A Film Professor, A Biology Professor, and a Librarian Walk into a Learning Community

In this panel a film professor, a biology professor, and an academic librarian teaching a first-year seminar course will discuss how they built an interdisciplinary learning community for first-year students at a public four-year college. The three of us realized that our students were struggling to develop their information literacy skills and understandings in the first year of college. We knew we needed to design and offer courses that acknowledge that first-year college students are novice researchers who struggle with the research process and that recognize that these students need scaffolded and intentional guidance and support if they are to engage with the interconnected concepts, knowledge practices, and dispositions that define information literacy. Our interconnected courses and integrated assignments create the opportunities and structures our first-year students need to develop the information literacy strategies and dispositions that are fundamental to lifelong learning and productive global citizenship. We will talk about our design process, including how we worked to align our student learning goals and outcomes and course schedules, how we developed our integrated assignments and activities, and our challenges and successes in implementing this work. There will be ample time for questions and discussion with panel speakers and participants