The ASE Process Model: An Evidence-based Approach
to Information Literacy Instruction
Don Latham and Melissa Gross
The Florida State University
Attaining Information Literacy Project
• IMLS-funded, three-year collaborative project
focusing on IL skills among first-year community
college students
• Partners: FSU and two Florida community colleges
• Purpose: to identify students with below-proficient
IL skills, gather data about their conceptions of and
experiences with IL, and develop an IL intervention
that will address their needs.
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Innovating IL Instruction:
Guiding Principles
1.
2.
3.
4.
Use an evidence-based approach
Focus on issues of perception
Develop learner-centered instruction
Develop reality-based instruction
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1. Use an evidence-based approach
• Information Literacy Test (JMU, n.d.) was administered in
order to identify students with below-proficient IL skills.
• Brief surveys were administered to collect demographic
information, IL training history, and self-perceptions of ability
in this domain.
• Interviews were conducted with below-proficient students in
order to identify their perceptions of IL and their own IL skills.
• Focus groups were conducted with below-proficient students
in order to identify their experiences with and preferences
related to instruction.
• Goals and criteria for instruction were developed.
• Instruction was developed and pilot tested through an
iterative process.
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2. Focus on issues of perception
• Students’ perceptions of IL
– Relational model of IL (Bruce, 1997)
– The students in our study did not think of IL as a discrete
set of skills (Gross & Latham, 2009, in press).
• Students’ perceptions of their own IL skills
– Dunning-Kruger Effect and IL (Kruger & Dunning, 1999;
Gross & Latham, 2007)
– The below-proficient students in our study greatly overestimated their performance on the ILT.
– When asked about their IL skills, they described them as
“good” or “above average.”
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3. Develop learner-centered instruction
• Use the Informed Learning Approach (Bruce,
2008), which emphasizes learner experiences
and perceptions and the need for a personal
relevance framework.
– Focus on self-generated rather than imposed (Gross, 1995)
information seeking.
– Focus on web rather than database searching (in other words, begin
with the familiar).
– Provide an incentive (in our case, payment; but other incentives could
include making instruction required and/or offering college credit).
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Develop learner-centered instruction
(cont.)
• Instructional design based on data collected
from students.
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–
–
–
–
–
–
Use a combination of demonstration and hands-on practice.
Provide face-to-face rather than online instruction.
Keep class size relatively small.
Have students work in pairs.
Provide ample opportunities for questions and feedback.
Provide handouts (takeaways).
Encourage self-reflection through pre- and post-surveys; encourage
students to think about what they have learned.
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4. Develop reality-based instruction
• We recognized that IL cannot be achieved in a
one-hour session.
• Yet this is often the limit imposed on librarians
and students.
• We wanted to develop a flexible instructional
model that could be
– Used as a standalone module
– adapted to a variety of settings and contentspecific goals.
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Research Goals
1. Change learners’ conception of skills required to
find, evaluate, and use information.
2. Change learners’ conception of their personal
ability to find, evaluate, and use information.
3. Teach one skill that learners can readily use that will
improve both self-generated and imposed
information task outcomes.
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Instructional Goals
By the end of the workshop participants should be able to:
1.
List the three steps of the information skills process.
2.
Use keywords to search for information.
3.
Evaluate internet search results.
4. Develop reality-based instruction
• We recognized that IL cannot be achieved in a
one-hour session.
• Yet this is often the limit imposed on librarians
and students.
• We wanted to develop a flexible instructional
model that could be
– Used as a standalone module
– adapted to a variety of settings and contentspecific goals.
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4. Develop reality-based instruction
• We recognized that IL cannot be achieved in a
one-hour session.
• Yet this is often the limit imposed on librarians
and students.
• We wanted to develop a flexible instructional
model that could be
– Used as a standalone module
– adapted to a variety of settings and contentspecific goals.
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Iterative Design Process
• Criteria for intervention were developed based on data collected from
student interviews and focus groups.
• Intervention (instruction) was designed and developed.
• Feedback was solicited from our advisory group (four academic librarians
from community and university libraries)
• Formative evaluation was used; intervention was pilot tested:
– With several students one on one
– In small groups (3-4 students each)
– In two pilots with a group of 12 students in one workshop and 7 in the
other.
– During a pilot of instructor training with a group of academic librarians
• Modifications were made after each iteration.
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Summative Evaluation
• Intervention and control groups
– 46 participants in each group
– Pre and post intervention surveys focused on
workshop content
– Review of workshop materials
– Pre and post ILT scores
– Pre and post self estimates of skill
• In-depth interviews with 30 workshop
participants
• Debriefing with workshop leader
Intervention
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
One hour workshop format
Small groups
Students work in pairs
Interactive
Internet Searching
ASE model
Focus on self-generated questions
Includes structured worksheets and handouts
Information Skills:
How to Find the Information You Need
Workshop structure
• Session objectives
– List three steps of the
information process
– Use keywords to search
– Evaluate Internet search results
• What’s on your mind?
