Carl Phillips, Library Director

carlphillips@csum.edu

707/654-1093

Rene Viargues, General Studies Department Chair

rviargues@csum.edu

707/654-1146

Submitted: February 28, 2001

The Maritime Academy would like funding to further develop and fine-tune a foundational component of its Information Fluency Program – course integrated instruction in the first year. Information Fluency at the Maritime Academy is based on the idea that standards of information competency can be met in courses required of all Maritime Academy students in the first year. In the 2^nd, 3^rd, and 4^th years, library related assignments are integrated into many courses serving to provide opportunities to achieve new levels of "fluency" in using information resources.

Groundwork in implementing the Maritime Academy’s Information Fluency Program www.csum.edu/library/infofluency/ has been accomplished. The CMA Faculty Senate has endorsed the program. Faculty Senate Library Committee is working with the Library to develop model assignments for courses after the first year. A student from the Graduate School for Library and Information Science at San Jose State is assisting in the customization of the CSU Information Competency Online Tutorials. Faculty workshops have been regularly offered for the past year. First year courses, EGL 100, EGL 110, COM 100, COM 210 (courses required of all CMA graduates), have incorporated information competency related assignments and instruction.

The first year course assignments need more thought and development. They do not address all information literacy/competency standards. Better assessments for the assignments need to be explored. It may be feasible to integrate information competency into a few other required General Studies courses. In sum, we need funding for a comprehensive development effort where faculty can rethink, further develop, and refine their library-related assignments.

Specifically, the goals of this project are: 1.) fine tune and more fully develop first year course integrated assignments that address all five of the ACRL Information Literacy Standards for Higher Education, 2.) create or identify assessment tool/s that will help measure learning, and 3.) fully develop and adopt information competence skills as part of the General Studies Department’s learning outcomes. Faculty members from the Maritime Academy’s General Studies Department will accomplish the development of the assignments based on their teaching styles and methods and concepts of good library assignments. An information literacy consultant (Christina Woo, University of California, Irvine) will provide instruction, guidance, and assistance throughout project activities especially the retreat.

Project Activities

We will hold a General Studies Department retreat at the Maritime Academy in Early May, just after the Academy’s semester ends.

Off-site, before the retreat, participating faculty who have information-fluency-based assignments will send them and the course syllabus to the Information Literacy Consultant. She will review them and the faculty members' instructional objectives in order to tailor the retreat to needs specific to faculty and courses at CMA. Faculty who have not yet devised assignments will send to the Consultant their syllabus and learning objectives they hope to meet when developing an assignment during the retreat.

It will be strongly recommend that the faculty participants familiarize themselves with the CSU and the ACRL standards before the first day of the retreat. Some brief readings will also be provided for the participants before the first day. The Consultant will make a pre-retreat visit to the Academy to view the retreat facilities, visit with some faculty, and finalize plans.

The Library Director and General Studies Department Chair will coordinate the retreat. The Consultant will provide instruction and guidance in all aspects of the retreat. Below is a draft outline of the retreat:

8:00-9:00 Continental Breakfast

8:00-8:20 Introduction and Workshop Goals

8:20-8:40 Information Fluency Program at California Maritime Academy (Carl Phillips)

8:40-9:20 Discussion/Questions: CSU Information Competency (Carl Phillips) & ACRL Information Literacy Standards (Consultant: Christina Woo)

9:20-10:00 Faculty expectations: "I'm here because _____"; and "One of the main things I want to take away from this retreat is ________."

10:00-10:15 Break

10:15-11:45 Designing Good Library Assignments (Consultant: Christina Woo)

• Characteristics of bad/poor/inefficient assignments (or, what to avoid)

• Bloom's Taxonomy (comparing "lower" and "higher" orders of thinking skills)
• Defining specific goals and observable behaviors in specific courses (this can be time-consuming but is key, since the assignment's activities are tied directly to these goals and behaviors).
• Devising appropriate, measurable, and observable learning objectives
• Write assignment tasks to exemplify the goals and objectives of the assignment
• Connecting the ACRL and CSU standards to the specific goals and behaviors the faculty want to achieve in their assignments.

