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Introduction

This key skill develops your information literacy (IL) skills in your studies, work or other activities over a period of time. To tackle all of this section you will need to plan your work over at least 3–4 months to give you enough time to practise and improve your skills, to seek feedback from others, and to monitor and evaluate your progress.

Information literacy is not the same as information technology. Information and communication technology skills tend to concentrate on using hardware and software effectively to process and communicate information. Information literacy, on the other hand, is concerned with recognising when information is needed, and locating, critically evaluating, using and presenting the information to suit a specific purpose.

Information literacy skills are important because of the rapid growth of information systems and information resources. In your studies, your work or other activities you are likely to be faced with an increasing range of information sources available through libraries, in online specialist databases, and on the internet. But all this information raises questions about how to search for and locate what you need, as well as issues about the quality, accuracy and reliability of the information you find. A large quantity of information on its own does not make us better informed; the onus is on us to be critical and skilful users of that information and the sources to which we have access.

The key skill of information literacy is intended to develop your critical awareness and competence in handling information and information systems. Being information literate means being able to:

recognise where there is a knowledge or information ‘gap’, and identify what type of information you need to fill it;
locate appropriate information resources, and arrange access to them;
plan and monitor a search of the resources;
sort and critically evaluate the information you find;
organise and present information to others as required by your situation;
understand the social, legal and ethical issues surrounding the use of information.

Improving your skills in IL involves you planning strategically how you will go about developing your skills, as well as on which skills you should focus. In monitoring your progress you will need to apply and practise your IL skills to achieve the goals you set yourself and to reflect on, and possibly modify, your approach in the light of your own assessment of progress and feedback from others. Evaluating your strategy and presenting results gives you the opportunity to demonstrate your IL skills and assess how successful your strategy was in achieving what you set out to do. This unit is designed to be studied for 1 hour per week over 50 weeks.

Learning Outcomes

Having studied this unit you should be able to:

develop a strategy for using skills in information literacy over an extended period of time;
monitor progress and adapt your strategy as necessary, to achieve the quality of outcomes required.
evaluate your overall strategy and present outcomes from your work, including citations and a bibliography.

1 Developing information literacy skills

This Key Skill Assessment Unit offers an opportunity for you to select and prepare work that demonstrates your key skills in the area of information literacy.

This unit provides you with advice and information on how to go about presenting your key skills work as a portfolio.

In presenting work that demonstrates your key skills you are taking the initiative to show that you can develop and improve a particular set of skills, and are able to use your skills more generally in your studies or at work. Skills development is all about taking responsibility for extending and improving your learning and performance in a wide range of contexts. We hope, therefore, that you will see this guide as a way of supporting your learning and skills development while you are studying, working and in your other activities. However you view it, we hope that they will help make skills development something you value personally.

You will need access to a computer to complete this key skill assessment unit for information literacy.

2 Sources of help

This assessment unit is designed to be self-contained. However you might like to access the following sources for support and guidance if you need it. These sources include:

U529_1 Key skills – making a difference: This OpenLearn unit is designed to complement the assessment units. It provides detailed guidance and activities to help you work on your key skills, gives examples of key skills work from students, and helps you prepare and select work for a portfolio.
Your main course of study: If you are studying a course with the Open University or elsewhere which includes key skills outcomes you may get feedback from your tutor.
Skills workshops/training courses: You may have opportunities to attend training courses at work.
Skills resources: Your main course of study may recommend books, study guides and websites to help you tackle skills such as essay writing, using diagrams and graphs, or organising your learning.
The Good Study Guide series: offers advice and examples of good practice: Chambers, E. and A. Northedge (1997) The Arts Good Study Guide. Milton Keynes: The Open University. Northedge, A. (2005) The Good Study Guide. Milton Keynes: The Open University. There is a companion website to the book at www.open.ac.uk/goodstudyguide/index.htm. Northedge, A. et al. (1997) The Sciences Good Study Guide. Milton Keynes: The Open University.
SAFARI: www.open.ac.uk/safari This is an online tutorial with interactive activities that will help you to develop your information skills, including searching with electronic tools, evaluating and managing information.
OU library and website: www.open.ac.uk/library From the library website you can get information and advice about skills resources and support for the key skill unit in information literacy.
Skills for OU study: www.open.ac.uk/skillsforstudy/index.php Offers online resources to help you develop skills needed for learning.
OpenLearn information skills units: Arts and History; Business and Management; Education; Health and Lifestyle; IT and Computing; Mathematics and Statistics; ModernLanguages; Science and Nature; Society and Technology.

