Liberal Education & America's Promise (LEAP) Initiative's Impact on Information Literacy Programs
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Presented at ACRL National Conference in Indianapolis Indiana April 11, 2013. Research on the impact of the AAC&U's LEAP initiative on Information Literacy Programs in higher education.
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Liberal Education & America's Promise (LEAP) Initiative's Impact on Information Literacy Programs
- 1. Liberal Education & America's Promise (LEAP) Initiative’s Impact on Information Literacy Programs #ACRLLeapIL Elizabeth Dolinger, Keene State College Brooke Gilmore, Southern NH University Anne Zald, UNLV
- 2. What Do Employers Want? Intellectual and Practical Skills • 89% Written & oral communication • 81% Critical thinking & analytic reasoning • 75% Complex problem solving • 68% Information literacy Raising the Bar: Employers’ Views on College Learning in the Wake of the Economic Downturn, a survey of employers conducted for AAC&U by Hart Research Associates and published in 2010.
- 3. What is LEAP? Liberal Education for the 21st Century AAC&U’s response to the need for outcomes-based general education programs that develop essential intellectual skills and more engaged and informed citizens.
- 4. “Essential Learning Outcomes” • Knowledge of Human Culture and the Physical & Natural World • Intellectual and Practical Skills • Personal and Social Responsibility • Integrative and Applied Learning
- 5. Intellectual & Practical Skills • Inquiry and analysis • Critical and creative thinking • Written and oral communication • Quantitative literacy • Information literacy • Teamwork and problem solving
- 7. Where are the librarians? • How are librarians answering the call for skill development? • Is the call for skill development impacting the roles of librarians on campuses and information literacy programs? • Are librarians leveraging this call as an opportunity to contribute their expertise?
- 8. Essential questions • Has the LEAP initiative altered the conversation on campus about information literacy? • Has the LEAP initiative affected the information literacy curriculum? • Has the LEAP initiative affected the teaching practices of librarians? • Has the LEAP initiative affected the roles of librarians?
- 9. Methodology • Used the list of Campus Action Network members. • Identified the person(s) with responsibility of the Library's Information Literacy instruction program, or used general library email. • Sent 33 question Qualtrics survey to 377 emails at 316 institutions. • 123 respondents, 80 whose institutions revised the general education program since 2005 or are in process of revision • Interviews are ongoing
- 10. Awareness of LEAP out of 123 51% of respondents were not aware of their institutions involvement with the LEAP initiative prior to receiving the survey.Somewhat familiar 38% Not at all familiar 43% Very familiar 19%
- 11. Characteristics of General Education at CAN Institutions • 80% have at least one required foundation course • 36% have at least one required capstone or uppe- level course • 68% are learning outcomes or competency-based: o 64% of these explicitly include information literacy as a student learning outcome Percentages based out of 74 respondents
- 12. Integrative Education “Connecting and applying knowledge and skills from multiple experiences in a variety of settings.” AAC&U’s statement on integrative learning “The Dean of Assessment eliminated the formal information literacy program and position of Coordinator of Information Literacy. Information Literacy learning outcomes are now to be integrated and assessed at the programmatic level, in each individual program. To date, General Education is the only program that explicitly includes and assesses information literacy." -Survey response
- 14. • 74% reported an increase in instruction sessions • < 50% of these institutions also increased the number of librarians providing instruction Out of 53 Institutions Who Have Reformed Gen Ed Based on LEAP
- 15. Recognition of the Term “Information Literacy” “Information Literacy” as an explicitly (using the term) identified student learning outcome Prior to Gen Ed Reform After Gen Ed Reform Based on LEAP 19% 59%
- 17. Awareness of IL Concepts on Campus
- 18. New IL Initiatives Since Adoption of LEAP • Online tutorials • Changes in pedagogy ** • Sharing of resources (lesson plans, worksheets, etc.) • Professional development programs for librarians & teaching faculty
- 19. Moving to Outcomes-Based Approaches Prior to Gen Ed Reform After Gen Ed reform based on LEAP Initiative 43% 69%
- 20. If the LEAP initiative and institutions of higher education are looking for expertise in the development of skills, are they looking to librarians? Are librarians recognizing the opportunity and stepping up to contribute?