12:00-1:00 Lunch Break

1:00-2:00 Designing Good Library Assignments … (continuation of morning ensuring that all standards are met and all courses for meeting those standards are identified).

2:00-3:00 Work Groups: Begin Creating Assignments

3:00-3:30 Break (refreshments)

3:30-4:30 Discussion: Issues in Creating Assignments

4:30-5:00 Wrap-up and "homework" – Begin to more fully develop Day 1's ideas and activities into more interesting and effective assignment/s.

 

8:00-8:45 Continental Breakfast

8:45-9:30 Discussion: Homework Products, Revelations, Ideas…

9:30-10:15 Work Groups: Continue Creating Assignments

10:15-10:30 Break

10:30-11:45 Discussion: Assessment Issues (Consultant: Christina Woo)

Examples:

• After devising and implementing a new assignment tied to standards, how are the results different (with the results of the old assignment as the control group)? If, for example, students are expected to evaluate their information sources and use only scholarly articles in their list of references, are they citing fewer (or no) "popular" articles?
• In discussion sections, are the questions and discussions more well-informed? This is harder to measure and require good recollections of past discussion sections.

12:00-1:00 Lunch Break

1:00-3:00 Work Groups: Complete the Course Assignments

3:00-3:30 Break (refreshments)

3:30-4:00 Present the Course Assignments

4:00-4:15 Wrap-up and discussion of refining retreat products during the summer.

2. Refine

Over the summer, participants will refine and write the assignments into their syllabus. Assessment mechanisms will be documented. Department/course learning outcomes will be written/rewritten to include the skills of information competence. The Information Literacy Consultant will be available via email and phone for consultation. General Studies Chair and Library Director will coordinate.

 

3. Report

Participants will report their Information Fluency component to the Maritime Academy Community. This will occur in the Ward Room as a brown bag luncheon. Library Director and General Studies Chair will coordinate.

Early May, 2001 Retreat

May – August 15, 2001 Refine

September, 2001 Report

$2000 $200 to each General Studies faculty participant (up to a maximum of 10)

$600 Honorarium for Information Literacy consultant

$300 Pre-visit travel for Information Literacy consultant

$700 Retreat travel and lodging for Information Literacy consultant

$900 Retreat breakfast, lunches and snack breaks

University of California, Irvine

For the last 25 years has provided reference service and have provided library instruction to college and university students, faculty, and staff. During the mid-1980s headed up the most active library instruction program in Colorado. Since 1997 has given 3 preconferences on "Developing Effective Library Assignments" at the American Library Association (ALA) annual conference (1997 and 1998) and at the ALA Association of College and Research Library (ACRL) biennial conference (1999). All three preconferences were at the invitation of ALA and ACRL.

California Maritime Academy

Two members of the faculty have participated in the Cal Poly, SLO summer workshop on Information Competency. Most if not all members participated in presentations and proposals of the Information Fluency Program at the Maritime Academy. Several of the faculty have collaborated with the Library in devising library assignments for their courses.

California Maritime Academy, General Studies Department Chair

Has collaborated in the development of library related assignments in first year courses. Was crucial and instrumental in early discussions and development of the Information Fluency Program at the Maritime Academy.

California Maritime Academy, Library Director

Served as an instruction librarian at the University of Washington. Developed an instruction program at James Madison University and was instrumental in the development of online tutorials. Published two editions of a library instruction workbook (McGraw-Hill). Participated for 9 years in ACRL’s Instruction Section chairing several committees, serving as an elected member of the executive committee for 3 years, and serving as a member at large. Leads development of the Information Fluency Program at California Maritime Academy.

Letters of Support

See attached letter from the Maritime Academy’s VP Academic Affairs and Academic Dean.