Bring best of two worlds in a software engineering class, student outcomes of Accreditation Board of Engineering and Technology (ABET) and information literacy standards of Association of College amp; Research Libraries (ACRL)

Abstract

In this collaborative project with librarians, the faculty members of Nelson College of Engineering, West Virginia University Institute of Technology (WVU Tech) identify the importance of information literacy (IL) in accreditation documents and then leverage accreditation guidelines from Accreditation Board of Engineering and Technology (ABET) student outcomes to integrate IL skills from standards of the Science and Technology Section (STS) of the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) into an existing software engineering course. This project was sponsored by West Virginia University Information Literacy Course Enhancement Grant. We included the full range of the university libraries' resources, expertise, and services in course planning and delivery by incorporating different IL units: an introductory talk, special workshops, library sessions and consultations with the librarian throughout the semester. As conducting researches, designing projects, and writing reports are most effective vehicles for students' learning of strategic and rigorous information retrieval and management, the class includes a group software-development project and an individual paper-writing project. We included different data collection and evaluation methods distributed throughout the semester, including Standardized Assessment of Information Literacy Skills (SAILS), a web-based tool to document IL skill levels and to pinpoint areas for improvement.