- 21. Librarians & Gen Ed Reform • 76% responded that librarians were involved in the General Education reform process. • 50% responded that librarians participate in the leadership of the General Education program.
- 22. What Librarians Said: “LEAP was adopted 3 years ago. The Instruction Librarian is currently the Chair of GE which is undergoing another revision now.” “The General Education Committee includes representatives from each academic unit, including the Library.” “Librarians were primarily responsible for information literacy being identified as one of the four core liberal arts skills.” “Instruction Librarian invited to attend one committee meeting to explain information literacy concepts and tenets.” “…Librarians were active in stimulating the campus conversation through faculty development workshops, campus conversations around general education and the desired outcomes of a degree at our institution.” You!
- 23. Information Literacy & LEAP @ UNLV Photo by flickr user by madlyinlovewithlife
- 24. UNLV Background • About 22,000 undergraduates • 5000+ freshman • 70% full time • 75% retention rate • 40% 6-year graduation rate • Budget cuts: • 16% reduction in faculty • 6% reduction in students • Do more with less • Teach more efficiently • Increase retention & degree production • Enhance first-year experience
- 25. Institutional Context Motivating Curricular Change • Accreditation • New Administration • National Calls for Accountability in Higher Ed • Budget Contraction • Larger Class Enrollments • Retention and Persistence • Academic Success Center established
- 26. General Education Revision Timeline 2007 – 2011 2007: Campus-wide general education retreat 2007-08: General Education Advisory Committee refines / recommends University Learning Outcomes Summer 2008: Teams attend AAC&U General Education and Greater Expectations Institutes Fall 2008: Two retreats refine UULOs and consider how to integrate high impact practices Summer 2009: Team attends AAC&U Engaging Departments InstituteFall 2009 & Spring 2010: GEAC develops reform model Fall 2010: GEAC issues report and recommendation for Gen Ed reform to Provost Spring 2011: Task Force vets proposal with academic departments, develops implementation recommendations Spring 2011: Faculty Senate Gen Ed Committee responds (negatively) to report Fall 2011: Proposal debated and approved by Faculty Senate
- 27. General Education Revision Timeline • Spring 2012 : Faculty Institute for First-Year Seminar Course Design held • Fall 2012: Offer 73 sections of 12 approved FYSs, serve 2358 students • Spring 2013: Faculty Institute for Second-Year Seminar Course Design held • Spring 2013: Offer 52 more sections of FYS; serve 1278 students
- 28. Recommendations... Administrators improve communication about LEAP o Professional development opportunities for faculty through AAC&U o Opportunities to look for models and for collaboration Librarians improve awareness of national educational reform movements such as LEAP o Leverage opportunity, particularly when in one's area of expertise o Role of leader and contributor rather than reactor
- 29. A Call to Fellow Librarians: Get your confidence on… Photo from: social-dynamix.com
- 30. …And Find a Seat at the Table Photo from: http://www.dynamiccio.com/images/Pat.jpg
- 31. Thank You Questions? edolinger@keene.edu b.gilmore@snhu.edu / @brattylibrarian anne.zald@unlv.edu
Editor's Notes
- Brooke Gilmore, Information Literacy Librarian at Southern New Hampshire University also Chair of General Education Committee Elizabeth Dolinger, Information Literacy Librarian at Keene State College, led teams of faculty to revise rubrics for Gen Ed, currently on the Senate Gen Ed revision Committee, hence our interest in this topic. Through our investigation we found Anne and she agreed to an interview and to serve as an example for us. Anne Zald, Head of Educational Initiatives at UNLV Each of our schools belong to the AACU’s Campus Action Network, which we will discuss and define later for you
- Start out with brief introduction to AACU and LEAP initiative. What/who are they? How many people hear are familiar with LEAP? How many people are part of a Campus Action Network? More later, but here’s context for current slide A 2010 survey indicated that employers wanted institutions of higher learning to place more emphasis on the following learning outcomes, or skills. Percentages indicate the percentage of employers surveys that indicated this ‘skill’ was a priority. This data is also evidenced by the annual National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) surveys, which list these skills in their top 10 qualities sought in a new hire. Note: These findings are taken from Raising the Bar: Employers’ Views on College Learning in the Wake of the Economic Downturn, a survey of employers conducted for AAC&U by Hart Research Associates and published in 2010.
