Creating Collaborations
for Providing Sci-Tech
Information Literacy
Using Active Learning
Techniques to get a foot
in the door.
ALA ACRL/STS Presentation, June 28, 2004
M. Fosmire, Head, PSET Division, Purdue University
Acknowledgements


Alexius Macklin, User Instruction
Librarian at Purdue, who has had
more to do with the success of
this program than I have.
Wayne Booker, a private donor,
provided seed money for this
program.
Outline

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Share some venues for making
connections
Describe how problem-based
learning (PBL) is ideal for
teaching information literacy
Provide examples of PBL
collaborations at Purdue
Age old Question of BI
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How do you get attention of
instructors?
Ans:
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Feed them/Incentives
Get info literacy in University
strategic plan
Get involved in University-wide
teaching initiatives
Incentives
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Our grant bought lunch for about 15
faculty
Presentation resulted in two pilot
groups and several interested faculty
members
Faculty conversations among selves
helps define needs, desires
Phase 2: Mini-grants to buy time of
faculty to develop information literacy
projects (Macklin)
University Strategic Plan

Purdue has a strategic plan
mentioning information literacy:

Goal 2 — Learning: Attain and preserve excellence in
learning through programs of superior quality and
value in every academic discipline

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Core competencies of learners in critical thinking, communication
skills, information literacy, information technology, and
methods of inquiry; teaching students how to learn; and
sensitizing them to the values, ethical principles, and global
perspectives implicit in their studies
Good for foot-in-the-door “how are
you meeting the strategic plan goals
of information literacy?”
University-wide Teaching
Initiatives
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Universities have rediscovered their
teaching mission – formed Centers for
Teaching Excellence to support
instructors
Centers are always looking for
programming

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research assignments
plagiarism
problem-based learning
Focus on PBL

Dramatic success with PBL model
for information literacy
instruction


Alexius Macklin co-founded PBL
interest group in CIE
Campus-wide PBL Day, May 2001,
with poster sessions and
presentations.
Why PBL?

Active Learning Technique

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Hands-on activities more
interesting than lectures
Faculty increasingly required to
include active learning in courses
Inherently requires information
skills – ‘Stealth info literacy’
What Is PBL?
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Students are given an ‘ill-structured’
open-ended problem to solve.
Students need to:

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articulate what the core problem is,
determine what information they already
have,
determine what information they need to
gather,
synthesize the information to resolve the
problem, and
defend their results.
Power of PBL
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Technique intrinsically requires
research—to identify ‘learning issues’
for problem and filling those needs
Structure follows info literacy
competency standards
Information skills follow content, not
vice versa
Skills acquired at point of need, as
wrestling with the problem
Example (EAS 109)

Problem:

Everyone is talking about global warming.
As a legislative aide, you need your boss to
stay in power, so you can keep your job.
Recommend a policy about global warming
that will make your congressperson look
good.

Specifically: Your working group has been selected to
provide a recommendation concerning X as a possible
solution to the global warming situation. For the next
lab, prepare a presentation showing why your
recommendation should be endorsed by your boss.
How Information Literacy
Fits In.

In order for the student to be
successful at their project, they need
to be able to:
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Articulate their problem/information need
Locate needed information
Analyze and evaluate information
Synthesize information to solve the
problem
Properly attribute information sources
In a nutshell, the ACRL Information
Literacy Competency Standards
Problem Definition

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From the scenario, ask students
to extract the main question or
problem they need to resolve, in
their own words.
Basically, create a research
question or hypothesis
Determine ‘Learning Issues’

We use KND method
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What do they already Know?
What do they Need to know?
What do they Do to find their
information?
With a KND chart, they can
articulate their information
needs.
Topic Articulation Worksheet
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For example, How old is the Earth?:
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What do I Know?
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What do I Need to know?
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Teacher said 4.6 billion years
Radio-something dating
I’m 20 years old, so its older than that
The date of the Earth’s Formation
What is radio-something dating?
How does it work? How accurate is it?
What do I need to Do to find it?
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Write down key concepts
Put them together to create searches for information.
E.g. – age of earth; radiometric dating, ice cores,
formation of earth
Then, let them work
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Let ‘em loose on the internet (20
minutes) – Locate Information
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Exchange papers (10 minutes) –
Analyze/Evaluate Information
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They write down what they learn
Give them evaluation criteria and peers
see if they found some ‘good stuff’.
Present to Class (5 minutes)

