GENERAL EDUCATION COURSE PROPOSAL

WEBER STATE UNIVERSITY

   COMPUTER AND INFORMATION LITERACY

 

 

Requirement(s) (check all that apply):

 

_____Part A: Word Processing

                        _____Part B: Operating Systems, E-mail, and Graphic Presentations

                        _____Part C: Spreadsheets

                        __x__Part D: Information Literacy (Library and Internet Research Skills)

                                                                       

Date:   __9/9/11____________________________________

 

College: ___Library_________________________________                     

 

Department:    __Library_____________________________

                                                                                   

Catalog Abbreviation: __LIBS/HTHS ______________

 

Catalog Title: __Information Resources in the Health Professions___

 

Course Number: __2904_________________          

Credit Hours: __1.0___

 

 SEQ CHAPTER \h \r 1Substantive: ______                          

New: ______                            

Revised: ______

Renewal __x___

Effective Date _________

 

 

 

Course description as you want it to appear in the catalog:

 

Intended for students interested in the health professions, this one-credit hour course will assist in developing information literacy and research skills. Students completing this course will be able to use an academic library and the Internet to successfully identify, access, evaluate and use information resources to support academic and clinical success and lifelong learning. Emphasis is placed on resources in the health sciences. Completion of this course meets part D of the WSU Computer and Information Literacy requirement. Cross-listed as HTHS TD2904.

 

 

 

 

COMPUTER & INFORMATION LITERACY GENERAL EDUCATION MISSION STATEMENT

 

The Weber State University Computer and Information Literacy (CIL) requirement provides students with the ability to use computers, the Internet, and library resources.  Specifically it provides students with skills and knowledge to input, format, find, identify, retrieve, analyze, and evaluate information to support academic success and lifelong learning.

 

 

Course Title:__Information Resources in the Health Professions_________________________   

                                                                                                           

Department:___Library_________________________

 

 

Provide justifications in Sections A-D for each of the CIL Part Requirements checked above.

 

A. Justification for Course Covering CIL Part A Requirement: Word Processing.

 

Part A Core Competencies:

 

A1.     Create, edit, save/print, and retrieve a document.

A2.     Move/copy, indent, space, find/replace, bold/underline/italicize, and center text.

A3.     Number pages, format font, create references, insert headers and footers, place graphics, and spell check documents.

A4.     Create, format, and edit tables. 

 

 

Describe how the course prepares students to successfully complete tasks related to Word Processing.  Cite specific lecture topics, written assignments, and/or lab projects that address each of the core competencies listed above. Refer to your attached syllabus as needed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

B. Justification for Course Covering CIL Part B Requirement: Operating Systems, E-mail, and Graphic Presentations.

 

Part B Core Competencies:

 

B1.      Operating Systems: Use appropriate applications to create folders and subfolders, format storage medium, name, rename, copy, move, and delete files and folders.

B2.      Internet: Fundamental knowledge of how to use the Internet as a source of information.

B3.      E-mail: Delete, print, and attach files to e-mail messages as well as send, copy, forward, and save e-mail.

B4.      Presentations: Use design templates to create slide presentations that include titles, bulleted lists, clipart, and animated gifs.  Modify presentations by adding slides, changing their order, formatting text, correcting spelling, adding headers and footers, and applying animation effects.

 

 

Describe how the course prepares students to successfully complete tasks related to Operating Systems, E-mail, and Graphic Presentations.  Cite specific lecture topics, written assignments, and/or lab projects that address each of the core competencies listed above. Refer to your attached syllabus as needed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

C. Justification for Course Covering CIL Part C Requirement: Spreadsheets.

 

Part C Core Competencies:

 

C1.      Format and edit spreadsheets, retrieve spreadsheets, spell check spreadsheets, and save/print spreadsheets.

C2.      Create and enter data, add/erase data cells, use absolute cell references, create column/row labels, adjust column width, format data.

C3.      Enter/copy functions and formulas such as AVG, IF, MAX, MIN, PMT, SUM, Know basic formulas for percentages and markup.

C4.      Create graphs.

 

Describe how the course prepares students to successfully complete tasks related to Spreadsheets.  Cite specific lecture topics, written assignments, and/or lab projects that address each of the core competencies listed above. Refer to your attached syllabus as needed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

D. Justification for Course Covering CIL Part D Requirement: Information Literacy.

 

Part D Core Competencies:

 

D1.     Identify Information Needs: Use the research process, construct a research question with a manageable focus, differentiate and apply different types and formats of information (scholarly/popular, primary/secondary, etc.).