- The LEAP initiative was launched in 2005 by the AAC&U as a response for the need to develop and promote a 21st century model of liberal education. Demand from employers for more college-educators and more engaged and informed citizens. The 21st Century environment is more challenging and demanding of college graduates. What are the key skills and knowledge that all graduates of institutions of higher learning should have? What does a 21st Centruty “Liberal Education” look like, especially in an age of economic downturn?
- LEAP Initiatives include “Essential Learning Outcomes”, High-Impact Practices, as well as the promotion of authentic assessments. The “Essential Learning Outcomes” were developed as a guiding vision and are easily adaptable, or able to personalize at any institution. Each of these 4 major categories have suggested “sub-outcomes”, for example, “Personal & Social Responsibility” includes “Civic Knowledge and Engagement”. Our focus today is the “Intellectual and Practical Skills” component, which you will see mirrors quite nicely with the survey of employers discussed earlier.
- Here is a breakdown of one set of Essential Learning Outcomes, A key note here, is that it is not enough to simply indicate that these skills are addressed in the curriculum, or identified as a student learning outcome. The LEAP Initiative emphasizes the fact that these skills must be “Practiced extensively, across the curriculum, in the context of progressively more challenging problems, projects, and standards for performance”. We have heard and used this term, “information literacy” for decades, I believe this term has been recognized since 1979, and have our ACRL Standards as an indicator that these skills are an essential component of the higher education curriculum. However, how far have the Standards alone gotten us in making IL an essential and assessable part of the institutional curriculum? During an interview a librarian stated how having a non-library organization like the AAC&U articulate information literacy as a student learning outcome, legitimized information literacy and "provided the fodder needed for having conversations on campus" about information literacy. As I mentioned, these “essential outcomes” are a guiding vision for General Education reform. Institutions can, and do, adapt the language, etc. to make the most meaning on their campuses. For example, at SNHU we have collapsed some of these broader categories and explicitly use “communication” and “critical and creating thinking” as learning outcomes. Elizabeth’s campus has also interpreted these best practices and made them their own at Keene State. AAC&U has over 300 U.S. and Canadian Institutions in its “Campus Action Network”
- AAC&U has over 300 U.S. and Canadian Institutions in its “Campus Action Network”…This is just a snapshot of some of the institutions that we ‘talked to’ for this research. Lead in to Elizabeth’s discussion of the beginning of our project. A big ‘thank you’ to any of you in the audience who participated. We contacted librarians from 316 institutions and received 123 responses.
- Brooke and I are both from LEAP CAN institutions and we learned of each others work with general education programs through our regional ACRL New England Library Instruction Group. We began to share our questions and experiences with each other and to question others at similar institutions. Part of what we sought to learn about is how librarians are answering the call for skill development that is increasingly prevalent in the job market, and seems to be a continual challenge of higher education institutions.
- The common thread between these institutions is that they are all LEAP Campus Action Network members.
- There is lack of awareness, for some, that the general education reform their institution is engaged in is based on the LEAP initiative. The 123 respondents were split in their awareness of their institutions involvement with the LEAP initiative and member of the Campus Action Network. 51% (52 of 101) No, not aware of institution's involvement with the LEAP initiative. So you can see this gap with 49% aware of their institutions involvement with the LEAP initiative, only 19% are very familiar with the LEAP initiative. Considering that the LEAP initiative has a strong focus on intellectual skills, and identifies information literacy as one of the essential skills, we would hope that this number would have been higher.
