A Departmental Information Literacy Strategy for Town and Regional Planning
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A 2005/6 departmental audit in Town and Regional Planning (TRP) at the University of Sheffield of student study skills showed that students lacked basic information literacy even in the second and third year. Through collaboration academics and liaison librarians developed a strategy to embed Information Literacy within the undergraduate programme.
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General Description
Goals:
- To use Information Literacy (IL) goals to develop and enhance study skills. The approach to IL forms part of a concerted review and revision of the undergraduate programme. An important part of the approach was to make IL goals explicit in all aspects of teaching and learning.
- To embed Information Literacy into the curriculum so that students do not see it as an add on but as an integral part of their course. To engage students so that they see the value of acquiring information literacy skills, not only to improve their academic work but to enhance their employability and ability to function in the 21st century.
Approach used: First stage – using the ‘seven pillars’ of Information Literacy model to identify gaps and opportunities for IL teaching within the undergraduate programme.
Second stage – developing a range of targeted learning and assessment activities to embed Information Literacy in a structured way throughout the ugt programme.
Third stage – review and revision of IL provision each year.
A departmental Information Literacy strategy has been produced (the first produced in the University of Sheffield).
Context
The approach was designed to encompass the entire undergraduate programme (involving over 350 undergraduate students).
This includes 3 year degree programmes and a 4 year professionally-accredited integrated masters course in town and regional planning.
The project was a collaboration between academic librarians and the Department of Town and Regional Planning at the University of Sheffield.
Resources
We specifically developed this approach because of:
- longstanding concern about poor study skills amongst undergraduate students in Information Literacy (IL) and IL-related areas.
- concern about the lack of clarity and consistency in IL and IL-related teaching on the undergraduate programme.
- the need to encourage students to reflect on their study skills, especially as IL and IL-related skills are an important part of education in Town and Regional Planning.
What preparation did you need(please be as specific as possible)?
Collaborative (e.g. meetings)? Academic librarian presentations to the Department 3-4 meetings between the lead contacts on both sides Regular email exchange
Theoretical/Research? Research on IL and IL strategies (much of the material was provided by academic librarians)
Funding/Costs? There were no funding costs for the academic department, which benefited significantly from the resources contributed by academic librarians.
Organisational/Planning/Prep? For academic staff: 3-4 days in reviewing provision and developing the departmental strategy 2 days of preparation for specific activities Attendance at workshop sessions within the University For academic librarians: 6 weeks planning and writing additional content for the online tutorials 1 week developing appropriate assessment activities for Year 1
How your development of this approach impact on your time (please be as specific as possible)? For academic staff, the approach was an integral part of the undergraduate course review. It required around five days of additional time, but this was balanced by the need to develop IL teaching and the additional resources brought into the department by academic librarians.
Developing information literate graduates in partnership with departments is a key objective of the University Library and therefore the opportunity to work with the Department of Town and Regional Planning was regarded as a priority for our time.
Issues
It takes time to set up but the longterm benefits in terms of students learning outcomes are well worth it.
What did you need to adapt when using this approach? Minor adaptation to academic staff approaches to teaching and learning.
What is an aspect that will need to be adjusted in the future? The approach will require yearly revision and review, but nothing major.
Benefits
What is a main strength of this approach?/How does it make things better?
- Introduces a clear and consistent approach to skills development.
- Renders explicit Information Literacy principles amongst staff and students.
- Allows the Department to demonstrate clearly how it is meeting teaching and learning objectives in this area.
What is of particular interest or innovative about this approach?
- The consistent application of Information Literacy principles at Departmental level.
- Collaboration between academic librarians and academic staff.
What is one technique people from other areas/disciplines could adapt? Systematic approach to embedding Information Literacy in teaching programmes.
Evaluation
How did you judge if you had been successful? What evidence do you have? Benchmarking student skills through assessments at each level of the programme.
To whom would you recommend this approach? Briefly explain. Academic staff in all branches higher education. Academic librarians seeking to develop their work with academic departments.
What kind of feedback have you had and how will this change your project in the future? Positive feedback from students in response to assessments. This has encouraged further emphasis on IL principles.
Other/Updates
Is there anything else you wish to add? The academic librarians are able to take responsibility for teaching and learning as well as assessment.
Do you have any quotations from staff or students that you can cite? “It came at the right time for us because we were reviewing our programme…we would expect to see a significant improvement in overall extended essays and dissertations based on this.”
“It gives formal recognition to what should be a key element of our teaching without having to dedicate too much extra academic staff prep time.”
“I was surprised when I found out that the academic librarians were willing to come and give tailored workshop sessions on the information literacy. That was very helpful.”
Further Details
Please fill out all these sections if possible.
Relevant articles/references and websites: Godwin, Peter (2002) Information skills benchmarks. Available from: http://www.lisa.lsbu.ac.uk/006_services/staff/information_skills_benchmarks.pdf Accessed 31st October 2007
Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (2002) Subject benchmark statements – Academic Standards – Town and Country Planning. Available from: http://www.qaa.ac.uk/academicinfrastructure/benchmark/honours/tcp.asp Accessed 31st October 2007
SCONUL Advisory Committee on Information Literacy (1999) Information skills in higher education. SCONUL. Available from: http://www.sconul.ac.uk/groups/information_literacy/seven_pillars.html Accessed 31st October 2007
Supporting evidence (photos, multimedia files, relevant documents, links): Presentation to the Spotlight on Learning and Teaching Conference 2007 The Department of Town and Regional Planning’s Information Literacy Strategy and frameworks for independent learning
To discuss this Case Study/Contact Details:
Dr Aidan While Director of Undergraduate Programme Department of Town and Regional Planning University of Sheffield Sheffield S3 7ND Tel: +44 (0)114 222 6184 Fax: +44 (0)114 272 2199 Email: a.h.while@sheffield.ac.uk
Lyn Parker Quality and Development Team Coordinator Academic Services Group University Library University of Sheffield Sheffield S10 2TN Tel: 0114 22 27363 Email: l.a.parker@sheffield.ac.uk
