Enabling Library and Information Skills: Foundations for Entering Students

Abstract

In late 2004, the UNSW Academic Board mandated the completion of an online information literacy tutorial as part of an enabling skills strategy. A basic online tutorial named ELISE (Enabling Library and Information Skills for Everyone) was launched by UNSW Library and piloted in 2005. The successful completion of ELISE by all commencing students aims to provide a common starting point which, when combined with later programs, will assist students to work towards the UNSW graduate attribute of information literacy. ELISE is also one educative tool in the context of UNSW strategies to promote the ethical use of information in tertiary studies. This paper aims to document the collaborative development of ELISE as a pre-information literacy tutorial, discusses the tutorial and pedagogical dimensions of its delivery to some 10,000 entering students and examines student assessment outcomes. It will also present an analysis of qualitative data from student feedback, which inform improvements to the program and some of the impacts on the overall information literacy program within UNSW. A summary of findings by way of an evaluation of student surveys establishes the positive acceptance and use of the ELISE tutorial and indicates some future directions for this mandatory enrolment requirement.