Library-faculty collaboration in the light of a business administration bachelor’s program: ‘The Scientific Wave’

Designing games in the classroom: Learning benefits

In the modern digital age, students are equipped with different skills, such as information literacy skills, critical thinking skills, and academic research skills, among others, to thrive within the academic environment. Therefore, students are living in an era where AI-powered tools like Jenni AI, Meta, ChatGPT, Scite AI and more have emerged as transformative technologies that have gained attention within the educational realm. The paper aims to assess the perceived influence of artificial intelligence (AI) on information literacy, critical thinking and academic research skills among students in federal universities in South-East Nigeria. Using a descriptive survey research design, the study analyses how AI influences the stated skills. The target population consists of all third- and fourth-year Economics Education students in the 2022/2023 academic session from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka and Alvan Ikoku Federal University of Education, Owerri, which are recognised as the three Federal Universities in South East Nigeria that offer Economics Education; they comprise 336 students. The 180 third- and fourth-year Economics Education sample was selected using the Raosoft sample size calculator. A multi-stage sampling procedure was adopted. The instrument for data collection was a structured questionnaire titled Perceived Influence of Artificial Intelligence on Information Literacy, Critical Thinking and Academic Research Skills-Questionnaire (PIAIILCTARSQ). The data collected were analysed using mean and standard deviation. The study reveals that AI significantly impacted the information literacy of Economics Education students by aiding in keyword search and comparison of sources, among others. It has also enhanced critical thinking and value judgment.. Moreover, the research revealed the challenges that economic education students face when using AI. Based on the findings, among others, recommended that schools and universities seek opportunities for international collaboration between educators and researchers on the best mechanism to embrace AI

Information literacy is closely related to critical thinking skills. Critical thinking skills are related to exploring and evaluating information to make argumentation with relevant and appropriate information. It includes analyzing and synthesizing information to solve a problem where these activities are part of information literacy. Thus, information literacy-based learning should be able to enhance critical thinking skills. This study aims to determine the correlation between critical thinking skills and student’s information literacy enhancement through learning chemistry with the PjBL-IL model on the biogas production context. This study used a pre-experimental method - one group pretest-posttest design involving 32 high school students. Students' critical thinking and information literacy skills were measured using tests. Critical thinking skills and information literacy enhancement on high and medium category with N-gain score are 72.90% and 66.20% respectively and show a low correlation with a correlation coefficient value of 0.144. Where the basic support indicator has a negative correlation (r = -0.105). Thus, critical thinking skills enhancement is not always in line with information literacy.

This paper elucidates the process of creating and maintaining a successful librarian-faculty partnership which originally was intended as a quality improvement tool for a bachelor program in business administration at University West, Sweden. In 2012, after receiving criticism from the Swedish Council for Higher Education regarding the learning outcomes of students’ information literacy skills within the field of business administration, the process of regeneration started.
 A quality improvement process called “A Scientific Wave” was initiated to support the student's development regarding skills in critical and analytical approaches, presentation techniques and media and information literacy skills. The Scientific Wave includes different quality aspects and applies a holistic approach to improve education quality and accentuate progression of knowledge throughout all courses of the program. Furthermore, work-integrated learning, WIL, is applied as an educational and pedagogical model throughout the program to reinforce the link between work life and learning - theory and practice. Earlier research states that successful integration of media and information literacy in higher education should be based on close collaboration between librarians and discipline faculty, strategic anchoring and visualization in curriculums, syllabi, course objectives and examinations, and developed in line with the mission of the university. The Scientific Wave is here viewed as a co-creative continuous process based on the separate but still complementary skills of librarians and faculty to provide students with tools for critical and creative thinking in today’s digital society.

This study aimed to optimize critical thinking by empowering reflective and impulsive students' collaboration, communication, and information literacy skills through information literacy-oriented e-books in STEM-integrated problem-based learning (PBL). The research method used was a descriptive explorative approach. The study subjects consisted of five reflective students and five impulsive students. The measurement of cognitive style used the Matching Familiar Figure Test (MFFT) instrument. Collaboration skills were assessed through observation sheets, critical thinking and communication skills were assessed through student worksheets based on problem-solving tasks, and information literacy was assessed through a questionnaire. The study found that reflective students excelled in critical thinking and information literacy, while impulsive students demonstrated superior collaboration skills. As for communication skills, reflective and impulsive students have different advantages for each indicator of communication skills. This study can conclude that implementing information literacy-oriented e-books through STEM-integrated PBL can optimize reflective and impulsive students' critical thinking, collaboration, communication, and information literacy skills. The implication of this study is the importance of integrating 21st century skills holistically in learning practices, especially in the digital era, to prepare the younger generation to face the challenges of the 21st century.

