[5] Information Literacy Online: an Erasmus+ project to improve students' competencies

Abstract: Motivation and Background: Information Literacy (IL) is “the set of integrated abilities encompassing the reflective discovery of information, the understanding of how information is produced and valued, and the use of information in creating new knowledge and participating ethically in communities of learning” (American Library Association, 2016). IL as a social key competence is particularly essential in post-secondary education and research. According to many studies (e.g. Katz, 2007; Rubinić, Stričević, & Juric, 2013), student’s information literacy levels are generally low. Accordingly, in November 2016 the EU project ILO was started with the aim to develop, evaluate and disseminate a multilingual Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) for developing information literacy focusing on higher education students. Expected Outcome: MOOCs are online courses with no entry barriers aiming at unlimited participation. The ILO project will at first concentrate on information literacy elements which are relevant for all subjects/disciplines. Examples for such general information literacy elements are Boolean operators, basic principles in knowledge organization, or basic knowledge of copyright law. IL also covers subject-specific elements, so the project will demonstrate the applicability of the generic information literacy MOOC to two exemplary disciplines: Business Administration and Psychology. A major shortcoming of current IL courses is the lack of self-assessment components. Therefore, a central innovative approach of our MOOC will be the implementation of technology based assessment components which allow students to get feedback on their learning success and hints on how to improve. A special aspect of the project concerns offering this content to six European cultural and language groups: English, German, Spanish, Catalan, Slovenian and Croatian. By addressing three of the largest language groups in Europe, the MOOC will be available to many citizens. Moreover, it will be one of the first MOOCs available in Slovenian and Croatian and as such provide a new innovative model for MOOC development in these two language areas. The multilingual approach will not only consider formal translation but also cultural-specific differences in the various realizations. The project will strongly endeavor to evaluate the MOOC in several phases and with different methods. Acknowledgements: The European Commission support for the production of this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the contents which reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein. Bio: Stefan Dreisiebner studied Business Education and Computer Science in Austria, the United States and China and holds a master degree of the University of Graz, Austria. Currently he works as University Assistant at the Department of Information Science and Information Systems at the University of Graz. His research and teaching is focusing on electronic business models, Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) and Information Literacy, an area in which he is also working towards his PhD. Before that he already hold several positions in research projects where he worked on the business model development of the Austrian MOOC platform iMooX and research on last mile logistics together with a major logistics enterprise. Currently he coordinates the Erasmus+ project “Information Literacy Online”