Update from the Information Competency Committee
(Anand, Hope, Hyde, Matthes,Veregge)

Relevance to our programs: Independent learners rely on skills that promote lifelong learning; hence, such skills are a common goal for all of our programs. In addition, all of our programs share the common performance outcomes of having our majors develop 'lifelong learning' skills in critical thinking, oral and written communication, and information literacy. How can we ensure that these outcomes see fruition? A fortuitous tool for this endeavor exists in the nationally-recognized standards for information competency, developed by the Association of College and Research Libraries. These standards encompass all of our performance outcomes for higher-order thinking. At our faculty retreat in September, we simplified the five standards as shown below.

1. Define and refine a problem to be solved.
2. Find information effectively and efficiently (to solve a problem) - could be from any source.
3. Summarize, analyze, synthesize, evaluate the information obtained - could be literature or lab data.
4. Communicate the product (orally, as discussions or reports, or in writing).
5. Use information ethically.

Results of September Retreat: To achieve our program goals for higher-order thinking in as 'painless' a manner as possible, we are attempting to frame what we are doing already in our required courses in terms of these standards. The September retreat showed that greensheets for most of the required courses for our programs seemed to address at least some of Standards 1-5 above. Some greensheets clearly specified various info comp objectives, with statements about relevant assignments. However, a number of required courses, although likely to pursue at least some higher-order objectives, had no discernible coverage for any of the standards.

(Note: A recent study of college graduates reported that only 48% felt confident in their ability to find information [Std 2], while about 62% felt confident in ability to perform quantitative tasks and analyses [Std 3] and in ability to organize information [Std 3] and communicate its meaning [Std 4]. The underlined items could have served as course objectives in a greensheet.)

Benefits: An immediate benefit of including specific higher-order learning objectives, with relevant assignments described, could be improved SOTEs for making course expectations more clear. Most importantly, a departmental Web page with a Table containing excerpted greensheet objectives/ assignments will show that, across our programs, we expect our students to achieve higher-order learning outcomes according to a well-coordinated program plan. These data also will alert faculty about assignments they may want to adopt for their own curricula. A critical long-term benefit could be that we boost our reputation (and recruitment potential) by demonstrating publically that our programs, in a systematic and cohesive manner, aim to prepare our graduates to be independent learners. A first step in this process is standardizing our greensheets regarding these issues.

Future: Most of the greensheets surveyed for our required courses could benefit from being more explicit for the info comp standards and/or specifying assignments for promoting these objectives. Members of the Info Comp Committee will assist in this process by eventually meeting with faculty teaching required courses. We want to ensure that the departmental Web page accurately represents these courses.

Request for all faculty teaching required courses in Spring 2002:
We would like to request that you try to include a brief course objective for assignments in your courses that address any of the five standards listed above, with a brief description of the assignment(s). If you already have included such statements in your greensheets or devise them as per this request, please E-mail Bob Hyde your results and we will tabulate them in the department matrix.

This page maintained by Charity Hopecbhope@email.sjsu.edu
Updated 5 April 2002 SJSU Library Webmaster