Information Literacy Teaching Toolkit

Librarians are always available to help you integrate information literacy into your course. We can support you in helping to teach information literacy skills to your students; suggest ideas for curriculum or assignments; develop tutorials, handouts, or materials specific to your course; and more. Please reach out to us at .

But we know that sometimes you want to help yourself! Please take advantage of these resources.

Research-based Assignments

  • Is it clear what the goals of the assignment are?
    • What will students learn as a result of completing this assignment?
    • What are the information literacy student learning outcomes?
    • What are the writing or presentation outcomes?
    • What are the discipline-specific outcomes?
    • Are these goals clear to students?
  • What resources will students need to be able to successfully complete this assignment?
    • Does our library have these resources? Are they freely and easily available elsewhere?
    • Is there a link to the library (or other needed resources) in the assignment and/or syllabus?
    • Is there a link to any related student services (peer tutoring, technology help desk, etc.) in the assignment and/or syllabus?
  • Does this assignment provide space for metacognition?
    • Does this model a process students can repeat in the future? Is that clear to students?
    • Is there space for students to reflect on what they are doing, which strategies are working and which aren’t?
  • When is the assignment due?
    • Does this provide enough time for students to be successful?
    • Does it provide time for you to give feedback to students, and for students to revise and/or integrate that feedback into their next piece of work?
  • Is it clear what the criteria for success are?
    • Do you have grading criteria or a rubric to help you score student work? Is this available to students?
  • Are you able to provide a model of successful student work for this assignment?
    • Might you ask past students if you can use their work as a sample, or can you create your own?
    • How will students access the sample(s)? Hand out in class, provide in Moodle, etc.?

Information Literacy Curriculum

  • How does information literacy connect with the rest of course content?
    • Is it clear to students how these skills connect to continued study and/or real life?
  • What will students need to learn to successfully complete this assignment?
    • What do they already know? Can you assume, or do you need to find out?
    • Which information literacy skills do you need to teach, in addition to your course content?
    • What can a librarian help teach?
  • How will you teach information literacy skills?
    • What needs to be done during class time (for face-to-face classes)?
    • What can be done outside of class, as homework?
    • What supports does the library already have available (i.e. Moodle plug-ins, videos, handouts, etc.)?
    • If you want a librarian to teach, where does that fit in the course schedule?
  • Is there room in your curriculum to do this well?
    • If not, what needs to change? Course content, the research assignment, or both?