Information Literacy: General Outcome
Have college-level mastery of information literacy and technology literacy.
Overall Guidelines
These outcomes are embedded in existing courses that require students to find and use information to support their writing, visual products, and oral presentations. Transfer-level performance is developed in any class requiring a documented research paper or project and use of a computer for research, word processing, and/or online publication.
General Description
Information literacy is the ability to know when there is a need for information, and to be able to identify, locate, evaluate, and effectively use that information for the issue or problem at hand. Technology literacy is the ability to use a computer and its software to accomplish practical tasks, and to use media such as the Internet to access and communicate information effectively.
Student Learning Outcomes (1-6) and Suggestions for Curriculum Design Elements
Information literate students:
- Determine extent of information needed—by
- Defining a research topic or other information need
- Identifying a variety of types and formats of information sources
- Access needed information effectively and efficiently—by
- Selecting appropriate investigative methods and information sources
- Designing and implementing an effective search strategy
- Evaluate information and its sources critically—by
- Examining and comparing information from various sources in order to evaluate reliability, validity, accuracy, authority, timeliness, and point of view or bias
- Recognizing prejudice, deception, or manipulation
- Incorporate selected information into one’s knowledge base—by
- Summarizing the main ideas from the information gathered
- Synthesizing main ideas to construct new concepts
- Use information effectively to accomplish a specific purpose—by
- Applying new and prior information to create a product or performance
- Communicating the product or performance to others
- Access and use information ethically and legally—by
- Respecting intellectual property, copyright, and fair use
- Consistently using appropriate documentation style to cite sources
Technology literate students:
- Demonstrate computer and network competency—by
- Using operating systems to manage programs and files
- Logging into and out of computer networks
- Use computers to create reports, presentations, web pages, and other types of documents—by
- Selecting the appropriate application (word processing, spreadsheet, graphics, presentation, html editor) to produce a product
- Creating, formatting, saving, editing, and printing documents
- Access and navigate the World Wide Web—by
- Configuring and using a web browser
- Using a variety of tools to search the Internet
- Use a computer to communicate—by
- Using e-mail to send, receive, open, reply, create, delete, and attach documents
- Participating in online discussions, chat rooms, and other online applications
- Develop problem-solving techniques—by
- Using Help files and previous experience to troubleshoot problems.
- Drawing on past experience to learn new programs
- Maintain security and privacy in an online environment—by
- Installing and configuring anti-virus software and firewalls
- Identifying security status before supplying personal information