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A study of online hospitality management students’ information literacy
Abstract
This Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) study focuses on understanding more about how hospitality management students enrolled in online courses define and use information literacy, and what they think is meaningful with regard to information literacy skills connected to their major field of study, before and after completing an online module about information literacy. Students enrolled in an online introductory hospitality course at a public university in the southeastern United States (U.S.) during six different semesters (in 2020 and 2021) participated in the study. The study included having the students complete a survey, read and take a quiz over a module about information literacy, and reflect over information literacy after they completed those steps. Results indicated that students, instructors, and librarians could potentially do more to enhance information literacy in the hospitality discipline. Suggestions for teaching, recommendations for further research, and limitations are presented.
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The purpose of this research was to provide validity evidence for the Information Literacy Self-Efficacy Scale (ILSES), a widely used instrument that was constructed in 2006. The researchers were interested in investigating the validity of this instrument due to the evolution of the information environment that has taken place since the scale’s original development, mostly as a result of the prominence of the Internet. Data were collected from N = 253 undergraduate students participating in a broader information literacy research study. Data were subjected to descriptive analyses, internal consistency reliability, and a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). After evaluating three different CFA models based on the ILSES’ construction, the researchers determined that a four-factor model fit the data with the following latent constructs: 1) Initiating the search strategy, 2) Assessing and comprehending the information, 3) Interpreting, synthesizing, and using the information, and 4) Evaluating the product and process. A discussion of these findings is provided in light of the evolving information environments in which undergraduate students are expected to use information for their academic, personal, and professional lives.
A growing body of literature focused on the pedagogical relationship between information literacy (IL) and metacognition suggests that facilitating learners’ reflections promotes IL learning. However, activating and assessing this relationship is difficult. This article describes a constructivist activity that models for students how to practice IL while increasing awareness of metacognitive approaches. The modified jigsaw activity, including a worksheet, facilitates individual reflection and peer-to-peer learning through structured conversation regarding popular press articles. Using a grounded theory approach, coding of students’ worksheets showed IL development related to comprehension, procedure, evaluation, and reflection. Moreover, the worksheet offers instructors insight into student learning processes and progress. This article offers evidence of how to enhance and make more visible the connection between IL and metacognition for both students and instructors.
With global competition, sustainable development, and economic growth in mind, organisations are under constant pressure to change and stay apace. In the knowledge society where 21st century attributes are key, the ability to use information towards continuous learning and evolution in the workplace is imperative. Among other qualities, sound workplace literacy is a necessary attribute that students as prospective employees must attain. Student learning must be augmented with relevant experiences to develop a range of literacies related to creativity, innovation, communication, collaboration and the effective use of information in a world where technology evolves rapidly. Higher education needs a better understanding of industry requirements related to the literacies and attributes expected from graduates entering the market. Exploring industry related needs, aligning support and library services accordingly and improving inter-departmental collaboration within higher education will better prepare students for the demands in the challenging and fast-changing world of work. The paper reports on a literature review and the findings of a survey on required workplace literacies in a sector of the hospitality and tourism industry. It highlights the importance of more effective collaboration between academics and librarians in supporting the development of workplace literacy. To this aim a purposive selected target population in a leading South African hotel group was approached. Evidence abound that there is a gap between the level of workplace literacy support offered to students and the actual literacy needs reported by the target group. Based on the findings and extrapolating from recent research, a meta-literacy framework is offered in support of developing 21st century workplace literacies.
The present study investigates the relationship between CEO’s information literacy and innovation in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Even if information literacy’s business value has been recognized in recent literature, its impact on organizational innovation, a critical and strongly information intensive process, has never been studied before. Structural equation modeling based analysis of data collected from 184 company CEOs in Finland revealed that CEOs’ information literacy has a positive impact on the development of exploratory and exploitative innovations in SMEs. Additionally, opportunity recognition mediates the relationship between information literacy and innovation. Overall, the influence of information literacy is slightly stronger on exploitation than exploration. Nevertheless, the mutual positive effect suggests that information literacy enhances innovation ambidexterity in organizations. Based on these findings, we discuss theoretical and practical implications as well as future research opportunities in workplace information literacy research.
