MAY• 25 • 2021
INFORMATION LITERACY TEACHING AND LEARNING COMMUNITY FORUM
WELCOME & FORUM OUTLINE In the current social and political climate, the need for information literacy is increasingly evident as we have seen misinformation campaigns about COVID-19, the election, and the Black Lives Matter movement, among other issues. Through the Information Literacy Learning Community (ILLC) for Faculty and Librarians, WashU faculty and librarians collaborate on the preparation or revision of a course with the goal to better integrate students’ information literacy skill development with the course topic. Each pair works together to create the course syllabus and course assignments, and design content for particular class sessions. To date, there have been three cohorts. For information about participants, courses, and their collaborations see page six. Funding supports faculty and librarian time. Learn more about how to become a funded ILLC participant at the forum or on our website. This initiative is generously supported by the Leslie Scallet Lieberman and Maury Lieberman Information Literacy Education Fund.
OPENING REMARKS BREAKOUT ROOM SESSION 1 BREAKOUT ROOM SESSION 2 CLOSING
PRESENTED ON ZOOM 4:00 PM - 5:00 PM
BREAKOUT ROOM SESSION DESCRIPTIONS TEACHING ABOUT MIS/DIS INFORMATION
We will offer complementary disciplinary perspectives on designing courses that investigated mis- and disinformation campaigns from our own political and pandemic context and from crisis moments of the 20th century, with emphasis on assignments and creative student responses. We will share how multidisciplinary experiences—political science and psychology, history, tech and culture studies—enriched student learning in assessing the histories and mechanisms of manipulative information operations and the motivating imperatives of political biases in the construction of individual and group information consumption. Session Facilitators Taylor Carlson and Cheryl Holland (Arts & Sciences / Political Psychology); Dave Walsh and Michael Schaefer (Arts & Sciences / Fake News: Propaganda, Power, and Pandemics)
BREAKOUT ROOM SESSION DESCRIPTIONS CREATING ENGAGING, SCALABLE ASSIGNMENTS
This session will introduce participants to two WU courses (Developmental Psychology and Architectural History II: Architecture since 1880) that each required students to apply visual and information literacy skills to their assignments in order to understand the different sources available in academic contexts and online. Assignments in each class were scaled up to meet their large enrollment, but could also accommodate most any class size. In this breakout room, participants will have the opportunity to gain hands-on experience with searching and locating information online and will leave with ideas for teaching students about evaluating the credibility of different types of information. Session Facilitators Shaina Rowell and Melissa Vetter (Arts & Sciences / Developmental Psychology); Shantel Blakely and Jenny Akins (Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts / Architecture)
BREAKOUT ROOM SESSION DESCRIPTIONS EVOLVING AND INTEGRATING INFORMATION LITERACY IN WRITING COURSES
TIn this session, librarian/faculty teams for writing-intensive classes (Engineering's Technical Writing & University College's Critical and Researched Writing) will discuss how they integrated information literacy tenants into two college writing courses for their initial ILLC semesters and how they scaled it in sequent semesters and to other classes. Oh! And did someone say, "COVID BLEW EVERYTHING UP!!!"? Yes, yes they did. In this breakout room, participants will have the opportunity to discuss the relevance of source authority, the advantages and difficulties of scaling this work, and the balance between personal touch and reusing assignments. Session Facilitators Seema Dahlheimer and Lauren Todd (James McKelvey School of Engineering / Technical Writing); Matt DeVoll and Kris Helbling (University College / Critical and Researched Writing)
TEAM DESCRIPTIONS
TEAM DESCRIPTIONS
COHORT 1: FY 2019 - 2020 TEAM SUMMARY
COURSE DETAILS
Lauren Todd, Subject & Instruction Librarian Engineering; Seema Dahlheimer, Senior Lecturer in Engineering
Title: Engineering Technical Writing
Lauren and Seema employed the fully embedded librarian model, splitting the teaching 70/30. They incorporated the ACRL Frame Authority is Constructed and Contextual into an assignment they designed together as well as the final project proposal, presentation and paper.