- out of 74 respondents
- 53% of respondents identified their general education program as "integrative" while only 49% reported that they were aware of their institutions participation in the LEAP initiative. Earlier in the survey 58% had responded that they were either somewhat familiar or very familiar with the LEAP initiative. One librarian reported what the impact of a truly "integrative studies philosophy" could mean for information literacy "the Dean of Assessment eliminated the formal information literacy program and position of Coordinator of Information Literacy. Information Literacy learning outcomes are now to be integrated and assessed at the programmatic level, in each individual program. To date, General Education is the only program that explicitly includes and assesses information literacy."
- Language is influential and can be indicative of an institutions' or libraries' philosophy about education: consider for example, "library instruction" vs. "information literacy instruction" Both of our titles (Information Literacy Librarian) were new to our hires in 2009 and 2011. We believe these title changes to be reflective of the shift on our campuses towards Information Literacy as a Student Learning Outcome.
- Of the 101 respondents, 80 continued in the survey because they identified that the general education program at their institution had been revised since 2005 (the start of the LEAP initiative) -- 53 of these ---or they were in process of general education revision 27. Institutions who have reformed their General education programs based on the LEAP initiative have experienced a positive impact on the number of instruction sessions librarians provide, but not necessarily an increase in the number of librarians. 74% (39 or 73.5%) reported an increase in instruction sessions, but less than half of these 53, 22 (41.5%) also increased the number of librarians providing instruction. revised gen ed since 2005 & those in process of revising (80) 34% report increase in number of instruction librarians (27) and 66% (53) report increase in number of instruction sessions. of the 53 who have revised gen ed since 2005- removing the ones that are in process-- 39.6% (21) report an increase in the number of instruction librarians and 73.9% (39) reported an increase in the number of instruction sessions. 53 institutions revised general education programs since 2005, and of those, 39.6% (21) reported an increase in the number of librarians providing instruction, and 41.5% (22) have stayed the same.
- Institutions who have reformed their General education program based on the LEAP initiative have experienced a positive impact on identification and use of the term "information literacy." Some institutions reported that the term "information literacy" is not used, but that information literacy concepts appear embedded within some of the other student learning outcomes such as: critical thinking, or "find and evaluate information" etc., 19% = 15 of 79 59% = 45 of 76 During an interview a librarian stated how having a non-library organization like the AAC&U articulate information literacy as a student learning outcome, legitimized information literacy and "provided the fodder needed for having conversations on campus" about information literacy. another librarian reported "prior to planning for Gen Ed programs, instruction provided by librarians was not mandatory, or even perceived as necessary by most upper-division teaching faculty. Using the LEAP initiative in the Gen Ed task force has at least made teaching faculty and administrators familair with the phrase "information literacy"
- At this point in the survey we lost some respondents because the number of respondents drops from 80 to 74: LEAP explicitly calls for assessment of student learning: 39% of respondents are practicing session level assessment. However, at the course level, the numbers increase to 50% responding that information literacy is assessed at the course level. And 47% report assessing it at the Institutional, or General Education level.
- Respondents reported that in their opinion, since general education reform/adoption of the LEAP initiative... they have experienced a positive impact on awareness of information literacy concepts across the institution. has increased among non-library faculty 65% (48) has increased among administration 55% (41) has increased among librarians 42% (31) has increased among students 20% (15)
- Creation of online tutorials 68% Pedagogical changes to delivery of instruction in the classroom 73% Formal sharing of resources (less plans, worksheets, etc.) 63% Professional development programs for librarians 51% Professional development programs for teaching faculty 51%
- Number of respondents decreased to 70: Institutions who have reformed their General education program based on the LEAP initiative have experienced a positive impact on libraries delivering outcomes based information literacy instruction. 43% = 30 of 70 delivered outcomes based IL instruction PRIOR to gen ed reform 69% = 48 of 70 deliver outcomes based information literacy instruction
- based on the experiences of the researchers, Brooke being chair of the gen ed reform committee at SNHU and Elizabeth being recognized for work on campus in leading teams to revise intellectual skills rubrics for gen ed, outcomes mapping, and program design for intellectual skills development, we sought to find out if others were experiencing some of the same opportunities... opportunities to take a leading role in general education reform and design, in integrating intellectual skills of all kinds into the curriculum. What we are left wondering is could this be related to faculty status, to self-perception of librarians, and to perceptions of librarians and the work we do?
