| Abstract/Notes |
Introduction: Because of the importance of being “information literate” in an information rich society, more academic institutions acknowledge one-shot bibliographic instruction is not enough to produce the sophisticated searcher today’s information society demands, especially in health sciences. More academic institutions are offering for-credit information literacy courses, most meshed with other course content. Palmer College of Chiropractic is no different. However, after searching the literature, we found we had no model from other chiropractic or medical colleges for an information literacy class designed for health sciences—no directions on what topics were essential to cover, what students could reasonably be expected to know from their undergraduate experience, or what would or would not work in a classroom situation. Therefore, the class we developed and initially presented has undergone many alterations over the three years. The goal of this paper is to show how and why the information literacy class at Palmer College Davenport evolved from its initial presentation to the current model, and possible directions for the future. Methods: Initially, the course was required during students’ second trimester. Each class contained approximately 250 students per term in two sections. Still required, the class has been transitioned to the first trimester, meeting twice a week for the first half trimester instead of once a week for the whole trimester as originally scheduled. The optimal situation would be small classes in wired classrooms where each student would have access to a computer. Due to student scheduling, classroom and instructor availability, it began with approximately 125 students in each of two sections in a lecture hall with internet hook-up for the instructor. The presentation style, therefore, was lecture or demonstration, with an outside assignment for students to assess their understanding of material presented in class. This format has not changed. We used the rule-of-thumb of one hour of outside work per credit hour when designing the course assignments. There was also a midterm and final examination. Results: During and after the first term the class was presented, we discovered areas of instruction needing revision identified through student feedback on attendance forms, the course survey at term’s end, and instructor observation. Student surveys indicated students felt we were being too rigid in our expectations and some of the material presented was repeating basic information they already knew. Students wanted more emphasis on chiropractic resources. From the instructor standpoint, we discovered we had tried to include more material than could be effectively presented in a 50-minute period and assignments took several hours to score as originally designed. This led to multiple revisions on many lesson plans, objectives, corresponding course content, and assignments. It also included building lab time into some class sessions and changing the text to a collection of readings and lecture notes. Written assignments have been streamlined even further. Discussion: Students responded favorably to the more relaxed format and attempts to relate the class to their other courses, as well as stressing advanced searching techniques in the databases. Many commented that the “text” would be a useful reference tool in the future. Teaching a for-credit information literacy class to chiropractic students involved a great deal of developmental work. However, considering the continually changing technology and demographic make-up of the student body, the challenge is to continue to make the course relevant and meaningful to students. This abstract is reproduced with the permission of the publisher. |