Concerns over fake news have triggered a renewed interest in various forms of media literacy. Prevailing expectations posit that literacy interventions help audiences to be "inoculated" against any harmful effects of misleading information. This study empirically investigates such assumptions by assessing whether individuals with greater literacy (media, information, news, and digital literacies) are better at recognizing fake news, and which of these literacies are most relevant. The results reveal that information literacy-but not other literacies-significantly increases the likelihood of identifying fake news stories. Interpreting the results, we provide both conceptual and methodological explanations. Particularly, we raise questions about the self-reported competencies that are commonly used in literacy scales. Keywords fake news, media literacy, information literacy, digital literacy, news literacy, misinformation, disinformation Although the decentralized and participatory nature of digital communication has contributed to the diversification of knowledge diffusion process, it has also fostered a pressing need for developing ways to assess the accuracy of information. Such issues of accuracy in media diets have received particular attention due to the sudden rise of fake news over the 2016 U.S. presidential election. A number of commentators indicated that the election
Online information literacy instruction is becoming increasingly popular among university libraries, although the level of its development varies from institution to institution. In this study, we seek to ascertain implementation levels for online information literacy instruction among university libraries in Mexico, as well as librarians' experiences, opinions, and attitudes with regard to this instruction modality. To this end, we analyzed data collected between November 2015 and January 2016 through a survey that was sent to 559 libraries at Mexican public universities and completed by 189 librarians. The results show a limited development of information literacy instruction in general and in online instruction in particular, despite the recognition of its importance and usefulness. The main barriers to implementation that were identified were a lack of technological resources and of personnel qualified to undertake these tasks. The main challenges that the libraries that do provide online instruction have had to face are related to a lack of institutional support, a lack of cooperation on the part of faculty members, students' motivation, and librarians' expertise.
Higher education institutions need to take stock of the present scenario of graduate employability from both the employer and graduates’ perspectives, if they are to respond effectively to the needs of the labour market. Graduate employability is a concept that has gained popularity in the higher education sector in the world. The underlying assumption is that graduates need other attributes in addition to those skills needed in the subject-specific discipline. This paper provides an assessment of employers, graduates, and lecturers’ perceptions on graduate employability attributes for management sciences graduates in Namibia. Using a survey method of which questionnaires were administered to the three types of stakeholders, namely employers, lecturers and graduates. The study found a mismatch in responses between employers, lectures, and graduates regarding attributes that are important for the job market; those that are emphasized in curricula; and those that graduates need more training on. The argument presented by the paper is that mapping out the perceptions of stakeholders will enable higher education institutions to enhance graduate employability attributes needed by the labour market.
Metaliteracy is envisioned as a comprehensive model for information literacy to advance critical thinking and reflection in social media, open learning settings, and online communities. At this critical time in higher education, an expansion of the original definition of information literacy is required to include the interactive production and sharing of original and repurposed digital materials. Metaliteracy provides an overarching and unifying framework that builds on the core information literacy competencies while addressing the revolutionary changes in how learners communicate, create, and distribute information in participatory environments. Central to the metaliteracy model is a metacognitive component that encourages learners to continuously reflect on their own thinking and literacy development in these fluid and networked spaces. This approach leads to expanded competencies for adapting to the ongoing changes in emerging technologies and for advancing critical thinking and empowerment for
producing, connecting, and distributing information as independent and collaborative learners.
The present contribution looks into the much discussed issue of student plagiarism, which is conjectured to stem from problems with information searching and exploitation, underdeveloped exposition skills and difficulty in using sources, especially concerning quotations and references. The aim of the study is to determine how effective pre-emptive measures can be if information exploitation and writing from sources are approached as skills that need to be taught. The results show that addressing source use as a skill tends to gradually if slowly reduce the number of plagiarized assignments submitted by students.
Stockton University, a mid-sized state university in the mid-Atlantic region of the United Stated, initiated the first of two pilots for implementation of its institutional outcomes during the fall semester 2014. At the beginning of that semester, in an effort to gauge students’ attitudes university-wide toward the value of the outcomes, the director of the pilot administered an exploratory survey to the entire student population (N=427). The survey contained eleven questions. The results indicate that students agree on their value. The student survey participants, however, identify five additional outcomes. Furthermore, student survey participants rank four of the student-identified outcomes of greater value than some of the institutional outcomes. The survey results also suggest that students could assume a more engaged role in campus conversations about core, institutional outcomes, thus, fostering authentic connection to the learning outcomes students seek and acquire while in college.
