There are a number of staff across Staffordshire University who are currently undertaking research into various aspects of Information Literacy and its implementation.

• The ASK Project
• Geoff Walton
• Alison Pope

Information literacy deliverables: the ASK project

ASK or the Assignment Survival Kit (http://www.staffs.ac.uk/ask) is a student centred learning support tool designed to help students tackling their first assignment. It is one of a range of deliverables being developed at Staffordshire University to underpin the University’s new strategic approach to information literacy.

The ASK software capitalises upon the students’ manifest preference to be strategic learners and ensures that support is available at the point of need. Students enter a deadline date for their assignment and ASK creates a schedule suggesting a completion timescale and the activities which might be undertaken within each step. Launched in Autumn 2006, ASK was initially developed by the adaptation of Open Source software from the University of Minnesota’s Assignment Calculator. The current version of ASK, launched in February 2008, has been re-developed completely in-house.

The ASK stages are a distillation of several information literacy models such as the JISC Big Blue project. The multi-stage scaffold offers a set of thinking skills heuristics to enable the student to problem-solve and complete an assignment. The most important pedagogical addition to this is the stage of reflection to facilitate the iterative learning cycle.

Aimed at first year undergraduates, ASK underpins the University’s Widening Participation strategy and helps students adapt to study at university. It has been used enthusiastically by staff and students. Figures suggest extensive external usage from other UK universities as well as institutions overseas. Anecdotal evidence indicates it has made a significant impact in supporting students’ skills acquisition.

A Creative Commons Licence has been applied for.

The ASK team won the prestigious Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP) University College & Research Group Innovation Award 2007. The prize money is being used to develop the support tool further. Current development projects include using SMS and text messaging communication and the use of podcasts to enrich content.

We are also currently engaged in research involving focus groups to try to gauge to what extent ASK assists first year students with their first assignment. So far we have some raw data from social science, business studies and from education students and will gather more data in 2008/9 from science, health and law students.

Please watch this space for more details about our findings.

If you use ASK at your institution and wish to get involved in this study please email us a.j.pope@staffs.ac.uk

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Geoff Walton

Research interests

Geoff is currently studying for PhD part-time by research at Loughborough University. The research aims to offer a new generic framework for delivering e-learning and in particular it offers a model for managing online discourse. It is underpinned with a clear understanding of learning theory and how this can be synthesised with information behaviour scholarship and current thinking in information literacy to produce a new way of delivering information literacy in an online setting. It is specifically focused on enabling students to become critical thinkers and information sceptics.

In addition to this Geoff, in collaboration with senior lecturer Peter Beaney, has successfully bid for Research informed Teaching funding to deliver new research on Academic Skills. The project seeks to carry out action research which will inform learning and teaching in relation to the writing and research skills of 'non-traditional students' in the Faculty of Arts Media and Design .

Geoff is part of the ASK team which continues to develop the software using a range of research strategies.

Geoff has taken part in a number of conferences and continues to publish in the field of information literacy, these are all listed below:

Conferences

Staffordshire University, (2006). Information Literacy: Recognising the Need. Walton, G and Pope, A., conference organisers.

Refereed papers

LILAC (2008) (refereed paper) Assignment Survival Kit (ASK): the CILIP UC and R Innovation Award winner 2007: a practical approach to information literacy. Adams. J., Pope, A. & Walton, G.

SUILCoP, (2007) Staffordshire University. Creating and developing the CILIP award winning Assignment Survival Kit (ASK). Adams, J., Pope, A and Walton, G.

Information: Interactions and Impact (i3), (2007). Robert Gordon University (refereed paper). Using Online Reflective Learning in Delivering an HE IL Programme to Level 1 Undergraduates in Sport & Exercise. Walton, G and Hepworth, M.

LILAC (2007), Manchester Metropolitan University. (refereed paper) Using Digital Video to Capture First Year Students’ Views of a Blended Information Literacy Programme. Walton, G and Hepworth, M.

Approaches to Induction in FE and HE Libraries (2006), Evidence Base, UCE. Delivering Induction via Group Work to Level 1 Psychology Students. Walton, G.

Developing Study Skills in Higher Education (2006), Wolverhampton University . (refereed paper) Information Literacy from Policy to Implementation. Pope, A. and Walton, G.

SUILCoP (2006), Staffordshire University. Embedding Information Literacy (IL) into a Subject Area: a Blended Approach. Walton, G.

LILAC (2006), Leeds University (refereed paper) Facilitating Information Literacy Teaching and Learning in a Level 1 Sport & Exercise Module by Means of Collaborative Online Working. Walton, G., Barker, J, Hepworth, M., and Stephens, D.

Conference Workshops

Technology Supported Learning in the 21st Century: Issues and Paradigms in Transformative Tertiary Education: Realising the Potential: Enabling Participative Learning (2008 June). Staffordshire University. From discussion board to social network learning; a practical model for enabling online participative learning Walton, G.

BASES (2007), Bath University. A Workshop on the use of Online Collaborative Learning (OCL) for Sport and Exercise Science Students. Walton, G. and Barker, J.

Publications

Peer reviewed journal articles

Information literacy education in the UK, reflections on perspectives and practical approaches of curricular integration. Communications in Information Literacy. Spring 2008, 2 (1). (2008 accepted for publication). Andretta, S., Pope, A. and Walton, G.

Using online collaborative learning to enhance information literacy delivery in a Level 1 module: an evaluation, Journal of Information Literacy, 1 (1), pp13-30. (2007). Walton, G., Barker, J, Hepworth, M., Stephens, D.

