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Credo Research Skills

Faculty module

This module provides support for faculty who may wish to know more about information literacy and embedding the Credo Research Skills modules into their curriculum.

"Students who receive information literacy instruction enjoy several benefits. A 2017 survey of 42,000 students in more than 1,700 courses at 12 major research universities* showed that:

  • Retention rates were higher for students whose courses included IL instruction.
  • The average first-year GPA for students whose courses included IL instruction was higher than for other students.
  • Students who took IL instruction successfully completed 1.8 more credit hours per year than students who did not."

*Greater Western Library Alliance. (2017). The impact of information literacy instruction on student success: A multi-institutional investigation and analysis. https://www.arl.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/The_Impact_of_Information_Literacy_Instruction_on_Student_Success_October_2017.pdf

From Benefits of information literacy instruction (Getting started with Credo Research Skills module, p. 1)

Developing students' information literacy skills

Information Literacy

"Information literacy is the ability to think critically and make balanced judgements about any information we find and use. It empowers us as citizens to develop informed views and to engage fully with society”

CILIP definition of information literacy 2018

 

Information literacy is an essential element of critical thinking and problem solving. Students who are information literate are better able to come up with workable topics for their papers, research those topics independently, and write papers that conform to rigorous academic standards. We all know that digital familiarity and information literacy cannot be equated. In terms of information literacy, confidence (“digital natives”) is not a reliable predictor of competence. Information literacy is a process that is learned over time, and with practice.

To that end the Library provides Credo Research Skills, an online information literacy instructional module for faculty use — in turn, allowing you to spend more of your time and energy teaching, rather than addressing these critical thinking problems in each individual student. The Credo Research Skills modules provide high-quality, standards-aligned instructional materials on information literacy and critical thinking skills. The Research Skills modules are ideal for supplementing and supporting your classroom instruction, online teaching, or student remediation needs.

The Credo Insights analytics tool allows you to measure student outcomes and demonstrate the value of foundational skills instruction at your institution.

 

What’s included in the Credo Research Skills modules and how can it help you and your students?

  • Create a foundation of critical thinking skills around information literacy.
  • Enhance instruction with engaging multimedia. Topics have been divided among nine modules; each includes videos, tutorials, and quizzes.
  • Topics cover: research process; sources of information, searching for information; evaluating information; presenting research and data, referencing styles and academic integrity; visual and quantitative literacy; using critical thinking and logic; and culture and citizenship.
  • Use a flipped classroom approach to deliver essential content outside schedules class time, saving face to face interactions for subject-specific instruction.
  • Maintain requirements with the Information Literacy Framework

The library has developed an Information Literacy Framework (ILF) to help guide you in the development of scaffolded Information Literacy instruction.

Find more information about the modules: https://www.infobase.com/product/academia/credo-infolit-core/

How can you use the InfoLit modules?

  • Supplement your unit assignments with information literacy content and quizzes.
  • Configure delivery through Blackboard and provide integrated assessments. Credo supports LTI integration, individual activities can be embedded into different pages/weeks in your course shell. This enables you to monitor whether or not individual students click on the links, and also captures quiz results within the gradebook.
  • Remediate students with compulsory viewing of embedded materials and monitor their use.

Are the Credo Research Skills modules easy to setup and use? How can we work with you?

Select any item from the modules that fits your curriculum, from a single video to an individual module, to all ten modules. Our Research Services Librarians can help you pick the ideal tools to meet your student learning outcomes:

  • Help you design an effective research assignment that anticipates potential student stumbling blocks.
  • Help you evaluate a current research assignment for information literacy competencies.
  • Help you to embed instructional materials into your Blackboard course and can also link quizzes to the Grade Centre.

Access the Credo Research Skills modules in class from this guide, Blackboard, or by direct link to the complete course.

Browse and view all of the videos, tutorials, and quizzes available, starting at the Credo Research Skills homepage.

Click the use cases below to see how this information Literacy solution helped their communities.

We are here to assist you via F2F consults, Zoom, email and telephone. Contact your Liaison Librarian with your questions, teaching needs and if you would like this tool to be embedded in your Blackboard course.