The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) has been variously defined over its history. We suggest that evolving identity definitions are part of SoTL’s developmental process. Ascribing to Huber and Hutchings’ (2005) ‘big tent’ philosophy, we note that useful definitions of SoTL should take into account the local context and focus on the outcome of improving learning and educational quality.
L’avancement des connaissances en enseignement et en apprentissage (ACEA) a été défini de diverses manières au fil de son histoire. Nous suggérons que les définitions correspondant à cette identité qui évolue font partie du processus de développement de l’ACEA. En acceptant la philosophie de la « grande tente » de Huber et Hutchings (2005), nous remarquons que les définitions utiles de l’ACEA devraient tenir compte du contexte local et se concentrer sur le résultat qui consiste à améliorer l’apprentissage et la qualité de l’éducation.
This paper argues a divide exists between quality assurance (QA) processes and quality enhancement, and that the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) can bridge this divide through an evidence-based approach to improving teaching practice. QA processes can trigger the examination of teaching and learning issues, providing faculty with an opportunity to systematically study their impact on student learning. This form of scholarship positions them to take a critical and empowered role in the continuous improvement of student learning experiences and to become full participants in the goal of QA structures. A document analysis of current provincial QA policies in Canada reveals a gap between how teaching and learning challenges are identified and how those challenges are studied and acted upon. A QA report is not the end result of an assurance process. It is the beginning of a change process that is intended to lead to improvements in the student learning experience. The authors consider how SoTL provides a research-minded approach to initiate continuous improvements within a QA framework, and provides considerations for how it might be integrated into evolving provincial frameworks.
Dans cet article, les auteurs soutiennent qu’il existe un fossé entre les processus d’assurance de la qualité (AQ) et l’amélioration de la qualité et que l’avancement des connaissances en enseignement et en apprentissage (ACEA) peut combler ce fossé par le biais d’une approche basée sur l’évidence pour améliorer les pratiques d’enseignement. Les processus d’AQ peuvent déclencher l’examen des problèmes relatifs à l’enseignement et à l’apprentissage et ce faisant, donner aux professeurs l’occasion d’étudier systématiquement leur impact sur l’apprentissage des étudiants. Cette forme de recherche savante leur permet de jouer un rôle important dans l’amélioration continue des expériences d’apprentissage des étudiants et de devenir des participants à part entière pour atteindre l’objectif des structures de l’AQ. Une analyse des documents relatifs aux politiques actuelles d’AQ au Canada révèle qu’il existe un écart entre la manière dont les défis relatifs à l’enseignement et à l’apprentissage sont identifiés et la manière dont ces défis sont étudiés et dont on y a remédié. Le rapport d’AQ n’est pas la conclusion du processus d’assurance de la qualité. C’est le début d’un processus de changement qui doit aboutir à des améliorations de l’expérience d’apprentissage des étudiants. Les auteurs examinent la manière dont l’ACEA fournit une approche de recherche pour entreprendre les améliorations continues dans le cadre de l’AQ et apporte des réflexions pour déterminer comment l’ACEA peut être intégré dans des cadres provinciaux évolutifs.
Digital information literacy (DIL)—generally defined as the ability to obtain, understand, evaluate, and use information in a variety of digital technology contexts—is a critically important skill deemed necessary for success in higher education as well as in the global networked economy. To determine whether college graduates possess the requisite knowledge and skills in DIL, higher education institutions must be able to administer and use results from valid assessments of DIL. In this paper, we provide a comprehensive review of existing definitions of this construct in major frameworks from higher education and the workforce and propose an operational definition of DIL. Next, we provide a review of existing assessments of information literacy and related constructs, including features of the assessments, construct alignment, and psychometric properties (i.e., reliability and validity evidence). Finally, we discuss challenges and considerations surrounding the design, implementation, and use of next-generation assessments of DIL. We offer this review as a resource for higher education institutions in selecting among existing assessments or in designing their own measures.
