I developed with the support of Illuminate Grant (IG) funds a Social Problems (SOC 240) course in which information literacy (IL) is a central and unifying theme. First, with IG funds I was able to purchase a number of books related to teaching and learning information literacy skills, all of which have enriched and broadened my understanding of IL definitions and debates, and of successful methods for helping students develop IL skills. Secondly, I was able to purchase technology and media that will assist students in completing their assignments for this “information literacy.”

Before noting how the course aims to meet student learning outcomes (SLOs) for IL, I will describe it briefly. In the first part of the course, students are introduced to key concepts related to information literacy and to the responsible consumption of information about putative social problems.  During these sessions, we examine our current social context in which risks, social troubles, and information about them seem to abound. We study examples of “dubious data,” logical fallacies, and visual representations of statistics. Of course, we also study a variety of sociological theories used to understand social problems. Thus, this first part of the course aims to develop students’ skills of examining and evaluating information with regard to validity, reliability, and point of view or bias evaluating (SLO IIIc). In the remaining part of the course, we apply key concepts and skills in analysis of three cases of contemporary social problems:  Obesity, Drug and Cartel Wars, and Climate Change. We consume and discuss both popular and academic literature about these topics as we put our developing skills to use.

IL Student Learning Outcomes are achieved mainly through completion of three key assignments. First, for the mid-term “Claims-making Assignment,” groups of students present an argument and corresponding video product that aims to convince their peers of the problematic nature of a particular social condition.  In the process of doing so, successful students will meet SLOs IIA, IVA, IVB, and IVC. Secondly, students are asked to complete a series of documentary analysis reports throughout the semester in which they analyze video segments and answer questions to evaluate quality of information about social problems (SLO IIIc). Finally, the end-of-semester “Sole Investigator” project is a synthetic assignment for which students choose a social problem, employ concept mapping tools to identify the information they need to begin understanding the issue, complete an annotated bibliography of sources relevant to those questions, and then reflect on their investigation experience and ideal next steps.  This assignment pulls together the course concepts and allows students to apply holistically their developing information literacy skills (SLO IA, IB, IC;  SLO IIA, IIB, IIC, IID; SLO IIIB, IIIC; SLO IVA, IVB, IVC; SLV A, SLV B, SLV C).

In sum, Illuminate Grant funds have supported me in acquiring the knowledge and pedagogical support to design a course that will give students experience in meeting the vast majority, if not all, of University of Montevallo’s Information Literacy goals and objectives.