The Internet Conundrum: Teaching Web Research Through Collaborative, Creative Library Instruction

Wading through the massive amount of information and sources in our world can be overwhelming. The ability to effectively navigate information online is essential for students now, and in the future. The inability of many community college students to identify quality online sources is often evident and a cause for concern among instructors. This concern motivated a collaborative instructional effort between a composition instructor and coordinator of library instruction. A two-shot information literacy instruction scenario was employed with four English 1010 sections. This allowed the librarian to dedicate an entire class session to web searching instruction with a subsequent session for instruction in library databases. Focusing on two learning outcomes, the web session was effectively split in to two segments: web search techniques and website evaluation. Each segment featured brief instruction coupled with an activity. Using minimal lecture in favor of an activity-based session, students were encouraged to actively participate in the learning experienced. Activities included a search showdown and a group website evaluation activity. Although the lesson plan was designed for a full class session, individual activities may also be incorporated effectively in more traditional one-shot instruction scenarios. The impact of the sessions are meaningfully discussed from the perspective of instructing librarian, course instructor, and participating students