Minding the Gap: Ensuring Transfer Student Success in Information Literacy
Type of Presentation
Poster Session (45 minutes)
Target Audience
Higher Education
Abstract
This poster will outline the Information Literacy (IL) requirement of the new General Education program at the University of North Carolina Wilmington and will address how transfer students and “native” UNCW students differ in IL skills. The steps in the creation of an IL exam for General Education competency credit for transfer students, identification of campus partners, student test groups, test versioning and the compilation and use of psychometric data to improve the exam will be shared. Unique aspects of the IL test, including the inclusion of a research essay, will also be provided.
The University of North Carolina Wilmington (UNCW) implemented a new General Education curriculum entitled “University Studies” in the fall of 2012. University Studies is divided into six areas: Foundations, Approaches and Perspectives, Thematic Disciplinary Clusters, Building Competencies, Explorations Beyond the Classroom, and Capstone Courses. Within the area of “Building Competencies,” students are required to complete courses in the categories of Writing Intensive, Qualitative and Logical Reasoning, and Information Literacy (IL). University Studies requires at least nine hours of information literacy intensive courses and three of these hours must be completed within the student’s major. In the spring of 2013, UNCW identified transfer students as a population disadvantaged by the required IL competency because of collective articulation agreements and the unique features of University Studies within the UNC system. Anne Pemberton and Vonzell Yeager were charged with the development of an information literacy exam to provide IL credit to transfer students.
Presentation Description
The "Minding the Gap" poster session will outline the Information Literacy (IL) requirement of the new General Education program at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. The poster will address the creation of an transfer student information literacy exam and how transfer students differ in IL skills versus “native” UNCW students.
Publication Type and Release Option
Presentation (Open Access)
Recommended Citation
Yeager, Vonzell and Pemberton, Anne, "Minding the Gap: Ensuring Transfer Student Success in Information Literacy" (2015). Georgia International Conference on Information Literacy. 95.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/gaintlit/2015/2015/95
Minding the Gap: Ensuring Transfer Student Success in Information Literacy
This poster will outline the Information Literacy (IL) requirement of the new General Education program at the University of North Carolina Wilmington and will address how transfer students and “native” UNCW students differ in IL skills. The steps in the creation of an IL exam for General Education competency credit for transfer students, identification of campus partners, student test groups, test versioning and the compilation and use of psychometric data to improve the exam will be shared. Unique aspects of the IL test, including the inclusion of a research essay, will also be provided.
The University of North Carolina Wilmington (UNCW) implemented a new General Education curriculum entitled “University Studies” in the fall of 2012. University Studies is divided into six areas: Foundations, Approaches and Perspectives, Thematic Disciplinary Clusters, Building Competencies, Explorations Beyond the Classroom, and Capstone Courses. Within the area of “Building Competencies,” students are required to complete courses in the categories of Writing Intensive, Qualitative and Logical Reasoning, and Information Literacy (IL). University Studies requires at least nine hours of information literacy intensive courses and three of these hours must be completed within the student’s major. In the spring of 2013, UNCW identified transfer students as a population disadvantaged by the required IL competency because of collective articulation agreements and the unique features of University Studies within the UNC system. Anne Pemberton and Vonzell Yeager were charged with the development of an information literacy exam to provide IL credit to transfer students.