What I had, what I needed: First-year students reflect on how their high school experience prepared them for college research

In today’s knowledge-based economy, the role of universities in preparing students to be information literate and independent thinkers and researchers is crucial. Information literacy (IL) skills enable students to become research-oriented, hold critical approaches to knowledge, be critical thinkers, consider things from different perspectives, develop their own ideas and defend and share these in an ethical manner. University students are often expected to access, process, evaluate and synthesise information from a number of sources in order to complete their assessment tasks. To do this efficiently, they need to possess good IL skills. This article postulates that students’ IL skills can be successfully fostered and enhanced if academics and academic librarians enter into a partnership to collaboratively develop students’ IL skills. The article discusses an intervention at the University of the Western Cape, South Africa that entailed embedding IL skills in an academic literacies (AL) course offered to first-year students in the Faculty of Community and Health Sciences. This intervention involved a partnership between academic librarians and an AL lecturer in adopting a team-teaching approach to collaboratively develop students’ IL skills. Overall, students showed great enthusiasm for the IL sessions, and their responses to the different tasks given to them were positive. The partnership between the team members was found to be successful. Although the researchers concluded that a collaborative partnership between academics and academic librarians was feasible and sustainable, they acknowledged that the available resources within an institution, for example, library computer laboratories, might well impact on the decision to pursue such an initiative.

Critical thinking and information literacy share many common goals. Fundamentally, critical thinking involves the systematic and appropriate exploration and evaluation of ideas for the purpose of making a decision or forming an opinion on a topic or problem. Information literacy competencies are tightly intertwined with critical thinking, as information literacy requires students develop an appropriate research question, locate relevant information, evaluate it, apply it to their question, and communicate the results. In this paper, the authors seek to further explore the relationship between information literacy and critical thinking through a correlational analysis of an information literacy skill assessment developed by the authors and a critical thinking assessment developed at Tennessee Technological University. The two instruments, the Critical Engineering Literacy Test (CELT) and the Critical Thinking Assessment Test (CAT), were disseminated to a population of first-year engineering students. Preliminary analysis showed that the total scores for CELT and CAT instruments were positively associated (r = 0.47, p <0.01, N = 44). By broadening the discussion of information literacy to encompass critical thinking, additional avenues of collaboration between librarians and engineering educators can be opened toward the shared goal of producing not only better lifelong learners, but higher quality problem solvers of the open-ended, complex tasks students will face in their careers after graduation.

Students majoring in education are underrepresented in undergraduate scholarship. To enable and encourage teacher candidates to engage in scholarly activities, it is essential to infuse skills such as problem-solving, critical thinking, oral and written communication, collaboration and the utilization of information literacy, into courses in teacher preparation programs. In this empirical study, we examined two teacher education programs – one in New York State and one in Florida – in terms of the approaches of the course-based infusion of skills for undergraduate research, and the effectiveness of this infusion. First, course-related documents such as syllabi, assignment descriptions, and course activities were reviewed and analyzed. The goal of the document analysis was to identify and describe the targeted skills, and the pedagogical approaches and strategies for promoting research skills in teacher candidates. Next, a selection of teacher candidates’ scholarly products from the institution in Florida was used as a data set to examine teacher candidates’ skill development in the context of the identified assignments. This data set was analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively to describe the changes that occurred in teacher candidates’ critical thinking, communication, and information literacy skills, and to uncover patterns in the skill development at the two institutions. Descriptive statistics were calculated to explore the changes in these skills of teacher candidates over a period of three years. The findings based on data from the teacher education program in Florida indicated a steady gain in written communication and critical thinking, and a modest increase in informational literacy. At the institution in New York, candidates’ submission and success rates on the edTPA, a New York State Teacher Certification exam, was used as a measure of scholarly skills. Overall, although different approaches were used for infusing the development of scholarly skills in the courses, the results suggest that a holistic and well-orchestrated infusion of the skills into most courses in the teacher education program might result in steadily developing scholarly skills. These results offered essential implications for teacher educations programs in terms of further improvements of teacher candidates’ skills for engaging in undergraduate research and scholarship. In this presentation, our purpose is to showcase two approaches developed by two teacher education programs to demonstrate how diverse approaches toward the promotion of undergraduate scholarship activities are responsive to the context of the teacher preparation programs.

