Science research is enhanced when students and researchers know what investigations are being conducted in a field, where knowledge gaps reside in the literature, who the major players are, and how to evaluate research. While some students are closely mentored and introduced to the field and the literature by their professors, most are left to their own curiosity, creativity and savvy to find the information they need to inform their research decisions. Unlike established researchers, students don’t have the benefit of an “invisible college” of colleagues that provides an informal network and helps share information. Having the skills to conduct literature searching, read and then evaluate information is beneficial to students as they learn their field, and librarians are increasingly involved in teaching information literacy skills that enable them to research the background, find a focus for their research, and generally become more science literate.

There is an emerging paradigm in post-secondary education around the world, where a shift is taking place from being primarily instructor-centered to becoming student-centered. It is driven by the need for accessibility, consistency, accountability and relevance, and it involves incorporating learning outcomes into courses and programs – a move from what is being taught (instructional inputs) to what students are able to do (learning outcomes) at the end of a course or a program. At the core of this movement is the assessment of competencies that are based on the expected outcomes in courses and programs, and that are aligned with appropriate assessment strategies. As part of this trend, the Ontario Council of Academic Vice-Presidents (OCAV) have drafted a framework outlining the general goals that should be achieved by all undergraduate programs. The following project describes one way of introducing relevance, assessment and accountability to science students.

In the fall of 2007, a collaborative project was undertaken by the authors to teach information literacy skills to Honours Biology students enrolled in a third-year “Current Topics in Biology” course that is a prerequisite to the fourth-year research thesis. Three 90-minute library information literacy classes tied Science Literacy to Information Literacy through eight collaboratively designed assignments that coupled biological subject content with the library research process. In the fall term of 2008, this project was extended to include a fourth session with additional database instruction and assignments. In both years, students’ demonstrated mastery of library research skills and use of bibliographic management software was required as an integral part of the assignments that comprised 38% of the final mark.

Before the sessions, a pre-test was completed to assess basic aspects of their knowledge and understanding about how to find, evaluate and use information, and at the end of the library sessions, a post-test was administered to determine whether the students had learned some of the IL principles and skills that were taught. Students were also asked to complete an extensive evaluation/questionnaire that examined their perceptions of the value of the resources covered and skills learned for their work in other courses.

These assessment tools, combined with the assignments for the course, have given us a valuable source of data about how improved research skills along with an awareness of and use of resources, build student confidence and support student academic success.

 “I hope this BIOL 3100 offering can be utilized by librarians to widely advertise and highlight the teaching and research resources librarians have to offer to course curriculum. This course would have been much less useful if not for the time and resources the librarian had to offer to the course.” (R. Quinlan)

To link to a detailed presentation on the project, click here.

—Ilo-Katryn Maimets, Biology Subject Librarian, Steacie Science and Engineering Library
—Roberto Quinlan, Assistant Professor, Department of Biology