Information Fluency: A Guide for Faculty

With the help and support of Seton Hill faculty from across the curriculum, the librarians at Reeves Memorial Library complete an annual  information fluency assessment project.  After gathering student research product from first-year writing courses and a selection of upper-level courses, the librarians create a random sample of product to evaluate using a seven-category rubric, using first-year student product as a baseline for comparison with the upper-level product.  The goal is to discover what levels of information fluency our students exhibit early in their time at Seton Hill and how those skills develop over their time here.

The following seven rubric categories are used to evaluate student product, on a scale from 0 (worst) to 3 (best):

• Resource pertinence
• Source integration
• Validity of sources
• Incorporation of primary source material
• Engagement with different viewpoints in the literature
• Resource currency (as appropriate to the topic)
• Legal and ethical usage of information (a score of 3 is given unless problems are evident)

This rubric can serve as a model for assessment of information fluency in a specific course or assignment.  The full rubric (as of Fall 2021) can be found in the document below.

Clearly stated learning objectives or learning outcomes help students focus on the information fluency or research skills they should demonstrate in order to complete an assignment, and reinforce the importance of these skills.  These outcomes can be added to syllabi alongside existing course, program, and/or university learning objectives, and can be assessed using rubrics and other common evaluation tools.

Information fluency learning outcomes can be tailored to a course or assignment, and can be modified from the knowledge practices and dispositions listed in the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education (see the "Theoretical Framework" tab on the left), or from the ACRL's older list of information literacy objectives created in 2001: