The IUPUI University Library Educational Services Charter Group developed the common IL curriculum over the summer of 2015 and revised it in summer 2016. The IL curriculum was presented to and vetted by the Bridge co-coordinators. The curriculum is not intended to be the only exposure a student has to Information Literacy concepts in their first year. Rather, it is an introduction to the research process, which is then, hopefully, reinforced and reiterated during the first semester and later as students move into a discipline. The IL curriculum consists of the following parts:
Four learning outcomes were identified for the Bridge Information Literacy sessions. Bridge students should be able to:
In order to meet these learning outcomes, a common worksheet (Appendix A) was developed which guides students through the beginning steps of the research process.
Guided active learning with hands-on practice with researching is vital to learning Information Literacy concepts. While students will not retain everything that was taught in the session, the next time they are exposed to these concepts, they will have a foundation on which to build.
An online Bridge Research Guide was constructed to reinforce the research process introduced during class as well as a serving as a learning object that could be referred to after the library session to refresh student knowledge of concepts.
Two evaluations were developed for Bridge. One is administered to students at the end of the Information Literacy session to assess student learning during the session as well as student perceptions of librarian teaching. The second is sent to Bridge faculty by librarians at the end of Bridge to assess the impact of the Information Literacy session on the overall goals of the Bridge section.
