Faculty and Student Expectations for Students’ Information Technology and Information Literacy Knowledge & Skills: One Institution’s Assessment Linfield College McMinnville, Oregon Copyright Jean Caspers, This work is the intellectual property of the author. Permission is granted for this material to be shared for non-commercial, educational purposes, provided that this copyright statement appears on the reproduced materials and notice is given that the copying is by permission of the author. To disseminate otherwise or to republish requires written permission from the author.

Information Technology (IT) & Information Literacy Skills (IL) IT Student Skills Use of software applications to support academic work, such as: word processing presentation software spreadsheets databases IL Student Skills Applying strategies to information needs to support academic work, such as: finding and evaluating textual and other information from the Internet and/or libraries.

Methodology Faculty Conversations and Surveys about Student Information Technology skills (IT) & Information Literacy (IL) Nature of Questions: What IT and IL skills & knowledge faculty expect students to use in courses. Plans to teach related skills in those courses. Questions are online at: Student Survey & Skills Test of Information Technology skills (IT) & Information Literacy (IL) Nature of Questions: Survey of experiences and self-ratings of IT and IL skills. Skills test of IL skills. Questions are online at:

Populations Studied Spring ‘03: Faculty teaching 151 courses (8 departments) Spring ‘04: Faculty teaching 206 courses (all departments) Fall, 2003: 55% (246 of 449) first year students Fall, 2004: 66% (286 of 432) first year students All majors represented.

Our Key Questions As regards information technology (IT) and information literacy (IL): –Is there a disconnect between faculty expectations and students’ confidence and skill levels? –Is the College offering appropriate learning opportunities in these areas to ensure student success?

Skills Faculty Expect of Students vs Student Confidence* (IT & IL) *1st year data

Faculty vs Student Expectations re: Teaching and Learning Skills

What Students Think they Know vs Test of Same Skills ExcellentGoodFairPoor Student Self Ratings: Web Searching & Library Skills 27% web 17% lib 57% web 62% lib 15% web 20% lib <1% web 2% lib Information Literacy Skills Test Results 4% % scoring % % scoring % % scoring % % scoring <70

% of courses in which students are expected to demonstrate the following skills compared to % of courses in which teachers are actually teaching these skills* WordPptSprGraphDbaseCopyrightPop schoEvalAdv srchBasic srch Expect Skills 66%32%9%11% 44%46%48%31% Teach Skills 6%7%6%4%7%15%23%26%24%15% * 2nd year data

IT learning opportunities for students on campus Workshop on Mulberry for all first year students during fall orientation. Students are welcome at all IT workshops. Within for-credit courses in some departments specific applications are taught to majors

Information Literacy with Faculty/ Librarian Collaboration through Courses All freshman Inquiry Seminar (IQS) Courses include information literacy instruction with librarians. Depth varies from one to eight sessions by course. Non-IQS Courses are uneven for IL instruction w/ librarians Number of courses over a seven year period in which librarians taught IL, by department:

Conclusions Faculty expectations of student skills seem more realistic for: Word Processing Advanced software: faculty expect students need instruction in these areas Information Literacy across the board: faculty expect students need instruction in these areas. Faculty expectations of student skills seem less realistic for: Basic Presentation Software Skills Basic Spreadsheet Skills Basic Database Skills Basic Graphics Skills

Conclusions (con’t.) College offers appropriate learning opportunities in: Information Literacy for most Freshman through IQS Information Literacy for some upper division courses Advanced software applications (department specific) Gaps may exist in learning opportunities for: Information Literacy for some IQS courses Information Literacy for some upper division courses. Many basic software applications, such as databases, spreadsheets, presentaion software, graphics.

Next Steps Conversations with faculty in specific departments about the gaps we have identified. A new Instructional Support Specialist will work with faculty regarding pedagogical IT applications. Firm up baseline of IL skills in IQS for more consistency across all IQS sections while remaining tailored to assignments. Integration of IL upwards into the curriculum.  Surveys of faculty & students to continue, perhaps bi- annually, fine-tuning questions.

Presenters Steven Bernhisel, Assistant Professor of Education Jean Caspers, Assistant Professor & Reference Librarian Susan Whyte, Associate Professor & Library Director Irv Wiswall, Chief Technology Officer