Abstract

This presentation was given at the University of Southern Queensland in Toowoomba, Australia on April 20, 2015 as part of the Salon Series.

The presentation described how Purdue University supports teachers developing new classroom experiences through an educational initiative called Instruction Matters: Purdue Academic Course Transformation (IMPACT), which draws together expertise from areas of specialization throughout the campus to support course transformation. Drawing from four years of IMPACT programming and related research, two beneficial aspects of Purdue’s approach to this work were discussed in the presentation:

  • The creation of productive partnerships between teachers, instructional designers, instructional technologists and librarians, whose separate skill sets combine to make a stronger course.
  • The practice of leveraging information literacy as a support for innovative pedagogic approaches.

Since founded in 2011, a hundred and thirty-nine courses have been re-designed through the IMPACT program, whose goal is to develop student-centered learning through research-based educational practices. IMPACT is a collaborative partnership of several units at Purdue that provide educational support, including the Center for Instructional Excellence, IT and the Libraries. Working with teachers to bring active-learning strategies into large foundational courses, the IMPACT teams are comprised of an instructional designer, an instructional technologist and a librarian. Teams meet throughout a semester to discuss goals for learning and how these goals may be addressed through assignments and in-class activities. While typically the instructional designers suggest pedagogies, technologists recommend learning technologies, and librarians focus on critical thinking and information literacy, the group has recognized that these elements are interrelated. For example, information literacy may be perceived by many as an add-on to existing course curricula, however, examples of courses developed through the IMPACT program, some of which have developed into classroom research projects, will be used to show how active learning pedagogies are supported by information literacy.

Keywords

information literacy, active learning, course development

Date of this Version

4-20-2015

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