Collaboration in Campus-Wide Assessment : Defining Undergraduate Information Literacy Competencies for Oregon State University
Permanent citation URL:
http://hdl.handle.net/1957/8114
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| Title: | Collaboration in Campus-Wide Assessment : Defining Undergraduate Information Literacy Competencies for Oregon State University |
| Authors: | Deitering, Anne-Marie |
| Keywords: | infomation literacy assessment learning outcomes collaboraton focus groups libraries |
| Issue Date: | 17-Mar-2008 |
| Abstract: | Colleges and universities across the country are feeling pressure from accrediting agencies and others to measure just what it is their students learn. Librarians at Oregon State University saw this as an opportunity to being information literacy into a campus-wide conversation about what all OSU graduates should know. Working directly with faculty and other campus partners, OSU librarians defined undergraduate information literacy competencies that reflect the links between research, life-long learning, discovery and critical thinking. Ideally, the college experience affects students in a variety of complicated ways. Finding ways to make the complex and often abstract learning college students do measurable is a real challenge, even within clearly defined disciplines. Finding ways to measure student mastery of general skills and concepts (like "communication skills" or "information literacy") is even more challenging, because the learning experiences that lead to this mastery happen throughout the institution. OSU librarians realized early on that to successfully build a structure to support the assessment of information literacy skills at OSU, a collaborative process was needed. As a starting point, librarians adapted the Association for College and Research Libraries Instruction Section's Information Literacy Standards for Higher Education to fit OSU needs. This initial draft was intended only as a starting-off point for discussions with a variety of campus partners. In focus groups, faculty partners described what they want for their students, confirming some of our assumptions, and inspiring new thinking about others. In meetings with additional campus partners representing a wide range of academic and administrative programs, we were deluged with suggestions for implementing the competencies across the curriculum. The final product describes an information literate OSU undergraduate. Just as important, the partnerships that were built during this collaborative process have continued. |
| URI: | http://hdl.handle.net/1957/8114 |
| Appears in Collections: | Biennial Conference on University Education in Natural Resources. (7th : 2008, Corvallis, OR) Presentations and Posters (Libraries) |
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