- Our survey asked, “Were librarians involved in the General Education reform process? (For example, this could include committees participated on or chaired)” We then asked respondents who indicated ‘yes’ to describe how librarians were involved in the reform process. These are some selected excerpts from survey. Roles ranged from participating on gen ed committees (some including assessment, curriculum, etc.,) others with a few mentioning that a librarian is "chair of" gen ed reform committe or committee, or in an advisory role of gen ed.
- A range of responses! Many of the responses indicated that librarians had a seat on the university’s curriculum committee and/or Gen Ed committee, whichever governed and developed Gen Ed Curriculum. Some responses indicated that librarians were asked, as a result of General Education reform, to define information literacy competencies, help design a course, or offer a credit course specifically on information literacy. And the survey revealed some possible frustrations among instruction librarians in regards to awareness of general education and librarians roles in general education: "based on my conversations with colleagues, as non-instructional faculty, the other librarians here are relatively ignorant of and indifferent to the general education curriculum and the impact the library and librarians can have on it... they seem content to rely on our one shot workshops as our main contribution to information literacy and general education reform efforts on campus. I think its fair to say that none of them are familiar with the LEAP model at all."
- Transition to Anne as an example and an interviewee. A picture of how this works in the real world.
- A scary list, but probably not dissimilar to the lists faced by others in this room UPDATE STATS
- Sept 2007: Campus-wide retreat on General Education attended by 116 faculty, 52 administrators, students and community representatives 2007-08 General Education Advisory Committee finalized retreat recommendations as the Universal Undergraduate Learning Outcomes Summer 2008 two teams participated in AAC&U General Education and Greater Expectations Institutes resulting in a proposed framework for general education at UNLV November-December 2008 – two additional retreats refine the UULOs and introduce 77 faculty and 34 students and administrators to high-impact practices Spring 2009 presentations about UULOs made to 13 meetings (138 faculty) Summer 2009 UNLV team attends AAC&U Engaging Departments Institute and prepare report on undergraduate experience and a framework for engaging departments in curricular integration of UULOs Fall 2009 GEAC developed proposed model for implementing UULOs Fall 2010 Report to Provost from GEAC Spring 2011 General Education Task Force vets proposal with campus meeting extensively with academic departments and developing implementation recommendations Proposal debated in Faculty Senate Fall 2011, final vote to approve at November meeting
- Administrators could improve communication about LEAP professional development opportunities for faculty through AAC&U opportunity to look for models and for collaboration ALSO RECOGNIZE THAT THE RESULTS SHOWN HERE FOR IL ARE LIKELY SIMILAR FOR OTHER INTELLECTUAL SKILLS OUTCOMES AND WORK SHOULD BE DONE TO UNDERSTAND HOW THOSE ARE BEING DEVELOPED AS WELL. While there are many reasons these libraries have had these experiences, and much of what we found is indicative of movement in the field of information science toward education and information literacy instruction, a common thread is that all of these institutions reformed their general education program based in the LEAP initiative of the AAC&U. It is important to recognize the impact of national education reform movements like LEAP on institutions of higher education because librarians can leverage the opportunity to influence how the movement impacts curriculum, especially when the movement includes areas where librarians have expertise... like information literacy! because it provides an opportunity for librarians to be recognized and looked to for their unique expertise in intellectual skills development because changes in language, even at the national level, can impact awareness on campuses and provide new opportunity and place new demands on programs Also reported during interviews was the need for working with librarians and providing professional development for librarians to recognize their own abilities... as instructional designers, around active learning techniques, and outcomes based instruction.