Presented at LILAC 2018

1. ACE IN THE HOLE
E M P L O Y I N G A C T I V E L E A R N I N G T E C H N I Q U E S T O
R E V I T A L I Z E I N F O R M A T I O N L I T E R A C Y I N S T R U C T I O N
A N D I M P R O V E S T U D E N T E N G A G E M E N T
Alexandra Hamlett
Guttman Community College,
CUNY
alexandra.hamlett@guttman.cuny.e
du

2. GUTTMAN COMMUNITY COLLEGE
• Opened in 2012 as the newest CUNY campus
• Enrolled students: 1000
• Experimental educational model
• 3 Librarians (2 Information Literacy Librarians)
• 45 Full time faculty
• Integrated faculty / Instructional teams
• Learning Communities
• Integrated Curriculum

3. ONE-SHOT IL INSTRUCTION
CHALLENGES
• Time constraints
• Students disengaged
• Faculty expectations
• Students unprepared
• Information overload
• No follow-up / accountability

4. WHY ACTIVE LEARNING?
• “Active learning requires that students “do things” to construct knowledge through
higher order thinking (such as recalling, applying, analyzing, evaluating, synthesizing,
and verbalizing concepts)”.
– Yale Center for Teaching and Learning
• “Adopting active learning approaches in higher education has been shown to be
beneficial to student learning and engagement in various disciplines”.
– Maybee, Doan, & Flierl

5. WHY ACTIVE LEARNING?
• Innovative and collaborative
• Reinforces important material and concepts
• Builds self-esteem
• Increases student motivation

6. TYPES OF ACTIVE LEARNING
• Think-Pair-Share
• Student-led group discussion
• Partner / Discussion
• Problem-based learning
• Brainstorming
• Group work
• Flipped classroom
• Experiential learning

7. INFORMATION LITERACY @ GUTTMAN
The Concept Paper states:
• “We…recommend that the required courses in
the majors and the liberal arts continue to tap
into the city-oriented theme of the new
community college and build advance reading,
writing, quantitative reasoning and information
literacy skills in the context of all of these
courses” (25).
Guttman Learning Outcomes (GLOs)
• Intellectual Skills for Lifelong Learning:
• F. Locates, evaluates and cites multiple
information resources in projects, papers and
presentations.

8. IL PROGRAM @ GUTTMAN

9. LIBRARIANS AND ACTIVE LEARNING
“Librarians, with just one brief chance to present a rather complex and sequential set of
skills to a group of students with whom they may be completely unfamiliar, need to be
able to create learning experiences that are appropriate for students’ variation in
background knowledge, learning styles, and motivations” (Otto, 2014)”.

10. ACRL THRESHOLD CONCEPTS
• Utilized ACRL Frames as a launching point to create active learning lessons
• Authority Is Constructed and Contextual
• Information Creation as a Process
• Information Has Value
• Research as Inquiry
• Scholarship as Conversation
• Searching as Strategic Exploration

11. TYPES OF ACTIVE LEARNING
• Think-Pair-Share
• Student-led group discussion
• Partner / Discussion
• Problem-based learning
• Brainstorming
• Group work
• Flipped classroom
• Experiential learning

12. CONCEPT MAPPING LESSON

13. CONCEPT MAPPING LESSON

14. WHY WE CITE LESSON
Characteristics of Scholarly Articles Handout
1. What is the title of the article?
2. What is the title of the journal in which it was published?
3. Read the article’s abstract. What does the abstract do?
4. Who wrote the article? What are their credentials?
5. What is the purpose of this article? Who is the intended audience?
6. How is the article formatted/organized? What headings do you see? List them.
7. Are there pictures, charts, or graphs? If so, why do you think they are included?
8. Is there a reference section? What do you think the purpose of the reference section?
9. How might the reference section be useful to other researchers?

15. RESEARCH LOG

16. ACTIVE LEARNING & IL
• Utilize ACRL’s Framework
• Library Information Literacy Advisory Committee (LILAC), CUNY
• LACUNY Instructional Roundtable
• Professional Conferences
• Pair and Share

17. ASSESSMENT?
• Formative Assessment
• Reflection Exercises
• Students present to class
• Faculty assign and grade IL Worksheets
• Qualitative Assessment

18. FUTURE STEPS
• Guttman Innovation Grant
• Information Literacy LibGuide
• Embed IL skills across curriculum

19. QUESTIONS
Thank you!!
alexandra.hamlett@guttman.cuny.edu

20. REFERENCES
Brame, C., & Director, C. A. (2016). Active learning. Vanderbilt Centre for Teaching. https://cft. vanderbilt.
edu/wpcontent/uploads/sites/59/Active- Learning. pdf, ND.
Detlor, B., Booker, L., Serenko, A., & Julien, H. (2012). Student perceptions of information literacy instruction: The importance of
active learning. Education for Information, 29(2), 147-161.
Freeman, S., Eddy, S. L., McDonough, M., Smith, M. K., Okoroafor, N., Jordt, H., & Wenderoth, M. P. (2014). Active learning
increases student performance in science, engineering, and mathematics. Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences, 111(23), 8410-8415.
Grassian, E. S., & Kaplowitz, J. R. (2009). Information literacy instruction: Theory and practice (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Neal-
Schuman.
Kaplowitz, J. R. (2012). Transforming information literacy instruction using learner-centered teaching. London: Facet.
Maybee, C., Doan, T., & Flierl, M. (2016). Information literacy in the active learning classroom. The Journal of Academic
Librarianship, 42(6), 705-711.
Michael, J. (2006). Where's the evidence that active learning works?. Advances in Physiology Education, 30(4), 159-167.
Otto, P. (2014). Librarians, libraries, and the scholarship of teaching and learning. New Directions for Teaching and
Learning, 2014(139), 77-93.
Park, E. L., & Choi, B. K. (2014). Transformation of classroom spaces: Traditional versus active learning classroom in
colleges. Higher Education, 68(5), 749-771.