Information literacy education in VIA University College, Aarhus

1. Information literacy education
VIA University College
Maria Viftrup Schneider, Coordinator of Library Didactics (User Education)
Master of Library & Information Science
16. June 2016

2. Agenda
Courses for digital students, flipped
classroom, information literacy
 IL education i VIA
 The online nursing programme in VIA
 Online learning design
 Flipped classroom
 Faculty collaboration
 Evaluation af the IL learning model of the online nursing programme

3. Information literacy
 No danish/national framework for IL
 Individual task for the embedded/contact librarian to negotiate the level of IL education for
each programme
 Different views on the importance of IL in the varius domains: Health, Education & science…
 Most programmes have included short courses in information searching and retrieval
 Courses are tailor-made for each study program - No ECTS credits
 Health programmes have the largests emphasis on IL:
 IL elements as intended learning outcome in curriculum
 criterion based assessment of assignments
 Documenting searches and describing the search strategy
 Compulsory to use peer reviewed scientific articles
 education at the most timely point possible (just-in-time)
 Information literacy appearing more often in curriculums *
 8 sessions spread over (7 of the) 14 modules of the complete nursing programme

4. Courses for digital students
 VIA offers a range of programmes online (nursing, social worker, teacher, pedagogue,
bachelor of administration and bioanalysist)
 Typically the library offers same training and support for digital and campus students
 We experiment with learning design in the Social worker and Nursing programmes,
due to engagement in a national project on the development of learning objects on IL*
 Design of learning objects and learning activities, flipped classroom and peer feedback
*DEFF (Denmark's Electronic Research Library) co-finanse E-learning initiatives in academic libraries

5. The online nursing programme in VIA
 One class of 25 students is assigned each September to the online programme
 The programme is designed as “blended learning”, with a mix of campus days
and online activities (9 campus days in 10 weeks).
 Students have a 42 hour week of study, working in groups or individually with
assignments/activities according to a chronological module-guide.
 We use the active online learning design of “E-tivities” by Gilly Salmon *
 E-tivities frame the aim, demands, deadlines and feedback forms of the
learning activity, also containing links to readings, links and learning objects
such as video-instructions, PP with speak etc.
 Library e-tivities & couse lectures are connected to the subject and primarily
the writing process of a project or research assignment
• E-moderating : the key to online teaching and learning / Gilly Salmon. - 3. ed. - New York :
Routledge, 2011
• E-tivities : the key to active online learning / Gilly Salmon. - 1. edition. - London ; Sterling, VA :
Kogan Page : Stylus Pub., 2002

6. Flipped classroom
open learning ressources
webinars on Skype

7. Module guide – What, where, when

8. E-tivity – why, what, how
IL student activities:
 Module 1 (10 first weeksof the programme)
 Reference management with Zotero
 Module 2
 Literature searches for care procedures assigments
 Module 3
 Information seeking in 3 different international databases
 Module 5
 Sociology & nursing assignment – search Cinahl
 Professional identity – search Academic Search Premier
 Module 7
 Peer feedback assignment – on search proces and documentation
 Module 9
 Search for projekt, dokumentation of selection proces (flowchart)
 research methodology – find quantitative & qualitative studies
 Module 10
 Search and document with search history & flowchart
 Peer feedback assignment based on rubric critiria

9. Library faculty collabaration on integrating
and scaffolding IL activities in nursing couses
 Attending meatings witn the programme stearing commitee, on issues of
learning and didactics.
 “The library group” - Creativity partnered with initiative has helped to
integrate IL
 Directly between the librarian and the coordinator of the current semester:
design of e-tivities in the context of written assignments that students has to
hand in
 Librarians attend seminars and workshops for teachers; participates and
initiates ongoing discussion of learning and information literacy.
 Sustained conversation with curriculum designers, not about the content of
the classroom, but about the standards of examination. Need coordination at
the curriculum planning level. In order to address lack of consistency among
examiners in regards to rewarding good writing and referencing

10. Qualitative interviews - Evaluation
Focus group interviews suggests:
 Timing is important. When to introduce digital learning products in order for
students to find them relevant and interesting?
 Integration between the teaching and the library's digital learning products
creates visibility and emphasize their relevance
 Flexible use: the students use e-learning resources both to learn and practice
for exams, doing project work etc.
 Communication: The students does not use LMS to dialogue, but
communicating face-to-face; via Facebook etc.
 Employability: The students are aware that information literacy is useful and
important in relation to their future jobs

11. Quantitative evaluation - survey
Three things that seem to be decisive for students acquiring
information literacy:
1. Curriculum integration is important: requirement that
students must report / document search.
2. Personal contact: Easy access to "your" librarian provides
better information skills. Librarians should be possible to grab
hold of, students need an "office" where they can come for
library assistance
3. Experience Orientation: Our contribution is informative and
helpful, but we should work with presentation and pace, we
could be more personal, creative and surprising in our
materials.

12. New study from Dybvik
HALDEN, Norway
 students who had attended IL instruction regularly showed a better
understanding of their search behaviour, recognized more databases, and
talked less of Google than academic sources of information.
 The results of the study reflect certain differences between nursing and teaching
studies regarding the implementation of IL and academic requirements.
 Results show that the library’s continuous and "just-in-time” IL instruction
contributes to improve the students’ search behaviour.
In addition, the collaboration with academic staff and the academic requirements
in the studies seem to influence the students’ use of academic databases.
 Presented at Creating Knowledge conference, Reykjavik june 2016