This survey provides a brief and selective overview of research in the philosophy of mathematics education. It asks what makes up the philosophy of mathematics education, what it means, what questions it asks and answers, and what is its overall importance and use? It provides overviews of critical mathematics education, and the most relevant modern movements in the philosophy of mathematics. A case study is provided of an emerging research tradition in one country. This is the Hermeneutic strand of research in the philosophy of mathematics education in Brazil. This illustrates one orientation towards research inquiry in the philosophy of mathematics education. It is part of a broader practice of ‘philosophical archaeology’: the uncovering of hidden assumptions and buried ideologies within the concepts and methods of research and practice in mathematics education. An extensive bibliography is also included.
As two lecturers from quite different disciplines—Population Health and Musicology—we faced a common instructional challenge: how to improve the standard of student writing in our first-year courses for non-majors, and thus to invite our students into the discourses of our disciplines. We collaborated in the design of a sequence of online writing assignments for our separate courses, which would address this question. We were inspired by the high-level digital literacy skills of our students, which we sought to use in similar ways to improve the students’ other literacy skills, especially disciplinespecific writing skills. Drawing on educational design research methodology, we took into account our own experiences with e-learning in our previous courses and the latest literature on e-learning and literacy development. The outcomes of our research are guidelines for teachers of writing across undergraduate disciplines, and reflections on how best to mobilize students’ digital literacy skills to educational ends.
Excerpt: The “aha” moments in life delight us. We suddenly gain an insight, experience a profound joy, or realize something important for the first time. A second grader provided for me a crucial “aha” moment about the purposes of education. As a regular part of their learning, students in this second grader’s school throughout the year collected evidence of their learning in portfolios, pausing periodically to reflect on and explain the contents of the portfolio. On this particular day the second graders were sharing their portfolios with other students, parents, and guests, including me.
Literature regarding the effectiveness of various practices for nurturing student learning typically focuses on the different outcomes of passive versus active approaches and suggests that active teaching, including exposing students to real-world learning experiences, facilitates a richer and more authentic understanding. Limited investigation of the impacts of instructional scaffolding—implementing a progression of methods that supplements passive procedures with active learning initiatives—has been undertaken in hospitality and tourism education. This study measures learning among 59 students enrolled in an introductory hospitality and tourism course after they were exposed to passive, situated, and authentic instruction in an effort to determine the degree of understanding at each stage. Our findings revealed that incorporating real-world learning opportunities through situated and authentic teaching strategies helps students build upon theoretical knowledge gained passively to reach praxis.
Changes in the higher educational environment are having a tremendous impact on the education process, curricula, learning outcomes and instructional practices. This paper aims to identify the challenges facing established universities in tourism and hospitality education and to provide insight of how these could be managed in the future. Five sources of change are identified: the socio-economic and technological environment; global competition; the student market; educators and teaching methods; and the tourism and hospitality industry. The exploitation of modern technologies and the development of information literacy and knowledge management skills are the two major issues that universities need to consider in the future.
A report about college students and their information-seeking strategies and research difficulties, including findings from 8,353 survey respondents from college students on 25 campuses distributed across the U.S. in spring of 2010, as part of Project Information Literacy. Respondents reported taking little at face value and were frequent evaluators of Web and library sources used for course work, and to a lesser extent, of Web content for personal use. Most respondents turned to friends and family when asking for help with evaluating information for personal use and instructors when evaluating information for course research. Respondents reported using a repertoire of research techniques — mostly for writing papers — for completing one research assignment to the next, though few respondents reported using Web 2.0 applications for collaborating on assignments. Even though most respondents considered themselves adept at finding and evaluating information, especially when it was retrieved from the Web, students reported difficulties getting started with research assignments and determining the nature and scope of what was required of them. Overall, the findings suggest students use an information-seeking and research strategy driven by efficiency and predictability for managing and controlling all of the information available to them on college campuses, though conducting comprehensive research and learning something new is important to most, along with passing the course and the grade received. Recommendations are included for how campus-wide stakeholders — faculty, librarians, and higher education administrators — can work together to help inform pedagogies for a new century.
