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Connecticut College Overview In this third year of the grant, Connecticut College continued to build on the two-facet plan developed for the project. Again, the primary objectives of the plan are to: • To ensure that a majority of incoming freshman have basic info rmation literacy skills. The primary mechanisms for accomplishing these goals are the Research 101 interactive, online tutorial and the integration of info rmation literacy across the curriculum through individual faculty projects. The continued focus on this two-facet approach and the building of collaborative relationships with the faculty continues to evolve and expand. The results of the Research 101 pilot project were successful in reaching a significant number of incoming students laying the ground work for continued info rmation literacy instruction within individual courses and across the disciplines. This year ten projects were conducted in collaboration with participating faculty that incorporated one or more courses of their courses over both semesters. Presentations to the faculty in collaboration with the College's Center for Teaching and Learning have proven a significant and successful mechanism for continuing to recruit formal participants to the program and increasing the number of faculty requesting integrated info rmation literacy sessions. Faculty previously participating in the project continue to integrate info rmation literacy instruction into their courses and serve as a mechanism for identifying new faculty participants. Research 101 Tutorial The Class of 2008 was the first group of incoming students at Connecticut College to take the Research 101 online, interactive tutorial adapted from the University of Washington 's Research 101 tutorial. This pilot group was directed to take the online tutorial at the request of the Dean of Freshmen. A total of 385 students or 75.6% of the incoming students completed part or all of the tutorial's five modules with an average score of 90.2%. During the spring of 2005, librarians reviewed the content of the tutorial and determined that changes needed to be made to update the content and references in the tutorial. This process was done in conjunction with the instructional technology staff and the revised version was disseminated to the incoming Class of 2009 in mid-July. Again, students were asked to complete the tutorial before arriving on campus or to use time during Orientation Week set aside for this purpose. This year 400 students or 77% have completed all or a portion of the tutorial with an average score of 90.5%. Librarians have continued to meet with Faculty Advisors to encourage completion of the tutorial and to train faculty to integrate the tutorials components into their WebCT course sites. Focus groups with incoming students who took the tutorial will be conducted in late fall to determine their perspective on the effectiveness of the tutorial in establishing basic info rmation literacy concepts and the usefulness of these concepts during their first semester of classes. Faculty Course Projects The primary focus of librarians and info rmation technology specialists this past year has been the collaborative work with faculty on individual course projects. Ten projects were completed in all in the departments of Anthropology, Art History, Biology, Music, Government, Chemistry, Psychology, Religious Studies, and Slavic Studies. The process for these projects began with small group sessions in which faculty from similar disciplines first shared their proposed projects with other participants, their assigned faculty mentor, and librarians. Each faculty member was then provided with an opportunity to receive feedback and recommendations from the group on ways to implement their project. Individual teams then met to establish a plan of action for the completion of the project and determine what resource might be required either in terms of info rmation resources or technology support. In addition to these formal projects, staff continued to work with members of the Advisory Committee and previous participants to continue the process of integrating info rmation literacy into their instruction. Honors Study Research Sessions New this year was the development of the libraries' Honors Study Research sessions held both semesters in collaboration with the Director of the Writing Center for students beginning or planning Honors Study or Advanced Research projects during their senior year. Librarians and Faculty working with students registered for Honors Study repeatedly found varying degrees of knowledge and experience with both the libraries' programs and resources available for research. This has been especially evident as the libraries' online databases & indexes, as well as the tools for accessing them have become increasingly sophisticated. Sessions were held for approximately 90 students and were well received by both the students attending and their faculty advisors. Students attending the session were assigned individual library liaisons to meet with for additional research consultations. The program is planned to be a permanent addition to services in the future. Discipline-Specific Information Literacy The grant extension and additional funds received from Wesleyan University have provided us with the opportunity to expand the project beyond individual courses to work with departments to implement discipline-specific info rmation literacy. Two departments have been recruited for the coming year to review their courses and determine the info rmation competencies needed for their specific discipline. These two departments, Human Development and Gender and Women's Studies, will then work with librarians and info rmation technology specialists to determine where these competencies fit within the discipline and how they might be integrated across the four-year curriculum. In each case, one individual faculty member will take a lead in to project, working with their colleagues to determine the appropriate competencies, where they should be taught and translating the various competencies into relevant outcomes and activities. Outlook The additional year offered by the extension of the grant