Flipping Library Information Literacy Sessions to Maximize Student Learning: Towards Best Practices for Design and Implementation

The new ACRL Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education places increased emphasis on helping students become active participants and future leading agents in the ever-changing information ecosystem rather than passive bystanders or mere consumers of it. The teaching model that directly supports such a pedagogical goal by embodying it is the flipped classroom. While the flipped method has been receiving increased attention in library literature in the past few years, with librarians reflecting on their applications of the model to one-shot sessions as well as to for-credit information literacy classes and offering helpful tips on the way, concentrated efforts to articulate the most effective instructional design and implementation principles have been virtually absent. This presentation attempts to fill this gap in existing library scholarship. The presenter, based on her personal experience with flipping a one-credit undergraduate library information literacy class and related assessment as well as based on her extensive research on the subject matter, offers practical, easy-to-follow suggestions for educators. Special emphasis is on developing and/or locating and utilizing high quality digital learning objects, securing student and faculty buy-in, designing feedback mechanism(s) for pre- and in-class work, offering well defined guidance for students, and fostering a sense of a learning community in the classroom. Brief background information concerning the flipped classroom as a pedagogical method, its history, and applicability to diverse types of IL library instruction settings will also be provided