Type of Presentation
Poster Session
Conference Strand
Outreach and Partnership
Target Audience
Higher Education
Location
Poster Session
Relevance
The course we describe is specific to the veterinary curriculum, but it is translatable to any discipline. We offer insight on how to organize a course to ensure students are not only tasked with locating reputable sources, but are eager to critically evaluate information
Abstract
There are many controversies surrounding the use of animals for food, and we have observed that veterinary students are interested in deeper consideration of the ethical, moral, and practical implications associated with animal agriculture. Guided by the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education, we developed a discussion-based course focused on the complex issue of consuming animal products to provide practice in seeking and critically evaluating sources.
The course met weekly for eight weeks. Prior to each session, students submitted a brief reflection on the assigned readings and videos, and provided citations for additional relevant materials. Class sessions were centered on discussion prompts that required students to evaluate each source for currency, relevance, authority, accuracy, and purpose, and to recognize how and why online sources are especially susceptible to bias and inaccuracy. Students wrote a final paper on a self-selected topic related to the consequences of and rationale for eating animal products. The paper, using APA citation, required student to explore and report on both pro and con arguments for each topic.
The first iteration was offered in-person and was extremely popular with students. Covid-19 restrictions dictated that we adapt the course to an online model, and we found the transformation took little effort and had no noticeable effect on student participation.
Anecdotal evidence and results from course surveys indicate that, upon class completion, students were better prepared to recognize the complexity of synthesizing and rigorously evaluating multiple contradictory information sources, and more skilled at building effective search strategies.
Presentation Description
This poster session describes a faculty-librarian collaboration to bring information literacy to the veterinary curriculum through a discussion-based course. By using a polarizing conversation topic (using animals as food), students were driven to discover sources that reliably supported their own arguments and to critically examine sources that supported other viewpoints. Here we give an overview of the course implementation and success in an online environment.
Keywords
Academic Libraries, Information Literacy, Library Collaboration, Instruction
Publication Type and Release Option
Presentation (Open Access)
Recommended Citation
Weigand, Kelly and Jameson Jordan, Antonia, "Strengthening information literacy through (online) conversation" (2022). Georgia International Conference on Information Literacy. 10.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/gaintlit/2022/2022/10
Included in
Curriculum and Instruction Commons, Information Literacy Commons, Veterinary Medicine Commons
Strengthening information literacy through (online) conversation
Poster Session
There are many controversies surrounding the use of animals for food, and we have observed that veterinary students are interested in deeper consideration of the ethical, moral, and practical implications associated with animal agriculture. Guided by the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education, we developed a discussion-based course focused on the complex issue of consuming animal products to provide practice in seeking and critically evaluating sources.
The course met weekly for eight weeks. Prior to each session, students submitted a brief reflection on the assigned readings and videos, and provided citations for additional relevant materials. Class sessions were centered on discussion prompts that required students to evaluate each source for currency, relevance, authority, accuracy, and purpose, and to recognize how and why online sources are especially susceptible to bias and inaccuracy. Students wrote a final paper on a self-selected topic related to the consequences of and rationale for eating animal products. The paper, using APA citation, required student to explore and report on both pro and con arguments for each topic.
The first iteration was offered in-person and was extremely popular with students. Covid-19 restrictions dictated that we adapt the course to an online model, and we found the transformation took little effort and had no noticeable effect on student participation.
Anecdotal evidence and results from course surveys indicate that, upon class completion, students were better prepared to recognize the complexity of synthesizing and rigorously evaluating multiple contradictory information sources, and more skilled at building effective search strategies.
