Learning Information Literacy Online @UH

LILO for Instructors

Aloha z My Instructor is!

Teaching college-level research skills is challenging. The amount of information available to everyone grows exponentially every day.

More than every, students today must know how:

to recognize when information is needed;
to decide what sources are appropriate - print, online, or referrals public or private sector entities;
to phrase an information need as a question or request, and develop effective search strategies to find what is needed;
to run a search and evaluate the results, and then, revise the search as necessary;
to evaluate useful sources more thoroughly and support ideas with credible evidence; and
know how to properly quote, summarize, and paraphrase to avoid plagiarism.

The above skills, competencies, and abilities are the foundations of Information Literacy.

The following YouTube video from Otis College describes information literacy and the role of librarian and library in helping students attain it:

ETS (Educational Testing Service) is getting on the information literacy bandwagon.

In April 2006, it published and released the Information and Communication Technology Literacy Test to address a growing need to assess critical thinking, reasoning skills, information search and retrieval, source evaluation, and the application of information to solve problems.

A recent ETS report indicated that only 52% of students tested could accurately judge the objectivity of a Web site.

The academic/professional library journal College & Research Libraries News published "ETS Research Finds College Students Fall Short in Demonstrating ICT Literacy" in its January 2007 issue.

Follow this link for more information on ETS and Information Literacy.

The Learning Information Literacy Online (LILO) Web site is designed for use in college-level research writing courses by library and instructional faculty, and can be used:

as an integrated part of your curriculum and syllabus;
collaboratively with your campus librarian if you take your students to the library; and
independently by motivated students.

LILO examines the importance of research in society in the first module titled "The Research Process." In the remaining five modules, LILO suggests ways to choose and develop a research topic, develop a thesis statement, construct appropriate search statements for locating books, periodical articles, and Web sites. LILO shows students how to evaluate information critically for reliability, accuracy and relevance. Also, LILO addresses the ethics of writing, discusses plagiarism and ways to avoid it. Lastly, LILO demonstrates how to correctly quote, paraphrase, and summarize the work of others, and how to properly cite sources. Throughout the program, LILO provides as many examples as possible to help students understand the elements of the process. LILO developers have included helpful video clips throughout the program. View the list of YouTube videos in this version of LILO.

LILO has assembled some interesting programs students can use to organize their time, thoughts, and citations. "MY LILO TOOLS" includes:

the Assignment Calculator, a popular open-source time-management program developed by the University of Minnesota. Enter a date the assignment is given and a due date, and the Calculator creates a research and writing schedule to keep the student focused and on track;
the Keyword Search Builder, a search string builder that demonstrates how Boolean AND and OR make searches much more effective;
a new Citation tool, BibME, a fun, fast, and efficient way to create bibliographic citations en masse for MLA, APA, and Chicago formats;
the Citation Builder (NCSU Libraries) and the Citation Machine, two Web-based citation formatters that create APA and MLA citations automatically. (Citation building programs are very popular!)

LILO's most helpful feature is the My Journal feature. A student can create an online research journal on his or her topic. Watch the video!

Students respond to questions in LILO content about the research and writing process as it pertains to their chosen topic. You can request that students periodically email their journals to you for review and comment.

LILO is an evolving product, and LILO librarians work with insatrutional faculty to improve the program. Two LILO workshops were conducted in May 2004 and May 2007, and many comments and suggestions were incorporated into LILO.

LILO follows the Best Practices in Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education (Association of College and Research Libraries, American Library Association.)

Below are LILO librarians for each UH campus. Each is available to help you integrate LILO into your courses and answer any questions you may have about the program.

Librarian

Campus

Email

Telephone