IRIS 42: Information & Research Instruction Suite for 2-year colleges.

IRIS is a series of tutorials that was funded by a grant from the Distance Learning Council of Washington, 2007-2008. The idea behind the grant proposal was to create a series of information literacy learning objects for distance learning students. 

There are a couple of changes from the original proposal:

• Major software upgrades, staffing issues and a change from a table-layout to the currently acceptable box-model layout extensively lengthened the time needed to complete the project. The tutorial project was adopted as the sabbatical project for the lead coordinator, providing valuable extra working time. A draft version was presented to the CLAMS conference in March 2008. A  finished version of the modules is anticipated to be ready for use Fall 2008.
• The layout of the tutorials is slightly different than the three discrete modules described in the original proposal.  The current layout organizes modules  under broad categories (Start Right, Explore Information, Find Information, Evaluate Information, Use Information) that correspond more closely with the ACRL standards sections. 

Like most projects, IRIS has taken on a life of it's own. I anticipate seeral enhancements that cannot be completed by Fall 2008, but which may be added later. 

Following is the text from the original grant proposal

Lead Institution: Shoreline Community College

Partner Institutions: Clark College, Whatcom Community College

Project Description: Development of three online interactive Information Literacy tutorials to be used across a broad range of disciplines. Tutorials will cover the topics of (1) Search techniques in online resources (2) Evaluation of information resources and (3) Selecting appropriate information.

Amount Requested: $14,500

Proposed Timeline: Summer 2007 through Spring 2008

Project Director: Tom Moran

Project Director Email Address: tmoran@shoreline.edu

Project Director Phone Number: (206) 546-4774

Description of the project: For over a decade, the libraries of Washington’s Community and Technical Colleges have been moving library collections online.  Discovery tools like abstracting and indexing services, online journals, electronic reference sources, and e-books are now readily available online 24/7 to all students including those enrolled in distance learning courses. 

At the same time, librarians have paid special attention to the need to teach information literacy skills to promote student success and lifelong learning.  A recent article in the Chronicle of Higher Education cites findings of a research study from the Educational Testing Service:  “According to the preliminary report, only 13 percent of the test takers were information literate.” [Foster, Andrea L., Chronicle of Higher Education, 10/27/2006, Vol. 53, Issue 10.]  The Washington community and technical colleges have worked to improve the quality of face-to-face information literacy instruction in our institutions using grant funding and cross-campus collaboration. [See http://www.pierce.ctc.edu/Library/lstagrant/ for information on this work]

The Association of College and Research Libraries, in partnership with the American Association for Higher Education, has promoted learning outcomes for information literacy instruction by adopting the Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education:  http://www.ala.org/ala/acrl/acrlstandards/informationliteracycompetency.htm

Here is a summary statement from the standards:

“Information literacy forms the basis for lifelong learning. It is common to all disciplines, to all learning environments, and to all levels of education. It enables learners to master content and extend their investigations, become more self-directed, and assume greater control over their own learning. An information literate individual is able to:

• Determine the extent of information needed
• Access the needed information effectively and efficiently
• Evaluate information and its sources critically
• Incorporate selected information into one’s knowledge base
• Use information effectively to accomplish a specific purpose

Understand the economic, legal, and social issues surrounding the use of information, and access and use information ethically and legally”

Our libraries are now moving services into the Web environment to support the collections that are already there and Web-based information literacy instruction is a pressing need.  In the on-campus environment, librarians partner with teaching faculty to provide instruction at the point of need—when there is an assignment that creates a legitimate information need. 

This project will create Web information literacy tutorials that can be used by faculty in online distance courses in the same manner—at the point when a teacher makes an assignment that requires students to find and use information. 

Three librarians from Shoreline, Clark, and Whatcom will work in partnership to develop three interactive information literacy tutorials with learning outcomes that are based on the ACRL Standards. 

• Tutorial #1 will focus on selecting appropriate information.  Tips on how to choose a good topic for research and to select the best discovery tools for finding information sources will be covered.  Emphases will focus on the differences between scholarly and popular information sources and how to make wise choices among them in selecting information for use.
• Tutorial #2 will focus on searching techniques.  Tips for searching library catalogs, electronic databases, as well as the Internet will be covered, including a discussion of Boolean operators and “savvy searching.”
• Tutorial #3 will focus on the evaluation of information resources.  Emphases will include the need to apply critical thinking skills to evaluate information sources, the ethical use of information, avoiding plagiarism, and proper citation formats.     