• ASE process model
– Analyze
– Search
– evaluate
• Reflection and wrap up
• More information and help
Keeping instruction relevant
• Use of self generated
questions
• Focus on Internet searching
• Hands-on work in pairs
• Interactive. At each step
– Worksheets
– Reports to class
– Feedback
Analyze, Search, Evaluate
1. What do you want
to find out?
Analyze need.
2. How do you find
the information?
3. Which information
will you use?
Search for
information.
Evaluate results.
Analyze the kind of
information you need.
Search for
information.
Determine the best
information to use.
•What is the goal?
•What information
helps you reach your
goal?
•Key words
•Synonyms
•Truncation
•Exact words phrases
•Relevant
•Credible
•Current
The ASE Process Model
Analyze, Search , Evaluate
How to Find
the Information You Need
ASE Process Model
1.Analyze the kind of
information you need
2.Search for information
using keywords
3.Evaluate search results
in relation to your
information need
Project Funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Studies, National Leadership Grant LG-06-08-0049
Step 1: A is for Analyze
• Example:
What is happening in
Tallahassee?
• Analyze the kind of
information you need.
–What is the goal of the search?
We want to find something to do with our
friends to this weekend.
–What questions do we want to answer?
What kind of events are happening, where,
what times, and how much does it cost?
Project Funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Studies, National Leadership Grant LG-06-08-0049
Step 2: S is for Search
• Example:
What is happening in
Tallahassee this weekend?
• Using the internet, how will we
search for the information we
need?
–Keywords
–Truncation
–Exact Words or Phrase
Project Funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Studies, National Leadership Grant LG-06-08-0049
Keywords
What are the main ideas
in your topic?
Use the main ideas as key words.
•Example:
What is happening in
Tallahassee this weekend?
•Keywords:
Tallahassee, happening, weekend
Consider using synonyms for key words.
•Synonyms:
Leon County, events, November 21
Project Funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Studies, National Leadership Grant LG-06-08-0049
Truncation
• Get more results by using all forms of
a word
• (Note: this does not apply to all
words. Example: sheep).
–Write
keywords that could have
multiple forms with an asterisk
(*) immediately following them
• Example:
• We decide we want musical events occurring on
November 21 and all of December.
–Tallahassee, music* event*, November 21, December*
Project Funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Studies, National Leadership Grant LG-06-08-0049
Exact Words or Phrase
• Get more specific results by using
quotation marks around the phrase or
words or use the advance search option
on the search engine.
• (Note: this is not useful for single words.
Example: “girl”)
• Example:
• We hear about a country western singer
bringing a new show to Tallahassee.
• “Wide Open 2010: Jason Aldean”
Project Funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Studies, National Leadership Grant LG-06-08-0049
Additional Search Tips
• Advanced Search Tips
–Exclude certain words
–Specify domains or sites
•Within a domain:
.edu (or .org, .gov, etc.)
•Within a site: youtube.com
(or npr.org, etc.)
–Date (how recent a page is)
•Anytime or past day to past year
• Check out the Advanced Search Tips
–www.google.com
Project Funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Studies, National Leadership Grant LG-06-08-0049
Summary
• ASE Process Model
–Analyze – Determine your goal and
what information you need
–Search – Use keyword search
strategies
–Evaluate – Determine if the
information is
•Relevant
•Credible
•Current
Project Funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Studies, National Leadership Grant LG-06-08-0049
Using the ASE Model
• Orientation and First Year Experience
• As a stand alone workshop
• Return to model in developing workshops on
other topics
– Academic databases
– Library catalog
– Searching social network sites
– Using print resources
All workshop materials will be made available on the project website.
Includes instructor guide, PowerPoint slides, handouts, and assessment
tools.
ATTAINING INFORMATION LITERACY PROJECT
HTTP://WWW.ATTAININFOLIT.ORG
Acknowledgments
We would like to thank:
– IMLS for providing funding for the AIL Project.
– Bonnie Armstrong for assisting with the instructional
design.
– The librarians at the participating community colleges.
– Our graduate research assistants, Debi Carruth and
Meredith Mills.
– Our advisory board: Rebecca Bichel, Kenneth Burhanna,
Sarah McDaniel, and Bianca Rodriguez.
Latham & Gross / CAIS 2010
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Thank you!
Attaining Information Literacy Project
http://www.attaininfolit.org
Don Latham
dlatham@fsu.edu
Melissa Gross
mgross@fsu.edu
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