Medical practitioners need the skills to find relevant information and evaluate its authenticity, validity, and reliability. The learning of information literacy has been embedded in the University of Western Australia (UWA) medical course since 2000. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the enhanced information literacy program with respect to medical students' information literacy skills. The Australian and New Zealand Information Literacy (ANZIIL) Standards were used to define the information literacy skills required by medical students, and the Information Skills Survey for Assessment of Information Literacy in Higher Education (ISS) was used to determine students' self-perception of information skills. Two cohorts of students were evaluated - one that had teachers who had been coached by librarians and one that had no teacher coaching. This study substantiates others' findings for ANZIIL Standards 2, 5, and 6 for beginning medical students. Higher median scores were obtained for Standard 2, 5, and 6. Lower median scores were obtained for Standard 3 and 4. Persistent significant positive differences were found for Standards 3, 4, and 6 at the beginning of Year 2. The coaching of teachers has made information literacy skills more explicit in the curriculum for learners and teachers as skills that need to be developed and practiced deliberately.
Crowdfunding was used for the development and production of an information literacy game, SEEK!, in 2012. The game aims to build skills around creating a search strategy and is deliberately generic and adaptable. This article outlines the reasons for using such a game for the teaching of information skills, the process of gaining funding via the crowdfunding platform Indiegogo and some future developments that build on the initial game creation and use.
This paper describes how college students played the web-based BiblioBouts Information Literacy (IL) game, which ushers players through the library research process while they complete a research-and-writing assignment. The game teaches students basic IL skills including creating citations, judging citation completeness, assessing author expertise, assessing source relevance and credibility, judging quality, and assessing accuracy. BiblioBouts’ collaborative and social mechanisms help students leverage their own research efforts in finding sources, evaluating their usefulness, and choosing the best sources, with their classmates’ efforts so that everyone benefits. Players benefit from receiving hands-on practice and experience with the wide range of information literacy (IL) skills that confront them during the process from conducting library research to completing writing assignments. Both quantitative and qualitative game-play data were gathered from game-play logs, game diaries, focus group interviews with student game players, and personal interviews with instructors. These data were analyzed to determine typical game-play styles, how long students played the game, and the impact of scoring on the way the students played the game and engaged in IL activities. The results were used to improve game mechanics and player engagement. The R&D team’s experience building an online, interactive IL game demonstrates that game design must first focus on evaluations of player behavior followed by game-system improvements that are expected to affect the desired game-play behavior. The BiblioBouts game presents an innovative method for learning IL competencies and is unique in its social, collaborative, and interactive approach to educational gaming. It is hoped that this article will encourage IL librarians to explore games and other alternative forms of IL instruction.
Background/Context
The Internet has democratized access to information but in so doing has opened the floodgates to misinformation, fake news, and rank propaganda masquerading as dispassionate analysis. Despite mounting attention to the problem of online misinformation and growing agreement that digital literacy efforts are important, prior research offers few concrete ideas about what skilled evaluations look like.
Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study
Our purpose in this study was to seek out those who are skilled in online evaluations in order to understand how their strategies and approaches to evaluating digital content might inform educational efforts. We sampled 45 experienced users of the Internet: 10 Ph.D. historians, 10 professional fact checkers, and 25 Stanford University undergraduates. Analysis focused on the strategies participants used to evaluate online information and arrive at judgments of credibility.
Research Design
In this expert/novice study, participants thought aloud as they evaluated live websites and searched for information on social and political issues such as bullying, minimum wage, and teacher tenure. We analyze and present findings from three of the tasks participants completed.
Findings/Results
Historians and students often fell victim to easily manipulated features of websites, such as official-looking logos and domain names. They read vertically, staying within a website to evaluate its reliability. In contrast, fact checkers read laterally, leaving a site after a quick scan and opening up new browser tabs in order to judge the credibility of the original site. Compared to the other groups, fact checkers arrived at more warranted conclusions in a fraction of the time.
Conclusions/Recommendations
We draw on insights gleaned from the fact checkers’ practices to examine current curricular approaches to teaching web credibility as well as to suggest alternatives.