Department: Engineering Communication Center School: James McKelvey School of Engineering Semester: Fall 2019
TEAM SUMMARY
COURSE DETAILS
Ted Chaffin, Head, Academic Support & Collaboration; Anthropology Subject Librarian ; Andrea Murray, Lecturer in Anthropology
Title: Topics in Anthropology: Bioprospecting
Ted and Andrea co-taught three sessions themed around the ACRL Frame Search as Strategic Exploration. Students practiced research skills which included searching in online databases, strategic exploration and question design, and citing sources. The pair also practiced critical source evaluation with their students through low-stakes weekly activities using current events.
Department: Anthropology School: Arts & Sciences Semester: Fall 2019
TEAM DESCRIPTIONS TEAM SUMMARY
COURSE DETAILS
Miranda Rectenwald, Curator of Local History; Beth Martin, Senior Lecturer in Environmental Studies & Interim Director of Climate Change Program
Title: A Sense of Place: Exploring the Environment of St. Louis
Miranda and Beth intentionally designed information literacy into the course connecting information literacy skills to both course work and the students’ future work as scientists and members of society. Through metacognitive practices, students reflected on their research process and sources as part of the final product the students submitted.
Department: Environmental Studies School: Arts & Sciences Semester: Spring 2020
TEAM SUMMARY
COURSE DETAILS
AJ Robinson, Islamic Studies; South Asian Studies; Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Librarian; Younasse Tarbouni, Senior Lecturer in Arabic
Title: Beginning Arabic and Cultures II
AJ and Younasse coupled a guided tour of Special Collections items and digitized collections with annotated bibliography and presentation assignments to explore the ACRL Frame Information Creation as a Process. This team also created an assignment for students to search the bookshelves to find interrelated materials, practicing Searching as Strategic Exploration.
Department: Jewish, Islamic, and Middle Eastern Studies School: Arts & Sciences Semester: Spring 2020
TEAM DESCRIPTIONS TEAM SUMMARY
COURSE DETAILS
Melissa Vetter, Biology, Psychology, PhilosophyNeuroscience-Psychology Subject Librarian; Heather Rice, Senior Lecturer in Psychology & Assistant Dean in the College of Arts and Sciences
Title: Experimental Psychology
Melissa and Heather took a measured approach to embedding the librarian in their course. During their first semester, Melissa regularly attended classes and lead two class sessions on literature searches, using the ACRL Research as Inquiry. The team’s goal was to strategically weave information literacy content into the course in such a way that the integration could adopted by all the sections of the course in future semesters.
Department: Psychological and Brain Sciences School: Arts & Sciences Semester: Spring 2020
COHORT 2: FALL 2020 TEAM SUMMARY
COURSE DETAILS
Kristine Helbling, English and American Literature Librarian; Information Literacy Coordinator (Interim); First Year Experience Librarian; Matthew DeVoll, Assistant Dean, Arts & Sciences Instructor, University College
Title: Critical and Researched Writing
Kris and Matt developed lessons related to understanding the Frame of Authority is Constructed and Contextual. For example, they created assignments that help students think critically about how readers analyze texts “vertically” and “laterally”. The goal was to guide students to become more savvy researchers as well as consumers of news, social media, and other forms of information.
School: University College
Department: University College
TEAM DESCRIPTIONS
TEAM SUMMARY
COURSE DETAILS
Jennifer Akins, Art & Architecture Subject Librarian ; Shantel Blakely, Assistant Professor
Title: Architectural History II: Architecture since 1880
Jenny and Shantel explored the process of creating information with their students. Students created a shared database of all the images for the core set of projects presented in class. In addition, students learned to incorporate images into their writing exercises with captions that demonstrated transparency about the source of the image as well as the role of the image as evidenced in the paper.