period will enable Connecticut College to pull together the various elements of its program while completing additional discipline-specific departmental projects and several individual projects. The coming year will also allow us the added time to more deeply integrate the concept of integrated info rmation literacy in working with the faculty and solidify our plans for continuation into the future. In this second year of the CTW Mellon Project for Information Literacy at Connecticut College, the initiative has focused on implementation of a two-facet plan for increasing information literacy at the College. This approach evolved through careful discussion with the Project’s Faculty Advisory Committee, IT professionals, librarians and students during the fall 2003 semester. The plan was developed in response to the need for an approach that could reach first-year students without access to a freshman seminar or similar venue for reaching all incoming students in a systematic way. A number of factors were taken into account resulting in a decision to utilize an online tutorial to reach these students. The development of an online tutorial had been a stated objected at Connecticut College, but this revised two-facet approach places the tutorial as a central component of our initiative rather than as a complement to other existing elements. Participants in the Advisory Committee readily agreed that course-integrated projects continue to be the most viable means for integrating information literacy into both 100-level and advanced level courses. Pilot faculty projects conducted during the first year of the grant were carefully reviewed and a number of changes were made to the organization and structure of the program to enhance the success of future projects. The two-facet
plan establishes the following primary objectives: This focus on the two-facet approach and the building of collaborative relationships with both faculty and administration has resulted in a program that has greater direction and sustainability for the future. The plan also looks to the future by incorporating gateway courses to the major and departmental integration.
Online Tutorial Development Plans for the implementation of the online tutorial began early in the fall of 2003. The Project had already adopted the existing University of Washington tutorial, UWIL, in its generic form the previous spring. During this initial phase modifications were made to make the tutorial’s content specific to Connecticut College. This version was posted on the Libraries’ homepage where faculty and students could access its content. A pilot project was conducted in collaboration with a member of the Advisory Committee, Theresa Ammirati as a first step. Students in her American Studies (AMS) 201 course, “Introduction to American Studies” met with a librarian who presented the concept of the tutorial, its content and how it worked. These students were then asked to take the tutorial. As rising sophomores, juniors and seniors each had the experience of having done some form of research in the library and in using the Internet as an information resource. A follow-up session with the librarian and faculty member was held after students completed the tutorial to obtain feedback on the tutorial’s content, relevance and ease of use. This information was then used during the next stages of development. The original concept of the tutorial was to provide one of a number of online resources that faculty could use to integrate information literacy into their curriculum. The two-facet plan has taken this one step farther. During summer 2004 the tutorial was administered through the Office of the Dean of Freshman to all incoming students prior to their arrival on campus. This method known as “first exposure” or “classroom flip” introduces students to material outside of the classroom and before library instruction takes place. Incoming students theoretically would use the information gained during this initial exposure as a building block to complete research and assignments that require basic information literacy skills. A total of 385 students or 75.6% of the incoming students completed some or all of the tutorial’s five modules with an average score of 90.2%. This first year serves as a pilot and has provided us with valuable information concerning the mechanisms for administering the tutorial. Focus groups are planned for later in the fall semester to determine if students found the information learned in completing the tutorial improved their ability to use the library and its information resources. The modification and development of the tutorial and it’s accompanying modules, “Shain Library Tour” and “Caravan” (How to use the libraries’ online catalog”) were a collaborative effort between librarian, Kathy Gehring, and Instructional Designer, Diane Creede. Using the College’s course management system, WebCT, students log into the site and are able to complete the individual modules at their own convenience. WebCT’s Respondus application was used create a separate quizzing component that would be more rigorous and report results for analysis using WebCT’s reporting feature. To
view the “Research 101” online tutorial and its related
modules see http://elm.conncoll.edu:8900/public/RESEARCH/
. The login and password for guests interested in viewing the tutorial
are both “infolit”, lowercase, no quotation marks. The integration of information literacy into individual courses is the second facet of our plan. Course integrated projects involve the collaboration of faculty, librarians and instructional technologists to integrate information literacy into the curriculum in a significant way. A Call for Proposals was once again Issued in spring 2004 to solicit participation in this second year of the grant initiative. Participants recruited in the spring of a given year are required to implement their projects during the fall or spring of the following academic year. A copy of the 2004 Call for Proposals is included with this report. A list of those projects completed in 2004 and projects being implemented during the 2004/2005 academic year is also included. Five of the
six projects proposed in 2003/2004 were completed this past spring.
