APLA 2019

Librarians at Mount Saint Vincent University have been teaching a fully weighted credit course in information literacy since 2009.  In 2017 we reported on our experience getting this course mainstreamed in the curriculum via an article in Partnership: The Canadian Journal of Library and Information Practice & Research, entitled “A Course of Our Own: Taking an Information Literacy Credit Course from Inception to Reality.”  Now that LIBR2100: Introduction to Research in the Information Age has been running for 10 years this follow-up research project delves into outcomes.  The data set from which we are working provides us with details on who are students have been over the last 10 years.  Cohorts include both Canadian and international students.  Students took this course right out of high school and also enrolled as mature or returning students.  Course sections were offered in traditional on-campus classrooms as well as via distance educational technologies.  Some students took LIBR2100 to fulfill degree requirements while others selected the course as a Humanities elective.   

The data set allows us to compare students who have taken LIBR2100 with a control group who have not.  Is the course making a difference? Are students who take LIBR2100 graduating at higher rates? Do they have higher GPAs upon graduation? Are some groups benefiting more from the course than others? 

This presentation will provide preliminary answers to these and other questions, and hopefully will provide more evidence for librarians considering starting a similar course at their university or college.