Department: Architecture School: Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts
TEAM SUMMARY
COURSE DETAILS
Andy Uhrich, Curator of Film and Media; Diane Lewis, Assistant Professor
Title: History of World Cinema
Andy and Diane developed new content and skills-based components to improve students’ information literacy, particularly with regard to the mechanisms that produce film historical knowledge. They emphasized questions related to the politics of the archive, bias in film collection and programming, blind spots in film historiography, and problems of gatekeeping, representation, and restitution.
Department: Film and Media Studies School: Arts & Sciences
TEAM DESCRIPTIONS
TEAM SUMMARY
COURSE DETAILS
Dorris Scott, Social Science Data Curator GIS Librarian; Guillermo Rosas, Professor
Title: Democracy and Inequality in an Age of Globalization
Dorris and Guillermo emphasized data literacy, including familiarizing students with scientific literature on political economy. They purported to push students to think critically about "offthe-shelf" data that they find online and to help them practice the presentation of complex research in direct and approachable ways through multiple scaffolded assignments.
Department: Political Science School: Arts & Sciences
TEAM SUMMARY
COURSE DETAILS
Karen Olson, Music Library Associate; Tarrell Campbell, Assistant Dean, Arts & Sciences Lecturer
Title: College Writing I: Writing Identity
This pair participated in the learning community to work on a course for the College Writing program. They were unable to implement their work together this semester. However, given Karen’s relationship with other College Writing instructors, she was able to implement what they learned in the seminar to work with students on concepts related to Search as Strategic Exploration.
Department: College Writing School: Arts & Sciences
TEAM DESCRIPTIONS
COHORT 3: SPRING 2021 TEAM SUMMARY
COURSE DETAILS
Cheryl Holland, Education, Library Science, Political Science, and Sociology Librarian ; Taylor Carlson, Assistant Professor Cheryl and Taylor scaffolded information literacy across their course and course assignments. Students explored psychological factors in political phenomena, such as political participation, vote choice, polarization, partisanship, media consumption, political knowledge, communication, and policy preferences.
Title: Political Psychology Department: Political Science
This course equipped students with skills in information literacy that improved their ability to conduct research, interrogate information sources, and evaluate biases in information processing that shape political decision-making. Students engaged in metacognitive reflection throughout the course to think about the ways in which they encounter, consume and process information.
School: Arts & Sciences
TEAM DESCRIPTIONS
TEAM SUMMARY
COURSE DETAILS
AJ Robinson, Islamic Studies; South Asian Studies; Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Librarian; Trevor Sangrey, Senior Lecturer and Assistant Dean AJ and Trevor’s course engaged students with information literacy through reflection on the current politics of historical analysis by exploring changing representations of past liberation struggles. Students read and engaged with a variety of sources, questioned how those sources constructed historical narratives, and why we value some narratives (and narrators) over others.
Title: Women and Social Movements
Interventions included practicing public knowledge production through the editing of relevant Wikipedia entries; and weekly research tips to build student’s skills and familiarity with the resources in the WashU Libraries.
Department: Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies School: Arts & Sciences
TEAM DESCRIPTIONS
TEAM SUMMARY
COURSE DETAILS
Michael Schaefer, American Culture Studies; History; Religion; History of Science, Technology & Medicine; Latin American Studies (Interim) Librarian; Dave Walsh, Lecturer
Title: Fake News: Propaganda, Power, and Pandemics
Michael and Dave’s course explored the historical and cultural contexts of political power, capitalism, and racial injustice of particular moments. Their course centered the student experience in routine, reflective assignments and in-class activities in order to help students gain an understanding of how misand disinformation campaigns today grew out of prior contexts. These activities, in concert with formal assignments, strengthened student awareness and assessment of how information campaigns construct authoritative credibility, how these campaigns develop and evolve compelling narrative structures, how they propagate quickly through media landscapes, and, how communities resist their influences.
