Needle in the Haystack: Using LEAP Principles and Practices to Help Students Navigate Information Overload

Abstract

RSCH 1501: Research Strategies is a one-credit online course that introduces students to information literacy concepts. Over the course of eight weeks, RSCH 1501 helps students develop skills to think critically, ethically, and strategically about the information they create and consume. RSCH 1501 is structured across ten learning modules: an introduction, eight units focusing on specific course topics, and a conclusion. Each topic unit covers a particular skill, resource, or technique that students need to learn to become a better researcher.

Our LEAP proposal incorporated LEAP principles and practices in order to teach the skills needed in the current information environment more effectively. Our goal was to foster the expansion of critical thinking, so that students would not only build research skills in an academic context, but also understand how these skills are applicable beyond the classroom and in their everyday lives.

There are currently in place two methods to measure the effectiveness and impact of the course: Pre- and post-test student assessments, and data gleaned from student evaluations. To measure the impact of the proposed course revisions on student understanding of course concepts, we compared the pre- and post-test measures in place and examined if and how the revisions to the assignments and discussions impact student performance.