A project report was submitted by each of the faculty summarizing their
experience and providing anecdotal assessment of the influence that
the integration of information literacy components had on student learning
in their course. Feedback regarding the process and results of the project
were A copy of the final report submitted by Leah Lowe for Theater 141, “The Art of Theater.” Completed in fall 2003, this course provides an idea how a course can be developed to incorporate information literacy. Prior to this project, Theater 141 had not included a research component using information resources or instructional support. Information Literacy objectives were identified for this course during the May 2003 two-day workshop for faculty. The faculty team then met to determine what activities might best introduce students to the resources needed. Professor Lowe presented her work at Trinity College’s spring faculty workshop on April 23, 2004, “From Stage to Page: Integrating Information Literacy in an Introductory Theater Course.”
This one-day workshop sponsored by the Mellon Foundation and co-hosted by the Associated Colleges of the South and the Bryn Mawr/Mount Holyoke Technology Project offered participants an opportunity on how to build evaluation and assessment practices into information literacy projects from their initial stages. Participants were asked to attend as teams consisting of a faculty member, instructional technologist and/or a librarian. Two three-member teams represented Connecticut College. Members from both teams collaborated on a joint poster session, “A Two-Facet Plan for Increasing Information Literacy at Connecticut College” based on the Advisory Committee’s plan developed during the fall semester. Theresa Ammirati, Dean of Freshman, shared her involvement with the implementation of the Research 101 online tutorial project. Ann Robertson, Instructor in Mathematics, presented her project integrating information literacy into a 100 level math class. A copy of the poster session has been included with this report. Connecticut College was one of only a few institutions represented by faculty participants. E-Learning Opportunities Librarians took
advantage of several opportunities to build on their existing knowledge
of Assessing
Student Learning Outcomes
Effective
Collaboration for Campus-wide Information Literacy Ongoing
Initiative Connecticut College has found this first year of the grant to be exciting and challenging. As principle administrator for the grant, Connecticut College is responsible for budgetary, organizational and policy matters. In addition, Connecticut College took responsibility for a major portion of the planning and implementation of the CTW Project Kick-Off Event Weekend held November 15th and 16th, 2002. These events were highly successful, establishing a positive working relationship among faculty, administrators and staff at the three institutions and created a positive beginning for the information literacy initiative at Connecticut College. Four staff members from Information Services are assigned to work on the Project’s initiative, two librarians and two instructional technology specialists. As the primary staff working on the grant, their responsibilities include program design, project management, and the design and implementation of the various meetings, workshops and events held at Connecticut College. The development and maintenance of the CTW Mellon Project’s website (http://www.conncoll.edu/is/infolit/) is also included in their responsibilities. As members of the CTW Mellon Project’s Implementation Committee they are responsible for working with the other colleges’ Committee members on Consortium-wide initiatives. To support the full-time staff working on the Project’s initiative, the grant-supported part-time positions for a librarian and an instructional technology specialist were hired for the three-year period of the grant. The Vice President for Information Services and Librarian of the College supports the work of these four staff members and works closely with the project’s administrator. He has also helped establish the Information Literacy Advisory Committee at Connecticut College and has been involved with the overall direction of the Project. Information Literacy Advisory Committee The Information Literacy Advisory Committee was established to provide advice and oversight for the project at Connecticut College. Six faculty members, the Vice President for Information Services and Librarian of the College, the four staff members assigned to the Project, and a student representative make up membership of this Committee. Faculty participating on the Advisory Committee make a three-year commitment and will work as a team member to implement one or more faculty information literacy projects during the grant. A stipend of $3000.00 and the additional support from library and instructional technology staff serve as incentives for participation. The grant is fortunate in having three Advisory Committee members who are directly involved in the College’s Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL). All the faculty members on the Committee are strong supporters of information literacy and have served as important advisers to the project. Several served as instructors for the initiative’s spring workshop, “Integrating Information Literacy into the Curriculum”. (see below) Faculty Projects: Call for Proposals The