Book chapters

Information and Media Literacies: Sharpening our Vision in the Twenty First Century. Pope, A. & Walton, G. In Leaning, M. (ed) (2008 forthcoming). Issues in Information and Media Literacy. Informing Science Press.

From Online Discourse to Online Social Networking, the e-learning Holy Grail?. Walton, G. In Parkes, D. and Hart, E. (eds.) (2008 forthcoming). Web 2.0 and Libraries: Impacts, Technologies and Trends. Oxford: Chandos.

Facilitating Information Literacy Teaching and Learning in a Level 1 Sport & Exercise Module by Means of Collaborative Online and Reflective Learning in the Blackboard Virtual Learning Environment (VLE). Walton, G., Barker, J, Hepworth, M., and Stephens, D. In Andretta, S. (ed) (2007) Change and Challenge: Information Literacy for the 21st Century, pp169-202.

Information Literacy: Recognising the Need – an Introduction. Pope, A. and Walton, G.. In Walton, G. and Pope, A. (eds) (2006). Information Literacy: Recognising the Need. Oxford: Chandos, pp3-12.

Personalisation Initiatives in the Public and Academic Domain. Hepworth, M. Probets, S. Qutaisha, F, Walton, G. In Cox, A. (ed) (2006) Portals. London: Facet, pp38-51.

Books

E-literacy for the Independent Learner: A Guide to Teaching and Learning E-literacy. Oxford: Chandos. Hepworth, M. and Walton, G. (2008 forthcoming).

Information Literacy: Recognising the Need. Oxford: Chandos. (2006) Walton, G. and Pope, A. (eds)

Professional journal articles

Assessing students is essential for success. CILIP Update 2005, 4 (1-2) pp36-37. (2005) Walton, G.

From Virtual to Reality. Relay: The Journal of the University, College and Research Group of the Library Association no. 48, pp.21 –22. (1999). Roberts, D. & Walton, G.

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Alison Pope

Research interests

Alison is a Senior Subject Support Librarian within the Law and Business Schools at Staffordshire and is currently a University Learning and Teaching Fellow (2007/9).

Her Fellowship work is focusing on the integration of the approved information literacy Statement of Good Practice into actual courses and modules. This is being done initially in the context of the Law and the Business Schools.

Alison has spent a good deal of time working with Kara Johnson in the Law School looking at how the existing legal skills module can be re-designed to give students a better grounding in the essential academic and professional legal skills. From September 2008 this new course will include sessions allowing students to gain an understanding of both primary and secondary legal resources in the context of the first year undergraduate curriculum. Alison is also working with Alison Maguire in the Business School to integrate information literacy support sessions into the teaching of accounting and finance. It is hoped that the work done within this course might become a model for good practice elsewhere in the University.

Alison, together with Julie Adams, has also been heavily involved in the introduction and development of the successful Assignment Survival Kit (ASK).

Contributions to conferences

June 2008, UC and R annual conference, Liverpool Hope University: Workshop on the Assignment Survival Kit.

March 2008, LILAC 2008, Liverpool John Moores University: Gave paper on Assignment Survival Kit software (refereed) and presented poster on Staffordshire University’s Information Literacy Community of Practice

January 2008, Manchester MMU TIRI (The Information Research Institute): Gave paper on the strategic approach to information literacy.

January 2008, Learning In Law Annual Conference, Warwick University: Presented poster on the integration of skills into the law undergraduate curriculum (refeered) .

November 2007, Staffordshire University Community of Practice: Gave paper on Assignment Survival Kit software.

March 2007, LILAC 2007, MMU: Gave paper “Advocating information literacy with the academics” (refeered) .

January 2007, Weslink conference, Aston University: Gave a paper on creating an information literacy policy at Staffordshire University (refeered) .

November 2006, Staffordshire University Information Literacy Community of Practice: Gave a paper on Staffordshire’s information literacy policy.

June 2006 University of Wolverhampton (CETL event): Invited to speak at “Developing Skills for Study in Higher Education Conference” on the development of information literacy policy at Staffordshire (refeered) .

Awards

June 2007: Joint winner of the CILIP UC and R (Chartered Institute of Library and Inforamtion Professionals University College and Research) Award for Innovation for design and creation of the Assignment Survival Kit software.

January 2008: nominated with Julie Adams for the Information Literacy Practitioner of the Year award.

Publications

Books

Information Literacy: Recognising the Need. Oxford: Chandos. (2006) Walton, G. and Pope, A. (eds)

Book chapters

Information and Media Literacies: Sharpening our Vision in the Twenty First Century. Pope, A. & Walton, G. In Leaning, M. (ed) (2008 forthcoming). Issues in Information and Media Literacy. Informing Science Press.

Using Web 2.0 to enhance the Staffordshire University Assignment Survival Kit (ASK). Adams, J. Pope, A and Walton, G. (2008). In Parker, J. E. and Godwin, P (eds). Information Literacy Meets Library 2.0. London: Facet Publishing, pp139-150.

Articles

“Information literacy education in the UK: reflections on perspectives and practical approaches to curricular integration” Communications in Information Literacy, Spring 2008, Vol. 2., Iss. 1 Andretta, S, Pope. A and Walton, G.(accepted for publication)

“Developing practical legal research skills on the Legal Practice Course” Legal Information Management, Vol. 5, No. 4, Winter 2005, pp.237-239 , (2005) Hannibal, M.C. and Pope. A.J.

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