Education is a two-way road and this syllabus is a contract between us outlining how we will meet each other half way on the journey to the successful completion of this course. If you feel I have overlooked something or this syllabus is incomplete in any way, please don’t hesitate to let me know! Questions and feedback are always welcome.
Information Literacy & Research Skills—what does that mean anyway?
Basically it means that this course provides an opportunity to learn how to navigate information for scholarly purposes. In other words by the time you complete this course you should be prepared to successfully conduct college-level research. We will investigate how information is created, distributed, and used by you as a student.
Course Philosophy The course provides an introduction to research and information seeking skills which include: an understanding of how information and knowledge is produced and organized within a societal context; how to create a strategy for finding information; how to use print and electronic sources to locate information; how to evaluate information found; how to cite information in a works cited list; ( MLA, APA and Chicago citation style).
We will explore various search techniques and strategies that can be used to locate and evaluate the information once it is found. We will discuss a variety of information issues, including those and issues related to intellectual freedom and copyright.
Objectives You will gain:
The ability to examine information critically and determine its authenticity, credibility, intellectual content, bias, etc.
The ability to determine the proper tool needed to locate desired information
The ability to use print, electronic, and Internet indexes in various academic disciplines to locate information
The ability to use and understand library reference tools and classification systems
You will:
Understand how knowledge is produced and organized in society
Understand how information and knowledge is affected by cultural, political and economic factors Understand issues related to copyright, intellectual freedom, and the public vs. private ownership of information
COURSE CALENDAR
1st Week 1st Session Class Topic: Introduction to Information literacy
What is Information Literacy?
Why Information Literacy?
Becoming Information Literate
What does it mean to be Literate?
Twenty-First-Century Fluencies
Standards for the 21st-Century Learner
Critical Thinking and Information Literacy
Student Information Seeking Behaviour
Introduction and students expectations of Class
Setting Ground Rules, Course overview, Syllabus and Instructor Expectations
Why do we need Information Literacy?
What is information
Analyzing and categorizing information
Why does this matter?
Understanding the Internet
What is the Internet
Who puts information on Internet
Url’s
Domain Names
Types of Information Sources
What is Primary Source
What is Secondary Source
What is Tertiary Source
Primary / Secondary / Tertiary vs. Popular / Scholarly
Physical Formats
Conclusion
1st Week 2nd Session Class Topic: Digital Literacy
What is Digital Literacy
Create your own website (Weebly)
Write diary on net (Penzu)
Digital curation (Scoop it and diigo)
2nd Week 1st Session Class Topic: Information Literacy
What is Information Literacy?
Why Information Literacy?
Becoming Information Literate
What does it mean to be Literate?
Twenty-First-Century Fluencies
Standards for the 21st-Century Learner
Critical Thinking and Information Literacy
Student Information Seeking Behaviour
Models of Information Literacy
Information Search Process
Stripling and Pitts Research Process Model
Seven Pillars
Pathways to Knowledge
The Big6 Skills
2nd Week 2nd Session Class Topic: Designing research question and online searching
Research
Subject and Topic
Designing Research question
Limiting Factors
Title Vs. Question
Question Starters
Generally choosing a topic matter most of us
Getting started with your Topic
Developing your search terms
The online searching Process
How to plan search strategy
Identify search terms
Limit the search
Truncation, wildcards, and phrases
Combining terms 1 (Boolean logic)
Combining terms 2 (using other connectors)
3rd Week 1st Session Class Topic: Research
What is Research
Why Research
What is the nature of Research is
Nature of Research is not
Types of Research
Research Overview
Quantitative and Qualitative
Methodology
Questionnaire
Experiments
Literature based Methodological approaches
3rd Week 2nd Session Class Topic: Research Modules
The Big 6 What is it exactly?
Levels of the Big6
Level 1: The Conceptual Level
Level 2: The Big6 Skills
Integrating technology skills into teaching and learning IN BIG6
4th Week: 1st Session Class Topic: Task Definition and Information Seeking strategies
Task Definition
What is exactly
Define the Problem
Identify the Information requirements of the problem
Helpful questions for teachers to think through:
Helpful questions for students to think through
Information Seeking Strategies
What is exactly
2.1 Determine the range of possible sources
2.2 Select the best sources
Helpful questions for teachers to think through:
Helpful questions for students to think through
4th Week 2nd Session Class Topic: Location and Access & Use of Information
Location and Access
What is exactly
3.1 Locate sources
3.2 Find information within sources
Helpful questions for teachers to think through:
Helpful questions for students to think through
Use of Information
What is exactly
4.1 Engage (e.g., read, hear, view) the information in a source
4.2 Extract information from a source
Helpful questions for teachers to think through:
Helpful questions for students to think through
5th Week 1st Session Class Topic: Synthesis and Evaluation
Synthesis
What is exactly
5.1 Organize information from multiple sources
5.2 Present the information.
Helpful questions for teachers to think through:
Helpful questions for students to think through
Evaluation
What is exactly
6.1 Judge the result
6.2 Judge the information problem-solving process
Helpful questions for teachers to think through:
Helpful questions for students to think through
5th Week 2nd Week Class Topic: Research Organizer and Methods of Information Evaluation
CRAAP
RADCAB
6th Week 1st Session Class Topic: Bibliography and Citation