Going Global with Information Literacy

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Going Global with Information Literacy

• Angela Whitehurst
• Asst. ProfessorDistance Education
  Co-CoordinatorJ.Y. Joyner LibraryEast Carolina
  University

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Higher Education 21st Century

• World increasingly interconnected
• Study abroad
• Less than 5 nationwide/1 ECU
• Numerous impediments
• Bring experience to campus
• Colleges Universities
• UNC Tomorrow
• ECUs Global Academic Initiatives Program

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Global Academic Initiatives

• Two Components
• International Lecture Exchange
• Global Understanding Courses
• Global Understanding Course (2003)
• Multiple disciplines
• 23 partner institutions in 18 countries
• Link/chat with partners
• Research component
• Library Involvement (2008)

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Questions

• What knowledge do students have about the
  availability and use of country/cultural
  resources and other appropriate resources when
  they enter a Global Understanding class?
• Would providing instruction to students focused
  on country resources, newspapers, and scholarly
  articles related to their field increase their
  information literacy skills?
• Would the quality of student assignments improve
  after they receive information literacy
  instruction?
• Would instruction using country/cultural
  resources along with other appropriate resources
  be a useful avenue for libraries attempting to
  integrate information literacy instruction into a
  globalized curriculum?

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Methodology

• Global Understanding Anthropology
• most experienced faculty
• research component
• faculty came for library instruction
• Pre-test/Post-test (IL skills)
• Choosing appropriate resources
• Evaluating resources
• Distinguishing citations
• Resource usage

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Preliminary Results

• Travel Guides Encyclopedias
• Over 90 correct responses
• Hotel information
• History of countries (not great increase here
  life skill)
• Articles
• identify information not contained in newspapers
  (scholarly article)
• 19.6 increase
• identify characteristic did not apply to
  scholarly article
• 3.8 increase
• Confusion about characteristics
• Citation identification
• Choose citation of scholarly article
• Confusion books scholarly articles
• Biggest increase 29.4

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Citation Identification
Which of the following citations is an example of
an article from a scholarly journal?
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Preliminary Results (cont.)

• Evaluating Credibility
• Source type important
• Electronic maps verify boundaries
• Compare printed atlas stable 41
• Compare to UN map division (credible) 13
  increase
• Compare to countrys web site (not always
  credible) 15.4 decrease
• Newspapers article credibility
• Determine bias/point of view increase 5.8
• Determine type of article increase 7.1
• Compare to other information decrease 11.2
• Resource Usage
• Searching Google decreased 10.9 and 16.5
• Using newspapers increased 40.1
• Travel guides encyclopedias stable 81
• Using books increased 13.2

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Evaluating Credibility
I have located an electronic version of a map of
the country or region I am studying there is no
date listed on the map and I am unsure that it
shows the current boundaries. What is my best
option for verifying the areas boundaries?
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Resource Usage
I have decided to study abroad in France for one
year and want to learn more about the country
since I have never traveled there before. What
resources would I use to learn about the
countrys culture and customs?
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Preliminary Conclusions

• Analyze filtered results
• class section
• travel or lived abroad
• library use
• Results of instruction
• Mixed
• Identification stable
• Evaluation increases
• Usage increases books and newspapers decreases
  Google
• Positive faculty feedback
• Time of instruction
• Specific topics
• Increased percentages on post-test

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Further Research

• What would be the similarity and differences in
  the results, if the study was repeated in a
  Global Understanding course from another
  discipline? Distance Education class?
• How does prior knowledge and experience with some
  country/cultural resources and scholarly
  resources affect students performance and use of
  information literacy skills?
• Does the number of information literacy
  instruction sessions or length of time spent
  teaching IL concepts have an impact on the
  students knowledge of those skills?
• Would the integration of country/cultural
  resources other resources in information literacy
  instruction provide the similar results if
  conducted at another university?

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Works Cited

• East Carolina University. (2009). Global Academic
  Initiatives. Retrieved May 7, 2005, from
  http//www.ecu.edu/globalinitiatives/
• Reimers, F. (2009). 'Global competency' is
  imperative for global success. Retrieved May 8,
  2009, from http//chronicle.com
• jproxy.lib.ecu.edu/weekly/v55/i21/21a02901.htm
• Stevens, C. R., Campbell, P. J. (2006).
  Collaborating to connect global citizenship,
  information literacy, and lifelong learning in
  the global studies classroom. Reference Services
  Review, 34(4), 536-556.
• University of North Carolina Tomorrow Commission.
  (2007). Executive summary. Retrieved May 7, 2009,
  from http//www.nctomorrow.org/
• content.php/reports_documents/commission/execsumm
  ary.pdf

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Questions?

• Angela Whitehurst
• Asst. Professor
• Distance Education Co-Coordinator
• J.Y. Joyner Library
• East Carolina University
• [phone]
• whitehursta_at_ecu.edu