The onset of the 2020 pandemic caused traditional in-person library instruction to expeditiously move to virtual environments. In an effort to maintain the personalized human touch and interactions that occur between librarians, students, and faculty, the constructs of teaching presence were embedded into online informational literacy sessions at a small private institution in the Northeast region of the United States. This article explores the integration of teaching presence to humanize virtual library instruction. Findings and implications of this study can inform future work of librarian educators as online instruction continues to increase at higher education institutions.
Although the current landscape in education emphasizes the importance of developing students’ information literacy in formal education settings, little attention has been paid to information literacy within the context of social media use. This study investigated the relationship between information literacy and social media competence (SMC) among 1843 university students. This was done in order to increase knowledge of the components that may be important for preparing university students to be information literate citizens in social media environments. Students’ information literacy and SMC were measured by the Student Information Literacy Test and the SMC-CS scale respectively. Correlation and regression analyses were utilized to explore the relationship between university students’ information literacy and their SMC. The results showed that university students’ ability to utilize information technology to solve problems, and their sense of responsible behavior in cyberspace, are the most critical factors in predicting students’ SMC. Based on the findings, theoretical and practical implications are discussed in terms of enhancing university students’ information literacy and SMC.
Online curriculums increase self-regulatory learning behaviors among students and facilitate knowledge transfer essential for deep learning to take place. Additionally, threshold concepts are best taught using a format that is designed for repeated point-of-need access by students. Pairing flipped classroom pedagogy, in which students engage with content independently prior to a synchronous class, with online learning objects intentionally designed to promote self-regulatory learning behaviors helps to build a strong foundation of information literacy. This paper discusses the decision of one library to move its information literacy curriculum to a fully online format in order to more effectively teach information literacy threshold concepts to students at all levels of college. The online curriculum was designed using both synchronous and asynchronous models of instruction and built upon the library's online learning pilot project with first year Communication Studies students. A high-level analysis of effective online pedagogy is offered in conjunction with a detailed look at the online course and content development process, librarians' training requirements, and the communication strategies used to inform campus stakeholders of the curricular change.
Developing and maintaining a holistic information literacy program at institutions of professional and continuing studies that have experienced fast growth can be quite challenging. Accordingly, Georgetown University's School of Continuing Studies (SCS) Library utilized curriculum mapping to improve its curricular cohesiveness, scaffolding, and goal achievement. This study reports on the method's application in relation to the School's Business & Management Division MPS classes. Specific steps included the drafting of School-wide ACRL's Framework-informed student learning objectives and outcomes, conducting semi-structured interviews with the Division's faculty directors, analyzing syllabi and lesson plans associated with core/foundational courses selected for librarian consistent visits, and generating related course-level information literacy curriculum maps. As a result of these efforts, the SCS Library now has a clear, equitable plan for instructionally supporting a carefully formulated sequence of the Division's programs' classes, while systematically increasing its offerings of matching online learning objects and workshops.
Gender is a sociological variable that needs further attention in information literacy studies. This research uses a multidimensional subjective-objective approach to examine the gender differences in the information literacy learning process in a sample of students from different social sciences degree courses at five Spanish universities. Surveys are used to measure the belief in importance (BI) and self-efficacy (SE) they assign to a series of basic information competencies, grouped into the categories of searching, evaluation, processing and communication-dissemination, as well as the levels of actual knowledge (KN) they have about them. Non-parametric methods and factor analysis are used to evaluate the gender similarities and differences. Latent structures show no relevant differences by gender in perceptions (BI and SE), but different patterns are found in knowledge (KN) regarding the acquisition of the key information competencies. To overcome possible stereotypes and contribute to the construction of an all-inclusive perspective that fosters an awareness of the value of equality, it is necessary to incorporate the gender perspective in information and knowledge management studies. There is still little research in this field, and this study opens some paths for further works.
This study explores how libraries can enhance information literacy in online undergraduate courses at Purdue University, a large Midwestern research university. The article investigates undergraduate students’ perception of the importance and their awareness of libraries’ services for online learning, challenges of using information to complete course assignments, and the ability to gather and evaluate information to complete online coursework. The findings contribute to four aspects of the Libraries’ programmatic efforts to support undergraduate students taking online courses. These include showing a need for IL, helping students stay connected to resources and support, pedagogic strategies, and strategically targeting courses.