Students present good, bad examples
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Students like to learn from peers
Then, repeat with Journals
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They have used search strategies
in a forgiving system (the Web)
Now, they dig into more
substantial fare
Repeat search and report
process—asking them to find
differences between web and
published resources
Bringing it all together
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Groups create presentation
defending their solution to the
problem – Synthesizing
Information; Citing Information

The best presentations are
repeated in the lecture class, and
questions from them appear on
exams
What do the Instructors
Do?
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Cliché for active learning:
Not the sage on the stage,
but the guide on the side.
Circulate for one-on-one help
with all aspects of the exercise
Since interfaces come and go,
concentrate on discovery skills
rather than syntax
Student Results
(self-evaluation)
Skill
% Agree
Can apply skills learned to
final project
76%
Can Find and Evaluate
Information
98%
Can Find Scholarly
Information
92%
Can Properly Cite Information
93%
Student Results (cont.)
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54% of students rated
Information Labs as one of top
two labs in the course
Instructors saw marked
improvement in student papers
Status of this Project
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The Development of a Program:
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Year 1: Michael Fosmire and Alexius Macklin,
created two information labs, 4 lab sections
Year 2: Michael Fosmire and Carolyn Laffoon,
created one information lab, 4 lab sections
Year 3: Trained TA’s to administer lab, Carolyn
Laffoon providing backup assistance, 5 lab
sections
Moving responsibility to TA’s, makes project
scalable and more tightly integrated into
curriculum
Other Projects
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Vet Med—integrated into their PBL
coursework -- G. Stephens and B.
Brown) (mini-grant)
Rte. 231 relocation (HTM, Forestry,
Landscape Arch) – V. Killion (mini-grant)
Science and Society – A. Macklin
EAS 243 Mineralogy – M. Fosmire
Coming Soon:
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Ag + Bio Eng.;
Organizational Leadership and
Supervision
Last Words of Advice
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Flog your successes (and those
of others) as much as possible
But, don’t think that one
technique or style fits every
situation…
Listen to your faculty’s needs and
respond to them
Conclusions
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PBL offers a foot in the door to help
faculty provide active learning
exercises
PBL-based exercises promote handson experience with all Information
Literacy Competency Standards
Students enjoy labs
Students feel they can transfer skills
to reports/projects in other classes
Instruction URLs
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EAS 109
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Vet Med 520-540
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http://www.lib.purdue.edu/pnhs/inst/231Relocation/
EAS 243
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http://www.lib.purdue.edu/vetmed/inst/svmleader/inde
x.html
Rt 231 relocation
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www.lib.purdue.edu/eas/inst/eas109
www.lib.purdue.edu/eas/inst/eas243
Comments or Questions:

fosmire@purdue.edu
Further Reading
Background on the techniques of PBL and more detail on our collaborations
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Duch, B.J., Groh, S.E., and Allen, D.E. 2001. The Power of
Problem-based Learning. Stylus: Stirling, VA.
Fogarty, Robin. 1997. Problem-based Learning and Other
Curriculum Models for the Multiple Intelligences.
Classroom. Skylight: Arlington Heights, Ill.
Macklin, A.S. 2002. Integrating Information Literacy Using
Problem-based Learning. Reference Services Review.
29(4):306-314.
Macklin, Alexius Smith, and Michael Fosmire. “The LEADER
Project.” College and Research Libraries News, 64, no 3
(2003): 192-195.
Fosmire, Michael and Alexius Macklin. “Riding the Active
Learning Wave: Using Problem-Based Learning as a
Catalyst for Creating Faculty-Librarian Partnerships.” Issues
in Science and Technology Librarianship, 34, Spring 2002.
http://www.istl.org/02-spring/article2.html.