academic program at Connecticut College is based on a distributed general
education model. This model establishes rigorous criteria for student
graduation. But, unlike some general education models, it does not include
a requirement that all students enroll in a first-year seminar or required
introductory level English course during their freshman year. Without
such a requirement, an alternative approach to teaching students information
literacy skills during their first year is needed. To reach these students,
a model, similar to those of the Five Colleges of Ohio Mellon funded
projects, has been adopted. This model provides a faculty member with
the support of a librarian to integrate information literacy into their
course curriculum. Unlike the Five College’s model, an instructional
technology specialist is part of the faculty member’s team at
Connecticut College. Identifying and seeking out those faculty teaching
courses with the greatest freshman enrollment as participants in the
initiative is a goal of the initiative. Faculty Workshop: “Integrating Information Literacy into the Curriculum” A two-day workshop was held in May 2003 to provide faculty teams with the tools and resources they would need to begin their projects. The twenty-five participants, faculty, librarians and instructional technology specialists were paired with their prospective team members to learn the process of integrating information literacy into the curriculum. Faculty members Gene Gallagher, Rosemary Park Professor of Religious Studies and Steve Loomis guided faculty through a process of identifying their information literacy course objectives and incorporating them using pedagogically sound principles. The second day presentations by the Information Services staff focused on team collaboration, identification of existing library resources, and the development of new instructional materials and resources to meet these objectives. Small group work allowed the faculty teams time to begin work on their projects and to share their work with other participants. Those attending indicated that is was an extremely valuable experience and recommended the workshop as a mechanism for helping future faculty get a jump-start on their information literacy projects. Providing a similar workshop on an annual basis in the future is under consideration. Online Tutorial Development The
Advisory Committee determined that the development of an online tutorial
would be part of the first-year initiative. It was soon determined that
in-house development would be extremely resource intensive. As an alternative,
librarians developed criteria for identifying and evaluating existing
online tutorials from other institutions for adoption at Connecticut
College. During a half-day session in January 2003 librarians presented
the established criteria to the faculty Advisory Committee members.
Faculty members then reviewed those online tutorials that librarians
had identified as best meeting the established criteria. After careful
consideration, the Committee selected the UWILL: Research 101 tutorial
developed by the University of Washington Information Literacy Learning
project team at UW Seattle. Permission was requested and received from
the University of Washington for adoption of the tutorial. John Holmes,
the project’s director, provided the code and advice that enabled
Information Services staff to adapt the tutorial for Connecticut College.
In adopting the UWILL tutorial, Connecticut College has made a commitment
to acknowledge the University of Washington and provide feedback on
the its use. Initial modifications have been made for its use; future
modifications are being planned to include a virtual library tour, subject-specific
modules to support information literacy instruction and an assessment
component. An
important element of the project is the development of an approach that
will be sustainable once grant support is no longer available. To that
end, Information Services and the Vice President for Information Services
has provided resources to extend professional development opportunities
for staff and to support the two-day workshop for faculty, and activities
of the Advisory Committee. Staff attended a number of regional meetings
and workshops on information literacy and instruction, as well as the
national ACRL conference held in Charlotte, NC. Ongoing Initiative This
first year has provided a valuable learning opportunity and set a foundation
for the next two years of the grant. Plans for the forthcoming year
include working with the Advisory Committee and the faculty to solidify
the process by which first-year students will develop beginning level
information fluency and advance these skills as they move towards graduation.
Connecticut College’s plan to redesign its general education program
in the coming year provides an opportunity to bring information literacy
into the core of the curriculum. New faculty projects for the coming
year will be weighted towards first-year instruction, while work continues
to address gateway courses and seek opportunities to develop discipline
specific approaches. Short and long-term assessment is also a high priority
and will receive careful attention in the year ahead.
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