Faculty and Student Expectations for Students’ Information Technology and Information Literacy Knowledge

& Skills: One Institution’s Assessment

Linfield College

McMinnville, OregonCopyright Jean Caspers, 2004. This work is the intellectual property of the author.

Permission is granted for this material to be shared for non-commercial, educational purposes, provided that this copyright statement appears on the reproduced materialsand notice is given that the copying is by permission of the author. To disseminate otherwise or to republish requires written permission from the author.

Information Technology (IT) & Information Literacy Skills (IL)

IT Student Skills

Use of software applications to support academic work, such as:

• word processing• presentation software• spreadsheets

• databases

IL Student Skills

Applying strategies to information needs to support academic work, such as:

• finding and evaluating textual and other information from the Internet and/or libraries.

Methodology

Faculty Conversations and Surveys about Student Information Technology skills (IT) & Information Literacy (IL)

Nature of Questions:• What IT and IL skills & knowledge faculty

expect students to use in courses.

• Plans to teach related skills in those courses.

Questions are online at:http://www.linfield.edu/surveys/task_scale_id.php

Student Survey & Skills Test of Information Technology skills (IT) & Information Literacy (IL)

Nature of Questions:

• Survey of experiences and self-ratings of IT and IL skills.

• Skills test of IL skills.

Questions are online at:http://www.linfield.edu/surveys/student_tech.php

Populations Studied

Spring ‘03: Faculty teaching 151 courses (8 departments)

Spring ‘04: Faculty teaching 206 courses (all departments)

Fall, 2003: 55% (246 of 449) first year studentsFall, 2004: 66% (286 of 432) first year students

All majors represented.

Our Key Questions

As regards information technology (IT) and information literacy (IL):– Is there a disconnect between faculty expectations

and students’ confidence and skill levels?

– Is the College offering appropriate learning opportunities in these areas to ensure student success?

Skills Faculty Expect of Students vs Student Confidence* (IT & IL)

*1st year data Word

Processing Presentation (PowerPoint)

Spreadsheet Graphics Databases Copyright & Intellectual Property

Popular vs Scholarly

Citations

Evaluating Resources

Basic Search

Adv. Search

% of classes in which faculty expect students to know/use the following:

82% 24% 16% 12% 6% 3% 36% 36% 25% 31% 32%

% of incoming students who expressed confidence* with the following:

97% 51% 47% 54% 28% 51% 46% 42% 52% 74% 32%

*Rated self good or excellent in our survey.

Faculty vs Student Expectations re: Teaching and Learning SkillsWordProcessing

Presentation(PowerPoint)

Spreadsheet Graphics Databases Copyright&IntellectualProperty

PopularvsScholarly

Citations EvaluatingResources

BasicSearch

Adv.Search

% ofclassesinwhichfacultyexpectto teachskill

1% 6% 4% 2% 6% 23% 30% 25% 30% 3% 28%

% ofstudentswhoexpectto betaughtskill incollege

7% 29% 22% 16% 31% 9% 23% 21% 17% 13% 20%

What Students Think they Know vs Test of Same Skills

Excellent Good Fair Poor

Student Self Ratings:

Web Searching

& Library Skills

27% web

17% lib

57% web

62% lib

15% web

20% lib

<1% web

2% lib

Information Literacy Skills Test Results 4%

% scoring 90-100

18%% scoring 80-89.9

40%% scoring 70-79.9

39%% scoring <70

% of courses in which students are expected to demonstrate the following skills

compared to % of courses in which teachers are actually teaching these skills*

Word Ppt Spr Graph Dbase Copyright Pop scho Eval Adv srch Basic srch

Expect

Skills66% 32% 9% 11% 11% 44% 46% 48% 31% 31%

Teach

Skills6% 7% 6% 4% 7% 15% 23% 26% 24% 15%

*2nd year data

IT learning opportunities for students on campus

•Workshop on Mulberry e-mail for all first year students during fall orientation.

•Students are welcome at all IT workshops.

•Within for-credit courses in some departments specific applications are taught to majors

Information Literacy with Faculty/ Librarian Collaboration through Courses• All freshman Inquiry Seminar (IQS) Courses include

information literacy instruction with librarians. Depth varies from one to eight sessions by course.

• Non-IQS Courses are uneven for IL instruction w/ librarians

ART 20 HEALTH & HUMAN PERF 22BIOLOGY 37 HISTORY 47BUSINESS 83 MODERN LANGUAGES 47CHEMISTRY 7 MUSIC 13COMMUNICATIONS 268 PHILOSOPHY 17COMPUTER SCIENCE 8 PHYSICS 5EDUCATION 13 POLITICAL SCIENCE 18ENGLISH 294 PSYCHOLOGY 29ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES 9 RELIGION 38ENGLISH 2ND LANGUAGE 108 SOCIOLOGY/ANTHRO 82

Number of courses over a seven year period in which librarians taught IL, by department:

Conclusions

Faculty expectations of student skills seem more realistic for:

• Word Processing• Advanced software: faculty

expect students need instruction in these areas

• Information Literacy across the board: faculty expect students need instruction in these areas.

Faculty expectations of student skills seem less realistic for:

• Basic Presentation Software Skills

• Basic Spreadsheet Skills• Basic Database Skills• Basic Graphics Skills

Conclusions (con’t.)

College offers appropriate learning opportunities in:

• Information Literacy for most Freshman through IQS

• Information Literacy for some upper division courses

• Advanced software applications (department specific)

Gaps may exist in learning opportunities for:

• Information Literacy for some IQS courses

• Information Literacy for some upper division courses.

• Many basic software applications, such as databases, spreadsheets, presentaion software, graphics.

Next Steps• Conversations with faculty in specific departments

about the gaps we have identified.• A new Instructional Support Specialist will work with

faculty regarding pedagogical IT applications.• Firm up baseline of IL skills in IQS for more

consistency across all IQS sections while remaining tailored to assignments.

• Integration of IL upwards into the curriculum. Surveys of faculty & students to continue, perhaps bi-

annually, fine-tuning questions.

Presenters

• Steven Bernhisel, Assistant Professor of Education

• Jean Caspers, Assistant Professor & Reference Librarian

• Susan Whyte, Associate Professor & Library Director

• Irv Wiswall, Chief Technology Officer

http://calvin.linfield.edu/~jcaspers/educause04.htm