Cambridge Core - Knowledge Management, Databases and Data Mining - Information Literacy in the Workplace - edited by Marc Forster
Information Literacy in the Workplace - edited by Marc Forster April 2017
The rampant spread of misinformation has made it more difficult for many people, especially college students, to ascertain what is a viable and reliable piece of information and vice versa. This trend makes it even more difficult for them to produce effective
essays and research papers in their courses. Librarians at Indian River State College (IRSC) have been piloting a program that incorporates news literacy into the learning management system utilized by IRSC in an effort to increase students’ ability to determine what are correct information, erroneous information, and “fake news.”
Purpose
Librarians in higher education have adopted curriculum mapping in an effort to determine where effective information literacy instruction can help fill gaps in the curriculum and prepare students for both coursework and future research demands. While curriculum mapping has been used widely across academia, few studies have considered business curriculum and the development of information literacy instruction. This paper aims to provide an overview of the current landscape of curriculum mapping across business courses at two institutions and a replicable methodology for other institutions.
Design/methodology/approach
In this paper, the authors will examine two case studies at large research universities that evaluate curriculum mapping against the BRASS Business Research Competencies at the undergraduate and the graduate business levels.
Findings
This study found that the Business Research Competencies are a valid method to evaluate in both case studies. Curriculum mapping also uncovered various gaps in business education across the curricula at both institutions and led to open discussions with faculty in an effort to improve the success of students both during their degree programs and into their careers.
Originality/value
This study provides a framework and methodology for evaluating business curriculums against robust standards to improve student success. With examples from undergraduate and graduate programs, the results of this project promise to have long-lasting implications on the development of curriculums across business programs, including the value of librarian support in developing Business Research Competencies.
The library literature evaluating the efficacy of online tutorial methods and delivery tools is a valuable resource for librarians looking for information to inform their choices for developing asynchronous online instruction. This literature, however, examines a wide variety of delivery tools, methods, and student populations. As a result, it is difficult to draw definitive conclusions about any one tutorial tool or method. This article compares selected research and concludes that the consensus in the literature suggests that applying adult learning principles to library tutorials has a larger impact on effective online instruction than the individual tool.
Purpose
This paper systematically reviews the evidence of reliability and validity of scales available in studies that reported surveys of students to assess their perceived self-efficacy of information literacy (IL) skills.
Design/methodology/approach
Search in two subject and two general databases and scanning of titles, abstracts and full texts of documents have been carried out in this paper.
Findings
In total, 45 studies met the eligibility criteria. A large number of studies did not report any psychometric characteristics of data collection instruments they used. The selected studies provided information on 22 scales. The instruments were heterogeneous in number of items and type of scale options. The most used reliability measure was internal consistency (with high values of Cronbach’s alpha), and the most used validity was face/content validity by experts.
Practical implications
The culture of using good-quality scales needs to be promoted by IL practitioners, authors and journal editors.
Originality/value
This paper is the first review of its kind, which is useful for IL stakeholders.
While research has started to pay attention to the content and delivery of sustainable tourism education, little is known about what students actually know and feel with respect to sustainability. This preliminary study explores students’ knowledge of and attitudes toward sustainable tourism as well as their sense of competence and empowerment to make sustainability-related decisions. The focus was on Latin America, where tourism has caused severe negative impacts and where sustainability knowledge and skills are most needed to protect fragile natural and cultural resources. Results show that although most tourism students think sustainable tourism is important, they have limited knowledge of sustainability principles and technical aspects related to sustainable tourism. Implications for teaching are discussed.
Online learning refers to instruction that is delivered electronically through various multimedia and Internet platforms and applications. It is used interchangeably with other terms such as web-based learning, e-learning, computer-assisted instruction, and Internet-based learning. This chapter includes a review of the literature published between 2010 and 2015 on online learning in information literacy instruction (ILI) in academic libraries. Information about the landscape of online ILI is presented, including summaries about the technology used to create online instructional resources and the technology used to present and access online instruction. Both limitations and best practices relating to online instruction for information literacy are discussed.