The tutorials will be interactive modules that include sophisticated graphics and animation.  They will build upon and improve work that has been done elsewhere, using that work appropriately with attribution.  The modules will be interactive and will feature assessment of students’ work that can be collected and shared with their regular course faculty.  They will require active student participation and provide feedback mechanisms so students can gauge their mastery of the material.  Collaboration among the three designers will insure that the tutorials have a common look and feel and that they meet accessibility requirements.  Since the tutorials will be available for distance faculty at every Washington community and technical college to use in their courses, they will include no institution-specific information. Designers will, however, include an option for institutional branding.

The tutorials will be pitched at the lower division level and designed for courses taken by students in AA programs who plan to transfer to four-year institutions.  The four-year Washington schools typically provide information literacy instruction in lower division general education courses, so it is important for transfer students to learn information literacy skills at the community college to help insure their continued academic success.   At the same time, professional/technical students who take transfer classes as part of their degree will benefit as well.

The three designers will meet face-to-face in Seattle before they begin work on the modules to come to agreement about design elements and specific learning outcomes.  Most of the design work will occur in summer of 2007 when they are free from their regular library commitments.  In fall and winter of 2007, the three participating institutions will pilot the tutorials, conduct usability testing, and refine the tutorials based on feedback received.  In spring 2008, the designers will present a program about using the tutorials in distance learning classes at the annual College Librarians and Media Specialists of Washington State (CLAMS) conference.  The tutorials will then become available to every Washington community and technical college to imbed in appropriate distance learning courses.  Librarians at all the colleges will promote the tutorials to the distance learning faculty on their campuses and make them available to all users via their library Web pages.

Description of how the project will benefit distance/distributed/technology-assisted learners. 

Faculty who teach distance learning courses at every Washington community and technical college, will have three substantive interactive Web information literacy tutorials, based on the ACRL Standards, to insert into their courses when they assign class work that requires students to find and use information resources. 

Distance students who transfer to Washington four-year colleges will arrive with the same information literacy skills as the students who enrolled in their lower division courses at four-year schools. 

Colleges will be able to document compliance for information literacy instruction in their distance courses with Standard 5E3 from the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities Accreditation Handbook.   That standard calls for “library and information resources and services…at all locations where courses, programs, or degrees are offered.”

Description of how assessment of the project will be accomplished.

Assessment of the project will be measured in several ways. The success of the project itself will be determined by the number of colleges adopting the modules. Further measures in this area will be the actual number of classes that make use of the project and the number of students taking the assessment. Finally, each module will include its own built-in assessment feature that will measure student competency in a variety of areas related to that particular module. These features will be interactive, allowing the student to proceed through each level or module at their own pace. Testing can be tracked, collected and shared by individual instructors

Description of how the project will be shared with other institutions.

The project will be available for demo purposes during winter quarter of 2007. All community colleges will be notified when the modules have been completed. The modules themselves will be introduced to the community college librarians at our annual CLAMS meeting in the spring of 2007.

Description of how the product will be supported after the grant funds have been spent.

The modules will be an open-source web-deployed product that will be available to all colleges at no cost. An added attraction will be the ability of each college to customize the modules to fit their own unique circumstances. Any local modifications to the product will be supported by the individual college.

Detailed Budget:

$12,000    Content creation

$     475    Travel (Initial meeting in Seattle with lead designers)

$   1110    Software (3 copies each of Camtasia and Inspiration)

$     600    CLAMS meeting to disseminate information   

$     325    Miscellaneous travel costs

It is estimated that each 30 minute module will take approximately 100 hours to complete. An initial meeting between the three designers will take place in Seattle during the summer of 2007. The finished tutorials will be introduced to other community colleges at the annual CLAMS meeting in the spring of 2007 at Green River Community College. Camtasia, a software product with a range of full-motion recording capability and Inspiration, software used for storyboarding, will be used to develop the modules.

Total Budget Request: $14, 500

Timeline for development, implementation and dissemination.

Summer 2007

Developers meet in Seattle to tackle questions of design, content, extent of information, assessment features, etc. Begin work on the modules.

Fall 2007

Continue work on modules

Winter 2008

Usability testing/ Feedback

Continue work on modules

Spring 2008

Present finished project at annual CLAMS meeting

April 2008: Revised Timeline:

• mid-May: finish /written /content; post the site link to CLAMS and ask for folks to review/proofread the content. There will still be many placeholders for images and Flash activities. Tyler is busy creating nice bank of characters that we're tweeking and dropping in here and there.
• Early June:  (depends on the quiz status) Site finalized; CLAMS notified again to review.
• Mid-summer: Site ready to use: "DRAFT" status removed; link provided for librarians to download content.
• Fall quarter 2008: Clark will use the site, modify, tweek; post updates to the wiki*
• Winter 2009: Usability testing with Clark's GRCP 210 (User Interface and Usability)
• Winter 2009: Presentation at Online NW (if accepted)