Information Competence as a Student Learning
Outcome:
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Grant Proposal |
Information Competence as a Student Learning Outcome: Developing Engaged Students in Business DisciplinesSubmitted February 28, 2001 by: Name of Associate Dean: Regina Eisenbach Email: kwatson@csusm.edu
Title of Proposal: Developing Engaged Students in Business Disciplines
California State University San Marcos College of Business Administration is requesting funds to develop and implement a series of college meetings and workshops to discuss information literacy and to incorporate the Standards for Information Literacy Competency into the learning outcomes for our students. The meetings and workshops have as their primary goal to develop an understanding of information literacy and of the Standards, to plan a systematic review of the curriculum with the focus of incorporating the Standards, and to test and assess the implementation of the standards into the curriculum in an appropriate manner. As such our project will meet the following Information Competence Initiative requirements: 1. Activities will result in a statement of information competence as a required learning outcome for the degree program. 2. Activities will incorporate assessment of student information competence. 3. The Business Librarian will play an integral role in the project activities. 4. Specified learning outcomes will be consistent with the Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education 5. Specified learning outcomes will be consistent with the AACSB standards for business accreditation. San Marcos is not new to the conversation surrounding student information competencies. The campus, and our department, has made great progress because information competence is integrated into our lower division General Education courses. An evaluation of the General Education Program focusing on the information competence requirement was conducted in spring 1999. Conclusions were very encouraging. Student focus groups informed us that information skills were important to our students. Student hands-on problem solving activities demonstrated that indeed students could work through a problem demonstrating high levels of information literacy. More importantly, Faculty interviews showed us that most instructors were very concerned about student’s information competence and felt that their inclusion in General Education courses was essential. Furthermore faculty told us that they looked forward to a more focused discussion of these issues as they related to students in the majors. Currently we have a 2-unit information literacy course taught by the Business Librarian entitled: “Information Research in Business.” This course is not a required course and as yet, is offered on an experimental basis. However its first offering in Fall 2000 showed adequate enrollment and positive student feedback. One possible result of the activities of this project would be to formalize this course and potentially make it a requirement for all Business majors. The College is currently conducting an in-depth assessment in preparation for AACSB accreditation by defining student learning outcomes for the business curriculum. For each course in the curriculum, we have established the course content areas, and their relative percentage of the total content. Further we use Bloom's taxonomy of the six levels of cognitive learning (reduced to three levels) to categorize the level of cognitive learning for the concept. Our next step is to develop a pre/post test to measure the level of student knowledge when they enter the Business program (acquire Business Status) and when they graduate. Thus, inclusion of the measurement of information competency as a learning outcome would be a useful addition to our assessment instrument. Furthermore, this test will be integrated with an overall assessment system the College is implementing that will gather data on our program from a variety of constituents – students, alumni, employers, and business community members. As we review our expectations for students in our major we feel that a greater commitment should be expressed. The process of formalizing an information competency requirement as one of the expressed learning outcomes for our students needs to be addressed during the next year. To assist us we plan a series of departmental meetings that would progressively refine these expectations and formalize our commitment to their learning. The goal of these meetings would be to allow the entire department and not just a few individuals, to become conversant with the Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education. Another goal is to closely review the stated learning outcomes and look to the inclusion of information skills into these outcomes. Additionally we wish to develop a system for assessment of learning that would help us to evaluate our plan and assure student learning. 1. Selection of key faculty member to get release time for information competency work. This faculty member would collaborate closely with library faculty in developing workshops and coordinating activities. 2. Lunchtime meeting: all department meeting to discuss and become familiar with the IC project 3. Workshop to familiarize and begin working with the Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education. 4. Second lunchtime meeting: review of department’s learning outcomes statements and initiation of discussion on courses where information competencies are taught. 5. Second workshop: identification of key courses for integration focusing on majors “gateway” or required courses and review information competency learning outcomes. 6. Third workshop: the assessment challenge: how do we know that students have met these outcomes? Testing, portfolios or? 7. Third lunchtime meeting: assessment of progress. Has our goal been
met? Where do we go from here? 1. A list of the College’s student learning outcomes that includes information competence (as well as other areas required by AACSB accreditation) 2. Syllabi for required courses in the College that specifically identify assignments that promote information competence 4. Participation of Faculty Fellow in ALA Pre-conference on using the Information Literacy Competency Standards Work on this project will begin in early Fall 2001with selection of the Faculty Fellow. The workshops and meetings will be scheduled with a view to the regular calendar of department meetings. The subsequent calendar and description of events will be publicized throughout the department and discussed briefly at the first faculty meeting of Fall 2001 semester. While we expect the bulk of the work to occur during this semester, we anticipate the need for follow-up and evaluation to spill over into Spring 2002. We also expect that review of courses and discussion of assignments would allow for implementation and evaluation of these assignments in the following semester that the course is offered. Dr. Regina Eisenbach is chair of the College AACSB task force and is responsible for facilitating the College’s accreditation effort. She has conducted research and published in the area of Classroom Assessment Techniques. Dr. Kathleen Watson is a member of the College AACSB task force with specific responsibility for the assessment process for AACSB accreditation. As such, she has attended the Center for Educational Development and Assessment (CEDA) workshop on “Assessing Student Learning Outcomes” and several AACSB conference sessions on assessment. She is also a member of the University Strategic Planning Task Force on assessment. Ann Fiegen is Associate Librarian with responsibilities for Business.
As part of her information literacy responsibilities she teaches two
courses, the first a lifelong learning course that meets Area E General
Education requirements and the other course "Information Research
in Business". Her research is in employer expectations of information
competence among recent business graduates. She serves on the Consultants
for Information Literacy Team selected by the Association of College
and Research Libraries (ACRL) to implement information literacy strategies
for the Association.
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