The University of Louisville Quality Enhancement Plan focuses on integrating critical thinking into the undergraduate curriculum while using the Paul-Elder Critical Thinking Framework. In an effort to expand information literacy and outreach opportunities, the Social Sciences Librarian created online learning modules using SoftChalk, a program that enables the modules to be embedded into any Blackboard course shell. Originally created for an Introduction to Psychology course, the Critical Thinking & Information Evaluation Module Series maps information evaluation concepts to the Paul-Elder Framework's Elements of Thought through an examination of commonly used resources: Wikipedia, Google, and scholarly journal articles.
Digital badges are an educational innovation used to measure learning of specific skills, such as information literacy. However, few studies have quantitatively surveyed employers for their perceptions about information literacy skills or digital badges. An online survey was developed and sent to employers to gauge perceptions of information literacy skills of college graduates and the use of the innovation of digital badges to represent competencies that students have accumulated. Here are the results of the survey: information literacy and metaliteracy skills are valued in the workplace; employers would like more detailed representations of student skills; and digital badges are a possible way to showcase student achievement.
Drawing upon the authoras on going research into information literacy, Information Literacy Landscapes explores the nature of the phenomenon from a socio-cultural perspective, which offers a more holistic approach to understanding information literacy as a catalyst for learning. This perspective emphasizes the dynamic relationship between learner and environment in the construction of knowledge. The approach underlines the importance of contextuality, through which social, cultural and embodied factors influence formal and informal learning. This book contributes to the understanding of information literacy and its role in formal and informal contexts.
This paper presents an approach to information literacy instruction in colleges and universities that combines online and classroom learning (Blended Learning). The concept includes only one classroom seminar, so the approach presented here can replace existing one-shot sessions at colleges and universities without changes to the current workflow. By adding online materials to a classroom seminar, comprehensive information literacy instruction can be delivered in a time-efficient way. To make instruction more time efficient, each student received individual recommendations on which of the online materials he/she is supposed to complete based on a pretest. Results of an evaluation study with 64 psychology students point to significant increases in information literacy and indicate that most students accepted and followed the recommendations. The findings also show that students who completed materials beyond the recommendations did not show a greater learning progress than those following the recommendations, closely emphasizing the adequacy of the recommendations provided.
A new information literacy test (ILT) for higher education was developed, tested, and validated. The ILT contains 40 multiple-choice questions (available in Appendix) with four possible answers and follows the recommendations of information literacy (IL) standards for higher education. It assesses different levels of thinking skills and is intended to be freely available to educators, librarians, and higher education managers, as well as being applicable internationally for study programs in all scientific disciplines. Testing of the ILT was performed on a group of 536 university students. The overall test analysis confirmed the ILT reliability and discrimination power as appropriate (Cronbach's alpha 0.74; Ferguson's delta 0.97). The students' average overall achievement was 66%, and IL increased with the year of study. The students were less successful in advanced database search strategies, which require a combination of knowledge, comprehension, and logic, and in topics related to intellectual property and ethics. A group of 163 students who took a second ILT assessment after participating in an IL-specific study course achieved an average posttest score of 78.6%, implying an average IL increase of 13.1%, with most significant improvements in advanced search strategies (23.7%), and in intellectual property and ethics (12.8%).
Project Information Literacy (PIL) has conducted six studies since 2008 to investigate what it is like to be a college student in the digital age. Survey and interview data has been collected from more than 11,000 US college students to investigate how they find, evaluate, and use information for their course work and for addressing issues that arise in their everyday lives. This paper highlights findings from these studies. In particular, the students surveyed have reported having more difficulty with defining and narrowing research topics than with conducting searches for materials, and they use the same small set of information resources when conducting course-related and everyday life research. Taken together, findings from the six studies suggest these students use strategies driven by efficiency and predictability in order to manage and control the vast amount of information that is available to them. PIL’s typology is reviewed about the four information contexts undergraduates seek during their research processes.
Our rapidly-changing technological, cultural, and moral climate requires faculty dialogue on the role that academic dishonesty plays and how best to discourage and punish it. A study is presented that explores the ways and means of cheating and opinions about cheating by students at a four-year hospitality program in the Western United States. Participants responded to thirty-nine statements about cheating, ranging from perceptions of other students' behavior, the necessity to cheat, and the ways and means by which cheating occurs. Group differences between sex, continent of origin, and age are examined.