Information Literacy Tutorial

Minneapolis Community & Technical College
http://www.mctc.mnscu.edu/academicAffairs/library/tutorials/infolit/

Narrative || Tutorial Contents || Checklist



Narrative

MCTC has a required 1-credit course on Information Literacy and Research Skills that includes a competency exam. "The exam is usually administered as a take-home final with approximately 10 days to complete it."

This thorough tutorial covers the basics of library research with an unusually heavy emphasis on the production and organization of knowledge (lessons 1 & 2). The tutorial also emphasizes print vs. electronic resources and many of the ethical and legal issues surrounding 'information.'

The tutorial is heavily text-based, with screen captures of the catalog and article searching as appropriate. It is easy to move screen to screen, and on the left side is navigation that indicates where one is in the lesson. From the front screen of the tutorial it is possible to link to any lesson, assingment, handout or exercise. There is a quiz at the end of each lesson, which is not graded. More explanation for wrong answers would be useful.

Frames are used to allow tutorial-takers to do live searching in the catalog, periodical index and the Web. Examples/exercises are resource-specific (i.e. ProQuest, Yahoo) which could be limiting.

Each lesson includes a printable 'assignment' form which the student can use to apply their own research question. These assignments are linked to the credit-bearing course on IL.

There are many links out of the tutorial to Web sites that either illustrate a point or allow for further learning. While useful, a novice learner might easily get lost, or not fully understand that the link took them out of the tutorial. Some explanation of this would be useful.


Tutorial Contents

Lesson 1
Production of Knowledge
Lesson 2
Organization of Knowledge
Lesson 3
Defining Your Research Topic
  • Government Knowledge
  • Academic Knowledge
  • Private Sector Knowledge
  • What is a book?
  • What is a periodical?
  • Government Documents
  • Non-Print Material
  • The Politics of Research
  • Classification Systems
  • Subject Headings
  • Designing a strategy
  • Determining use
    • Lesson 4
    Using Electronic Resources
    Lesson 5
    Using Print Resources
    Lesson 6
    Citing Your Sources
  • What is a database?
  • What's in a database?
  • The Internet
        - Yahoo
        - Yahoo2
        - Hotbot
  • Library Catalogs
        - WebPALS
  • Online Databases
        - WebPALS
  • Print Indexes
        - Reader' Guide
        - General Science
        - Social Science
        - Alternative Press
  • Encyclopedias
  • Dictionaries
  • Thesauri
  • Bibliographies
  • Biographies
  • Statistical Sources
  • MLA Style
  • APA Style
    • Lesson 7
    Intellectual Freedom & Censorship
  • Authorship & Copyright
  • Fair Use
  • Intellectual Freedom
  • Censorship



    • Checklist

    Research
    Understanding information needed Yes - Lesson 3
    Narrowing research topic Yes - Lesson 3
    Database definition Yes - Lesson 4
    Catalog Searching Yes - Lesson 4
    Article Searching Yes - Lesson 4
    Keyword searching Yes - Lesson 4
    Boolean searching Yes - Lesson 4
    Controlled vocabulary Yes - Lesson 2
    Primary vs. Secondary Resources No
    Scholarly vs. Popular Materials Yes - Lesson 1 & 5
    Peer Review Yes - Lesson 4
    Evaluating Sources Yes - Lesson 4
    Locating Materials Yes - Lesson 2
    Organization of Library Materials Yes - Lesson 2
    LC Call Number System Yes - Lesson 2
    Citing Sources Yes - Lesson 6
    Plagiarism No - but Lesson 7 approaches this issue.
    Reference Resources Yes - Lesson 3
    How to get Reference Help Yes - Lesson 3
    Web Searching
    Understanding the Internet/Web (what it does and doesn't do) Yes - Lesson 2 & 4
    Search Engines vs. Subject Directories Yes - Lesson 4
    Evaluating Internet Resources Yes - Lesson 4
    Web search operators (+/-) Yes - Lesson 4
    Web vs. other resources (content) Yes - Lesson 3
    Look
    Wordy vs. Terse Text heavy - it seems that only a student required to take an IL exam would read all of it.
    Use of Graphics Few Graphics - primarily as screen captures.
    Interactivity
    Passive vs. Active User Despite the heavy reliance on reading page after page of text, there is a great deal of interaction in the form of quizzes, exercises and assignments. None of it is much fun, however.
    Ongoing Testing/Quiz Yes
    Navigation
    Clear vs. Confusing Quite clear - however there are many links out of the tutorial and a novice would quickly get lost.
    Technology
    Minimum Browser Requirements Yes
    Sound Card No
    Java No
    Shockwave No
    Assessment
    Pre-test Yes
    Post-test Yes - for Lessons 1-5. In addition this tutorial is meant as preparation for a required IL competency exam, examples of which are provided for the students.
    Users Registered No
    Feedback
    Ongoing vs. At the end Ongoing
    Printable Certificate No
    Credits
    In-house vs. licensed code

    "This tutorial was created and written by Thomas W. Eland, Librarian/Instructor at Minneapolis Community & Technical College. All material is copyrighted and cannot be duplicated without the express permission of Thomas Eland.

    "The Tutorial was created using Dreamweaver 2.0, HoTMetaL PRO 6.0 and PaintShop PRO 4.12 software."

    From http://www.mctc.mnscu.edu/academicAffairs/
    library/tutorials/infolit/tablesversion/home.htm


    Return to Tutorials Index