Information Evaluation Instruction: A Three Term Project with a First Year Experience Course

Abstract

In response to the recognition that work world success is dependent on locating and effectively utilizing information, the academy has acknowledged the need to produce information literate graduates. There needs to be more focus on how to develop the most effective collaborative programs with teaching faculty and benchmark the progress toward research skill mastery. This paper outlines a multiple term collaborative effort targeting student evaluation skill development. Librarians taught hybrid (mostly online with some in-person interaction) lessons to groups of lower undergraduates enrolled in a first year experience seminar. A pre-test/post-test assessment package revealed that students' strongest area of proficiency was in understanding the differences between popular and scholarly sources, with lowest performance concerning understanding the components of a scholarly article. It was also concluded that the academic term with the strongest collaborative ties between librarians and seminar instructors/leaders resulted in the greatest improvement in student learning across all measures.

Keywords

• information literacy; evaluation skills; first year experience