Information Fluency - Biology Course as an Example
In this course module students were taught how to use information
technology to find biological papers on a specific
topic of interest. The students will then be
taught how to read and summarize the paper
they have found, prior to participating in
a discussion of the paper.
Encourage Collaborative Learning
To stimulate
discussion of the paper, students used
the Blackboard Learning System, where
they could post their summaries of the
paper, and read summaries written by the other
students in the class and by the course instructor.
Implementations of this activity required
the expertise of an information technologist
and a librarian, in addition to the faculty
serving as the primary instructor for the course.
Entrance and Exit Surveys
We developed an entrance survey assessing
information fluency background and skills,
and an exit survey assessing the success
of the course module in advancing those skills.
Tutorials
Tutorials and navigation guides were created
in conjunction with the course to be used
in a workshop sponsored by the Furman Faculty
Development Committee to inform/educate
interested faculty, librarians,
and information technologists on how to incorporate
this form of information fluency into the classroom.
Distributing Course Documents
This model should be
applicable to other courses, both in Biology
and in other disciplines, throughout Furman
University and at all other ACS member institutions.
Our format, materials and other course
documents are available and exportable
to interested parties.
Course Details
Details are contained in the Practical
Suggestions document.