D2.     Find Information Effectively: Demonstrate how information is organized, use Boolean Logic and other search strategies to effectively use library catalogs, article databases, and Internet search engines.

D3.     Critically Evaluate Information: Identify and apply evaluation criteria to assess the quality of information retrieved.

D4.     Use Information Ethically: Demonstrate the importance of properly and correctly citing a source used.  Identify what constitutes plagiarism and how to avoid it.

 

Describe how the course prepares students to successfully complete tasks related to Information Literacy.  Cite specific lecture topics, written assignments, and/or lab projects that address each of the core competencies listed above. Refer to your attached syllabus as needed.

 

 

D1. Identify Information Needs: Through the online readings the students learn the steps in the research process including identifying different types of information needs (personal vs. academic information needs; paper vs. oral presentation, short paper vs. long paper, opinion paper vs. research paper). They also have to respond in an online discussion describing their current research process. In Assignment #1 they are required to create a focused research question based on one of several health-related research topics in which they are interested. Students in this class are also required to create a PICO (Patient/Intervention/Comparison/Outcome) clinical question of the type they might see in their working environment. These two questions are used throughout the rest of the course assignments to find resources using library tools. Students learn to differentiate between types of information resources by completing online readings describing these resources and completing several assignments. Assignment #2 requires them to find a book, while Assignments #3 and #4 require them to find magazine and journal articles, some of which are required to be primary sources and some of which are required to scholarly/peer-reviewed resources. Assignment #5 requires them to find web resources related to their research questions.

 

D2. Find Information Effectively: Students learn how resources within the library (as well as library services) are organized and located by completing online readings and viewing a video tour of the library building. On the assignments where they are required to find books/articles/websites, they must provide the search statement they used to find the resource, including search terms, applicable Boolean operators, and other advanced search techniques (phrase searching, truncation, controlled vocabulary). Assignment #2 has students use a library catalog to find a book related to their research question and identify information about the book (title, author, publisher, publication date, call number). Assignment #3 has students use two of the library’s article databases (Academic Search Premier and a subject-specific database of their choice) as well as Google Scholar to find three articles and identify information such as the article title, authors, magazine/journal title, publication date, volume/issue number, and page numbers. Assignment #4 has students use the library’s two interfaces for the Medline database (Medline-EbscoHost and PubMed) to find primary and secondary scholarly journal articles and their identifying information. Assignment #5 has students use a general web search engine and a health/science-specific web search engine to find high-quality websites and identify website title, web page title, author/sponsor, and date information.    

 

D3. Critically Evaluate Information: Through the online readings students learn the criteria for evaluating sources of information. They are required to respond to a discussion topic on why evaluating resources is important and on their final assignment (a 2-3 page literature review/annotated bibliography), they are required to summarize and evaluate the best five resources they found when completing the previous course assignments.

 

D4. Use Information Ethically: Students learn what it means to use information ethically and how to avoid plagiarism through the online readings. They complete a multiple choice quiz related to plagiarism and information ethics. On the final assignment, they are required to summarize their five sources without plagiarizing and to create correct and complete citations for each of the five sources.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

COMPLETE THE FOLLOWING

 

1.   Has this proposal been discussed with and approved by the department?

 

Yes.

 

2.   List those general education courses in other departments with similar subject matter and explain how this course differs.

 

N/A.

 

 

3.   If the proposed new general education course affects course requirements or enrollments in other departments, list the departments and programs involved and attach comments from each.

 

N/A.

 

 

4.   Attach a syllabus of the course.  Include the number of contact hours per week and the format of these hours (e.g., lecture, lab, field trip, etc.).

 

See attached syllabus.

 

New Courses Only:

 

5.   Discuss how you will assess student learning outcomes associated with this course

 

 

 

 

 

Current General Education Courses and Existing Courses Seeking General Education Status:

 

6.   Discuss how you have assessed the applicable or identified student learning outcomes associated with this course.

 

Student learning outcomes are assessed using a combination of graded discussion topics, multiple choice quizzes, assignments, and a final paper. See the syllabus for more information. Student evaluations are also used to determine whether or not learning outcomes have been met.

 

 

7.   How has this assessment information been used to improve student learning?

 

Student comments on evaluations combined with their performance on discussions/quizzes/assignments help with revisions of course materials to improve student learning.