Presentation on information literacy trends and research given at Augustana College, April 4, 2014 for the New Directions in Information Fluency conference.

1. Metrics for Managing the
Literacy Learning Process
Sean Cordes, PhD
Associate Professor,
Western Illinois
University

2. Past tense
In 2000, the ACRL Information
Literacy Competency Standards
for Higher Education provided a
framework for assessing the
information literate individual in
higher education
Finding,
evaluating,
using, and citing
information

3. Future Tense
Complementary and Interacting Literacies
Changes in technology, communication, and the
information life cycle have changed the face of
information literacy.
• Media Literacy-analyze, evaluate, create and
participate with messages in a variety of forms –
print, video. internet. Seen as a basic human right,
participative democracy, collective intelligence.
• Digital literacy encompasses understanding,
evaluating and integrating digital information;
creating digital content; and taking action to share
knowledge and solve problems.
• Visual literacy enables an individual to find,
interpret, evaluate, use, and create images and
visual media.

4. Future Trends
• Most information literacy models developed in 1990s
EVOLVING to include focus on:
• Multiple literacies, Affective outcomes, Creation, Collaboration

5. Alternative Information Literacy Models
• American Association of School Librarians Standards for
the 21st Century Learner (2007)
• Multiple literacies, digital, visual, textual, technological crucial
skills for this century
• Learning is affective, has a social context, students need
skills in sharing knowledge and learning with others
(collaboration)
• Society of College, National, and University Libraries
(SCONUL) Seven Pillars of Information Literacy Core 2011,
• Information literacy is an umbrella encompassing information,
digital, visual, and media literacies, information handling
skills, data curation and data management

6. Beyond the classroom
• Students today may ‘lack the skills for selecting the
most relevant results they need for solving
information problems in their daily lives’ (Head and
Eisenberg, 2011).
• Recent graduates said they used for skills evaluating
and managing content; yet employers felt most
graduates still needed to develop adaptive
strategies to save time and work more efficiently
(Head et al. 2013).
• Within five years, information and
communication technology skills will be
a requirement for 90% of jobs, making
these abilities vital for employment and
work success (Kolding et al, 2009).

7. Trouble communicating
in the team setting
Lack ability to use multiple
formats to provide context
Trouble making meaning
from multiple sources
Fixated on finding
answers quickly
1
2
3
4
Engaging team members in
research process
Retrieving information
using multiple formats
Finding patterns and
making connections
Exploring a topic
deeply and thoroughly
Information skills
employers need
Information skills
many graduates have
Head, A. J., Van Hoeck, M., Eschler, J., & Fullerton, S. (2013). What information competencies matter in today’s workplace? Library and
Information Research,37(114), 74-104. Retrieved from, http://www.lirgjournal.org.uk/lir/ojs/index.php/lir/article/view/557/593

8. Study One
The Foundation
• Gain insight into challenges students face
building multimedia web sites
• Flanagan’s critical incident and standards
used to benchmark student performance
The Fit
• Message creation, diversity forms, sharing
and collaboration, info handling, data
curation, technological skills, affective
outcomes

9. Constructivist Learning Example
Web Site
Develop a research question and develop a
presentation web site using multiple content types
and tools.
http://sites.google.com/site/lib201site/

10. Findings
• Negative critical incidents were split about evenly for
technology systems (54%) and Information search
(46%)
• Students were effective identifying appropriate
methods, retrieval systems, media types and
sources, and using material ethically
• Implementing search strategies was a frequent
problem. Google and database searches were
effective. But problems occurred searching, sharing,
and displaying, and connecting content with social
network tools.
• In particular troubleshooting, using interfaces, and
understanding how individual tools worked and how
systems worked together.

11. Study 2
The Foundation
• Gather ratings of usability metrics to
understand how useful and usable learners
feel search systems are in general, and
which search tools are most useful and easy
to use
The Fit
• Finding, evaluating, citing, and interpreting
information, solving problems, technological
skill, affective outcomes

12. Study Design

13. Findings
• When students found a tool easy to use, they also
found it generally more useful, requiring less effort
to control.
• Learners found the OPAC required more effort, and
created more disorientation than the database or
search engine
• But they felt the database most useful, while the
search engine and catalog were equally useful,
suggesting learners value good content over ease of
use
• Interestingly, students thought the data base easy to
use, but felt least confident using it

14. Study 3
The Foundation
• Uses online decision making experiment to explore
how learners exchange information, develop
feelings about group fairness, and foster strong
group climate. The study helps shed light on factors
that lead to more accurate group decisions, more
effective collaboration, and positive feelings about
the group.
The Fit
• Collaboration, participation, evaluating and
integrating digital information, knowledge sharing
problem solving, collective intelligence

15. Study design
Inputs Process Outputs
Task Design
Shared and unshared
information between
members
Monitoring, Backup, &
Coordination protocol vs
ad hoc process
Information
Display
Editable / collaborative
document vs chat only
Action Process Performance/
Affective
The within-subject factor was the
exclusive decision information set
for each member.
The between-groups factors were two independent variables, action process
structure and information display structure. 15
Decision Performance
Team Climate
Procedural Justice

16. Hidden Profiles
You are member of a four person pilot job search committee.
D
CB
A
All your team members have
positive and negative
information too. Some is the
same. Some is different.
The study uses a hidden profile problem
16
B C
D
AIf team members
share all the
information
between them the
initial worst choice
becomes the
best.
Critical thinking,
counterfactual
mindset, listing

17. Findings
• Strong process for monitoring, feedback, coordination,
interdependence increased decision performance,
positive team feeling, and procedural fairness
perceptions
• Collaborative display alone improved decision accuracy
and team climate feelings at least some
• But collaborative display alone failed to improve fairness
perceptions without strong process
• Also, participants who were very comfortable using
internet technologies had more positive perceptions of
procedural justice than persons with lower confidence
levels

18. How can we teach these skills?
• Broaden the scope of search and gathering
Develop perspective that information is preserved, yet different
forms reflect a unique topology of deformations, twistings, and
stretchings
• Focus on concept and content
Stress similarities between tool interfaces and function, shift
from teaching process to evaluation of fit and quality of content
• Offer Cross Media Examples
Take a search. Do it in Ebsco, in Google for EDU sites, in a
Diigo group, on Twitter, what results do you get, why?
• Develop topic centered support networks
Provide support resources for lesson technology and
processes, offer open class collaboration, integrate specialist
• Provide process structures for collaborative groups
Create learning situation that foster interdependence, where
students feel safe participating, contributions of all participants
are recognized and valued, and decisions are made fairly

19. Questions?
Cs-cordes@wiu.edu