Intra-curricula information literacy learning opportunities develop transferable skills embedded within the core curriculum of students. These learning opportunities and experiences are designed, delivered, assessed & evaluated via collaborative partnerships between academic and library teaching staff.
Conceptual knowledge and skills development is addressed within the full curricula of a course, in each associated unit of study within that course and across all year levels. Information literacy content is always contextualised within the content and assessment of a single unit as connected to multiple units within a course (i.e: discipline-driven), and targeted to the specific and immediate to long-term needsof students in each unit/course.
Assessment elements of the unit are a combination of formative and summative mandatory requirements of the unit and/or course, and are weighted accordingly (eg: essays, reports, projects, etc).
Through recursive and iterative learning opportunities, the outcome is deep, durable learning and transferable understanding and application of complex information literacy concepts and skills.
Academic teaching staff
Roles
- Be aware of the specific information skills (as listed in the ANZ Information Literacy Standards) which students must be able to competently demonstrate to undertake a unit of study, and in particular in the completion of assignment and/or assessment tasks (eg: identifying additional sources of information, citing references, etc).
- Create embedded learning opportunities (including assessment) within a course or unit curriculum.
Strategies
- Use the ANZ Information Literacy Standards and QUT's Information Literacy Syllabus (Proficiency Map) to inform whole-of-course and unit-specific content and assessment development.
- Apply the ANZ Information Literacy Standards to the measurement of information literacy knowledge and skills development within the context of the discipline.
- Engage Library teaching staff in the planning and development of new and existing courses and units to ensure that information literacy will be comprehensively addressed within the context of each course or unit
Library teaching staff
Roles
- Provide discipline-related advice and assistance with developing learning activities which are relevant to the particular needs of student cohorts, including consideration of year level and prior learning opportunities, and which align with the ANZ Information literacy Standards.
Develop discipline-related information literacy learning and teaching resources which can be used in course and assessment design and delivery. - Facilitate and guide the development of meaningful, embedded learning opportunities for students.
Strategies
- Advise in, and assist with, the development of frameworks and methodologies for skills development appropriate to the needs of students within a course and/or unit using the ANZ Information Literacy Standards and QUT's Information Literacy Syllabus (including curriculum profiling methods).
- Advise on, and facilitate, the application of the ANZ Information Literacy Standards in the measurement of information literacy knowledge and skills.
- Contact new and continuing academic teaching staff on a regular basis to emphasise the need to embed information literacy and to highlight the Library's information literacy learning support services and resources.
In partnership
Roles
- Consult on learning and teaching mechanisms which are the most effective and efficient in terms of outcomes, content, format, assessment and evaluation.
Foster scholarly partnerships which facilitate and enhance deep learning outcomes for students. - Actively engage students in an ongoing, recursive process of learning information literacy knowledge and skills.
Strategies
- Use the ANZ Information Literacy Standards and QUT's Information Literacy Syllabus (including curriculum profiling methods) to achieve the learning outcomes specified for a course and/or unit. Construct learning experiences and assessment opportunities for students which activate and reinforce information literacy development vertically and horizontally throughout the curriculum.
- Implement information literacy learning interventions which consider appropriate and :
- timeliness
Interventions provide maximum benefit from development for students at the point of critical need. EG: Should concepts/skills be introduced in Wk 1, Wk 6 or Wk9? First or second lecture, or incrementally over several weeks? - pitch
Interventions build on, and improve, the skills and knowledge of students to a level which is appropriate at their stage in the course, or benchmark level of skills. For example: if students, desirably, should be performing IL skills at a “proficient” level, but have had no prior development, should intervention be at an elementary level (ie: starting with basics to establish a sound understanding) or proficient level (to establish a higher skill level more quickly)? - authority
Interventions reflect who the primary - or lead - learning developer is (or should be) in terms of curriculum design, content and delivery. EG: Is the librarian, or the academic, the most effective facilitator, or should the learning activity be self-directed by the student? - format
Interventions demonstrate a preferred &/or most appropriate delivery & assessment mechanisms to establish how maximum benefit from development can be assured. EG: Would more effective learning of any particular concept or skills best occur in a lecture (large group), classroom face-to-face setting (small group), 1-1 interaction (individual), or online?
In this category, also consider motivation factors (such as weighted or non-weighted assessment, discrete or embedded assessment, etc) & duration of intervention (eg: 1hr only; 3 hrs spread over 6 weeks; 4hrs at the discretion of the student, etc).
- timeliness
- Formulate criterion-referenced assessment (CRA) to determine acquisition and attainment levels of information literacy.
- Confer on a regular basis regarding new and continuing course development, the establishment and redefining of learning outcomes and the implementation of learning opportunities for students which are timely, appropriate and effective.
