Experiencing Teaching and Learning--Institutional Goals

Listed below are selected learning outcomes in the areas of critical thinking and information literacy that Western Washington University is actively integrating into its curriculum. Each learning outcome is listed with its definition, along with a description of how Professor Dodd's course meets each of these student learning outcome goals.

Learning Outcomes	Definition	Course Outcomes
Identifying Need	Recognizes when information is needed and formulates clear questions based on the information needed.	Once students have identified a topic area, they are encouraged to explore the Internet, see what's been done online in their area, and identify the tool that was used for implementing the online class. Students are also encouraged to work with each other in this process. While writing their research papers, students are encouraged to explore the research literature.
Search Strategies	Matches information needs to information resources and organizes an effective search strategy.	The instructor gave a demonstration of the online library resources available for effective searching, including ProQuest and ERIC. The instructor also demonstrated how to effectively use Internet search engines to retrieve information.
Effective Searching	Interprets citations and the internet equivalents and knows how to efficiently retrieve cited items.	Over the course of the quarter, students were required to list all sources used in their assignments, and worked collaboratively with each other to make their own searchs for information more effective.
Evaluating	Seeks various sources of evidence to provide support for a research question or conclusion.	Students work together to create their own rubric based on information to evaluate the effectiveness of their own site.

Source: Association of College and Research Libraries Selected Information Literacy Outcomes (http://www.ala.org/acrl/outcome.html)