Purpose – This paper outlines a teaching and learning collaboration between information literacy (IL) professionals and a social work academic at The University of Auckland. The collaboration was developed for the purpose of introducing evidence-based practice (EBP) and related IL skills to a third-year social work cohort preparing for their first practicum. Embedding the research–practice connection in the minds of students at this level of study is essential, as using evidence in practice is considered to be a fundamental professional objective. Despite this perspective, it is not uncommon for research to be viewed as an ancillary, if not discretionary skill in social work, with the research–practice gap well recognised in the social work literature. EBP offers students a clearly defined, systematic research framework imminently suited to the novice learner which emphasises the importance of research for practice. Research skills, in particular IL and the ability to find, evaluate and apply information, are essential to the development of effective EBP. Apart from the practical skills of being able to find evidence, critical thinking and reflective skills are key skills also inherent to IL processes and practice, and mastery of the evidence-based approach is impossible without mastery of these key IL competencies. Taking a solution-focused frame, theoretically underpinned by a constructivist teaching philosophy, we detail specific EBP and IL teaching practices, challenges and the remedies applied. The paper concludes with key lessons learned and future directions for teaching EBP and IL skills to social work students at The University of Auckland. Design/methodology/approach – A solution-focused frame is theoretically underpinned by a constructivist teaching philosophy. Findings – This paper offers insights derived from seven years of teaching EBP and IL skills to social work students and investigates specific teaching challenges and details the remedies applied. Research limitations/implications – As a case study, this article deals with one instance of EBP and IL teaching. Focusing specifically on EBP in the social sciences, this may not be relevant for other disciplines. Practical implications – This paper offers insights into methods for merging EBP and IL skills teaching in the social sciences, providing practical examples of activities which can be used in teaching, underpinned by relevant theory. Social implications – To be effective practitioners, social workers must understand the importance of research to practice, in particular how this can improve their professional knowledge and practice. Forging the research–practice connection aids the development of competent practitioners and enhances the well-being of social work clients. Originality/value – The authors outline constructivist–connectivist learning activities that can be used to advance students’ IL skills, develop research capacity and enhance the importance of the research-practice connection in social work practice. While much research has been done on EBP and IL connections in the medical and nursing literature, there is limited literature discussing EBP and IL integration in social work.

Is it possible to administer an information literacy assessment in only a few classes that would provide essential, adequate, data from semester to semester? In a college with a student body of about 2,000, would it be possible to obtain actionable assessment results if only 150 to 200 students were assessed each semester? This article is the result of the creation and implementation of the information literacy assessment that was launched in the fall of 2009 by Savage Library at Western State College of Colorado (WSC). WSC changed its name to Western State Colorado University on August 1, 2012. The authors of this article, a librarian and a lecturer in English, collaborated closely to embed the information literacy assessment into multiple sections of the second-year writing class required for all Western students. This article presents an overview of the information literacy (IL) assessment and an analysis of the data obtained from the assessment. The article also provides an overview of how to embed IL instruction and IL assessment into the classroom to improve student skills in critical thinking, IL, public speaking, and research and persuasive writing. Through a specific case study in which IL instruction and assessment was used in multiple sections of the same second-year required writing course (COTH 202: Academic Writing and Inquiry), a broader set of implications is suggested for the usefulness and relevancy of the IL assessment in almost any academic course, regardless of the discipline. One model for how librarians and faculty might collaborate by incorporating IL instruction and assessment in a classroom setting is presented. This particular collaboration resulted in a substantial improvement in student learning outcomes as well as an easy-to-use formative method of assessing and then adjusting IL instruction as it is situated in a required writing course. OBJECTIVES Because the college had established IL as an essential general education requirement to ensure that students were achieving a proficient level of IL skills, the Communications and Theater program (COTH) committed itself to embedding library instruction into a class that was required for graduation. COTH 202: Academic Writing and Inquiry is a research writing and public speaking class where students learned scholarly research skills, wrote research papers, and communicated the results of their research in front of the class using a variety of media. IL was one of the learning outcomes specified for this class as well as for the COTH program. By expanding the number of classes receiving IL instruction, by ensuring that every student received information literacy by embedding this instruction in the required COTH 202 classes, and by assessing IL skills and making changes to the IL program based upon data from the assessments, it was expected that IL skills would increase from semester to semester. In the fall of 2008, Savage Library set out to create its student IL assessment. Assessment questions from several IL assessments formulated by colleges and universities throughout the country provided excellent models from which the library created its assessment questions. Each question was tied to one or more learning outcomes from ACRLs list of five IL standards and eighty-seven learning outcomes. (1) The assessment comprised fifty questions worth ten points each. The majority of the questions were from ACRL Standards 1-3. Relatively few questions were linked to Standards 4 and 5 because those standards are difficult or impossible to operationalize and assess quantitatively. It was up to the faculty to assess those standards by grading assignments according to rubrics established by the COTH program. It was our goal to have an assessment that would be a tool to improve IL instruction from semester to semester and a measure of how well the program achieved national standards by mapping each question to ACRLs IL competencies. …

