree programme, the question was whether this provision was sufficiently aligned with the university’s ambitions and the students’ learning needs.
Initial guidance and support were limited to the first year, whereas third-year students in particular also benefit from this support when conducting research for their bachelor’s thesis. A further problem was that programmes incorporated these elements into the curriculum at different times and in different ways. As a result, information literacy was indeed part of academic skills, but was not always recognised as such.
“We noticed that ambition and approach were not aligned,” said educational designer Mark Graner. “We set out to explore how we could develop a clear learning pathway with content tailored to students’ stage of study. A guiding principle in this was our aim to train students to become critical thinkers and researchers. This, combined with the pillars of information literacy, resulted in learning objectives for each academic year.”
Following a development process lasting several months, Mark Graner is proud to announce that the first pilot schemes are now up and running. In the coming academic year, information specialists from IS&S will be holding discussions with the directors of education to integrate the learning pathway into the curriculum on a permanent basis. ‘As a university, we want to educate critical global citizens – students who do not simply accept information at face value, but know where that information comes from, how to recognise quality, and how to use sources responsibly,’ says Graner. With this in mind, an environment has now been created in Brightspace that is accessible to all students: ‘The Information Literacy Space’. In this environment, students will find explanations, teaching methods and good examples relating to the key pillars of information literacy.
Curious about the information in the Brightspace environment? Take a look in Brightspace and let your students know.