Information Literacy (IL) is part of our campus-wide general-education requirements.
Prior to Fall 2021, IL was under the Fundamental Literacies category of our general-education curriculum, and all students were to satisfy it by taking COAS-Q 110, Introduction to Information Literacy (1 credit). Starting in Fall 2021, however, IL is now categorized under Additional Requirements, and it can be met in one of two ways:
- Completion of COAS-Q 110, Introduction to Information Literacy (1 cr), as before; or
- Completion of a course from within each department’s major that has been approved as a tagged IL course.
This provides additional flexibility and allows departments the option to cooperate with a subject librarian to designate a course that is already part of their curriculum as a tagged IL course to improve efficiency and add additional content relevance to this component of our general-education curriculum.
Departments may seek to designate one tagged IL course. Most departments have already done this, but for those who have not, or would like to make a change to their tagged IL course designation, they should utilize the following procedures:
- Reach out to their Subject Librarian (list on library website) roughly one year before their intended initial offering;
- Subject Librarian will work with the Department to determine feasibility for incorporating appropriate instructional modules to meet the Student Learning Outcomes associated with IL;
- If deemed suitable, the Subject Librarian will communicate the addition (or change) to the IL Coordinator;
- Departmental chairperson should then indicate that it’s a tagged IL course when submitting information for the Schedule of Classes for each offering; and
- The IL Coordinator will communicate changes to a General Education Director, who will help to verify proper attribute tagging in the schedule of classes (iGPS) and AAR programming.
Additional Notes and Ongoing Maintenance:
- Instructors of tagged IL courses will be expected to provide syllabi for each iteration of the course;
- Librarians will provide assessment of the IL component of the course;
- Departments should check proof lists from the Registrar each term to make sure that classes are coded correctly; and
- Departments should make sure that an instructor new to a tagged IL course is aware of the added responsibilities and works with the subject librarian.