Professional course Information and Digital Literacy

Content

What does it cover?

Introduction to information and digital literacy: How information literacy supports learners and daily life; Information Literacy models and tools; Types and sources of information/the information cycle; Information and digital literacy skills and concepts;

Theoretical foundations: Personal and social epistemology, testimony, credibility and persuasion. Cognition and cognitive biases.

Using Information literacy skills: Keywords and search strategies; Evaluating information and websites; Reading and recording, organising, using and presenting information; the reflective practitioner.

Supporting information literacy in others: Supporting students, researchers, generalist and specialist library users; Mobile information literacy.

Digital literacy: Use of digital tools to undertake academic research, writing and critical thinking; digital professionalism; the use of specialist digital tools and data sets; communicating ideas effectively in a range of media; collaborating in virtual networks; using digital technologies to support reflection and PDP; managing digital reputation and showcasing achievements.

Teaching information and digital literacy skills: Learning theories and factors affecting learning; Information/digital literacy programmes; Teaching methods for information literacy; Accessibility and inclusiveness; Presentation skills for information literacy teachers; Embedding information literacy; Assessing information literacy.

Tools and collaboration: Sources of information and collaboration; Developing and using Learning Objects; Information and creative Commons; Using and sharing Open Educational Resources (OERS); Using Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs); Advocacy.

The international context: Education and global development; information literacy around the world.

Learning and Teaching

The module is delivered through weekly lectures, discussions and exercises/case studies, which take place on consecutive weeks.

The teaching material is available from Blackboard (our online learning environment). Essential readings will be indicated clearly, along with links to items available electronically, in advance of each teaching session.

Study time

This module (course) will involve 2 hours direct contact time per week for one semester.

This 15 credit module is expected to take 150 hours to complete:

• 24 hrs lectures and face to face discussion
• 30 hrs online learning via VLE teaching materials and online discussion groups/contributions to wikis etc.
• 66 hrs independent learning via essential reading
• 30 hours assignment preparation and completion.

Assessment

The module is assessed by a written piece of coursework and a short related viva (one-to-one interview).

For more details, see our full glossary of assessment terms.