Department: American Culture Studies School: Arts & Sciences
TEAM DESCRIPTIONS
TEAM SUMMARY
COURSE DETAILS
Jennifer Atkins, Art & Architecture Subject Librarian; Aggie Toppins, Associate Professor
Title: Semiotics Studio: Designing Signs and Symbols
Jenny and Aggie worked on a new course called Semiotics Studio, a visual literacy course focused on meaning-making. Students learned the fundamentals of semiotic theory and its applications to design practice. Studio projects, visual exercises, and discussions covered: sign categories and modes, possibilities of interpretation, and how signs normalize cultural practices and perceptions of truth. Information literacy frameworks that aligned with this course were: Searching as Strategic Exploration, Research as Inquiry, and Authority is Constructed and Contextual.
Department: Art School: Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts
TEAM DESCRIPTIONS
TEAM SUMMARY
COURSE DETAILS
Melissa Vetter, Biology, Psychology, PhilosophyNeuroscience-Psychology, and Philosophy (Interim) Subject Librarian; Shaina Rowell, Education Specialist Melissa and Shaina began by identifying areas of overlap in learning objectives between the ACRL Framework and the American Psychological Association’s guidelines for the major.
Title: Developmental Psychology
They selected two objectives that best aligned with the rest of the course objectives: 1) Identify and evaluate sources of information about child development; 2) Debate conflicting perspectives on current issues related to childrearing and children’s welfare. Students completed article traceback assignments as well as an article analysis assignment to explore “Scholarship as a Conversation.”
Department: Psychological and Brian Sciences School: Arts & Sciences
RESOURCES (IN THE ORDER DISCUSSED DURING FORUM)
LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Kathryn M. Buder Center for American Indian Studies Brown School, Washington University in St. Louis. (2020, June). What is a Land Acknowledgement? Tribes whose ancestral lands are present-day St. Louis: Osage Nation Missouria Illini Confederation Smith, T.L. (1999). Decolonizing methodologies: Research and Indigenous peoples. Zed Books/University of Otago Press. [Quotes taken from pp. 1 & 2] Johnson W. (2020). The Broken Heart of America: St. Louis and the Violent History of the United States. New York: Basic Books American Indian Policy Institute, Arizona State University (2021). Digital Divide. DIGITAL Reservations Act Deploying the Internet by Guaranteeing Indian Tribes Autonomy over Licensing on Reservations Act.
RESOURCES
SOCIOPOLITICAL IMPORTANCE OF INFORMATION LITERACY Fister, B. (2021, February 18). How Librarians Can Fight QAnon. The Atlantic. Head, A. J. (2021, April 7). Reading in the Age of Distrust. PIL Provocation Series. Killian, J. & Ingram, K. (2021, May 19). PW special report: After conservative criticism, UNC backs down from offering acclaimed journalist tenured position. NC Policy Watch.
ACRL INFORMATION LITERACY FRAMEWORK Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education, American Library Association, February 9, 2015. (Accessed May 20, 2021). Document ID: b910a6c4-6c8a-0d44-7dbc-a5dcbd509e3f
INFORMATION LITERACY AND CIVIC HEALTH Breakstone, J., Smith, M., Wineburg, S., Rapaport, A., Carle, J., Garland, M., & Saavedra, A. (2019). Students’ civic online reasoning: A national portrait. Stanford History Education Group & Gibson Consulting.
"Reliable information is to civic health what proper sanitation and potable water are to public health. A polluted information supply imperils our nation’s civic health. We need high-quality digital literacy curricula, validated by rigorous research, to guarantee the vitality of American democracy. Education moves slowly. "Technology doesn’t. If we don’t act with urgency, our students’ ability to engage in civic life will be the casualty." - BREAKSTONE, J., SMITH, M., WINEBURG, S., RAPAPORT, A., CARLE, J., GARLAND, M., & SAAVEDRA, A. (2019). STUDENTS’ CIVIC ONLINE REASONING: A NATIONAL PORTRAIT. STANFORD HISTORY EDUCATION GROUP & GIBSON CONSULTING