To graduate as self-guided, motivated lifelong learners, university students must become information literate. Teaching information literacy (IL) skills has long been a core role of librarians. As information and communication technology evolves, the focus of IL teaching changes with it. When information first became digital, librarians focused on computer- and database-searching skills. With the advancement of the web, the information environment has become much more complex, even overwhelming, thus the focus of IL needs to shift to conceptual understanding and critical thinking. Teaching IL effectively at a cognitive level requires librarians to understand and consider the stages of students’ intellectual development . In addition, well-designed IL interventions can facilitate students’ intellectual development. This column describes the development of an instructional session aimed at enhancing students’ IL skills by using socioeconomic data. It explicitly considers the current stages of students’ intellectual development and focuses on promoting intellectual maturation in the context of information use.

Education in a post-truth era poses unique challenges for educators supporting youth in developing the critical thinking and information literacy skills needed to navigate an information landscape fraught with fake news, alternative facts, and information overload. Australia faces further issues with a crowded curriculum, funding cuts in education, and underachievement on national and international tests. As trained professionals in information literacy, teacher librarians are in a strong position to guide teachers and students towards achievement of these important information literacy and lifelong learning skills. The purpose of this research was to explore collaboration between Australian teachers and teacher librarians while planning, delivering, and assessing inquiry units supporting information literacy skills. Using a phenomenological case study methodology with six schools, eight teachers and teacher librarians describe their experiences, sometimes “on the fly” as teacher librarian Annie notes, identifying important elements to successful and unsuccessful collaborations including schoolwide culture, time, and relationships.KeywordsInformation literacyInquiry learningCollaborationSchool librariesTeacher librarians

This study presents three perspectives on the subject of information literacy skills in academia by examining the perceptions of students, teaching faculty, and librarians. Information literacy (sometime referred to as critical thinking or research skills) has become a crucial set of skills in academic work since developments in informational and technological environments have given students access to vast amounts of information that is often unsupported, unfiltered, and unreliable. Data collected from 32 semi-structured interviews were analyzed using thematic analysis. Findings show that students felt that they lacked adequate information literacy skills, did not receive sufficient help from the faculty, and were unaware of the resources and services the library offered. Professors, however, considered such skills important and expected students to obtain them during their studies. The library staff were aware of students’ difficulties in acquiring these skills and have made efforts to develop programs to remedy the situation. However, these programs were not always successful due to a lack of awareness by students, and the incompatibility of such programs with their needs and the expectations of their instructors. By contrasting the views, needs and expectations of the three populations studied, findings from the study show that greater collaboration and communication between faculty, librarians, and students is needed to improve students’ information literacy skills. The study also provides the LIS field with an outline of an 'ideal' information literacy training for students as it is reflected in the combined views of the participated populations.

Information literacy is defined as a set of skills required to find, retrieve, analyze, and use information. Due to the knowledge explosion and the availability of a vast amount ofinformation resources, this era is known as the “information era”. In the21stcentury, mere replication of knowledge is not enough rather the survival of the personnel is contingent with the practice specific information literacy skills Information literacy skills empower individuals by allowing them to develop their critical thinking skills, enabling them to become independent lifelong learners. This study was conducted to measurethe information literacy skills of secondary school students. The sample comprised 125 secondary school students of Bhimber, Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK). An online test was used to measure the level of information literacy of students. The test comprised 32 items. The time limit of the test was 60 minutes. The data was analyzed using descriptive statistics. It is important to mention that out of 125 students, only 5 students attained a high score ranging between 80.6 and 90.5.These students finished their test within 41-50 minutes. Whereas the rest of the students scored less than 50%. It was concluded that the selected secondary school students could not use technology in their day-to-day activities. It is recommended that students should beprovided with opportunities to use technology in their day-to-day life at school level. Moreover, it is suggested here that a comprehensive course on information literacy skills andtheir practical applications should be mandatory at secondary level. Keywords: critical thinking skills, information literacy skills, lifelong learning