3 Key skills assessment units

This section gives advice and guidance to help you compile and present a portfolio of selected work. You are strongly advised to read through this section so that you have an idea of what is expected.

The key skills assessment units provide an opportunity for you to integrate your development of key skills with your work or study. You may choose to concentrate on skills that you need to develop and improve for your job, for a new course, or personally to help you keep abreast of new developments or career changes. Developing skills is part of learning. The key skills approach provides you with a structure to help you think about how you learn and how you might improve both your learning skills and your performance. The key skills assessment units give you an opportunity to demonstrate your capabilities in particular skills, and show that you can strategically plan your learning, monitor your progress and evaluate your work over a period of time.

Key skills are also about making connections between different aspects of your life – your study, your work and your other activities. All these might provide examples of work that you can select to demonstrate your skills. As you develop and improve your key skills you will also be improving the quality of your performance overall.

The Open University defines key skills in terms of seven broad areas: improving own learning and performance; communication; information technology; information literacy; application of number; problem solving and working with others. You, or your work place, may have used different terms to describe the skills but they are likely to cover broadly similar areas.

If you want to find out more about each of the key skills, the OpenLearn unit U529_1 Key skills – making a difference includes detailed descriptions and more general information about learning and skills.

The key skills descriptions (except for information literacy) used by the Open University are based on national standards developed by the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA). Details of the national standards can be found by searching for key skills standards and guidance on the QCA website at: http://www.qca.org.uk/

The key skills assessment units have been designed to take account of these national standards and are referenced against them.

4 Structure of the assessment units

This key skill assessment unit does not have specific questions with word limits and no statements indicating you include, say, an essay or a report. Instead, as you tackle the unit you need to ask yourself ‘Which pieces of work show my skills and capabilities to best advantage?’ When you have identified and selected evidence of your skills, you must then relate this evidence directly to the criteria.

This method of building a portfolio is based not on providing right or wrong answers to questions but presenting selected work (called evidence) which shows your capabilities. However, submitting a portfolio of evidence for key skills is not simply a case of gathering together all your course or training material in a folder. Indeed, you are unlikely to show your achievements to best advantage by doing this. Your portfolio for key skills needs to be a ‘showcase’ of your work. It needs to be organised and indexed to both show and explain what it is you do as you go about improving and applying your skills within your study or work activities.

Each of the assessment units asks you to select work to demonstrate achievement of particular criteria. The work or evidence you select may be from your study or work activities. However, there is an important aspect of creating a ‘showcase’ portfolio. It is that you select just enough evidence to meet the relevant criteria. For example, if you are selecting work for the IT key skill, your evidence may come from assignments associated with a course. Any one assignment may not provide exactly the evidence you need – you may find that you need to use work from two or even three different assignments. But the three assignments together may include material that is not relevant to the key skill. In this case, you need to create an example from your assignments that includes only the relevant material and annotate it to show what it is and what you are demonstrating.

All the key skills assessment units have a common two-part structure that should tell the story of your learning journey as you completed the unit. The two parts, A and B, are designed to help you create a portfolio of your work that will show how you applied your key skill capabilities within a particular discipline or work area.

Figure 1: Sample key skills assessment unit: contents page

Part A should give details of what you did to achieve your goal. It is concerned with the processes of improving and learning – how you plan, research tasks, adapt and apply your skills, learn new skills, implement ideas, get feedback, and evaluate your work overall. This framework comprises the three stages Develop a strategy, Monitor progress and Evaluate strategy that are introduced in the OpenLearn unit U529_1 Key skills – making a difference.

Part B asks you to select evidence to show your capabilities in the particular key skill you are developing (for example communication, or information technology). You will need to select work that meets the set of criteria associated with the particular skill. This requires you to take responsibility for selecting your best work and checking that it meets the criteria.

Many activities you complete as part of your course or work may be eligible for inclusion in your key skills portfolio. However, because the portfolio is intended to be consciously and carefully selective, you should choose one or at most two pieces of work for Part B. If you choose more, be sure you can explain why these extra examples of your work are needed.

Overall, the two parts of the portfolio should integrate your selected work to show that you can improve and apply your skills. Your key skills work needs to be carefully planned to enable you to integrate it into the demands of your study or work activities. This means that at an early stage you need to identify your goals and plan what you will do to achieve them. As you implement your plans, you should schedule periods when you can concentrate on your skills, and review points to help you monitor and reflect on your progress. When you have completed your study or work activities, you need to be able to stand back, evaluate and reflect on how things have gone, what you have learned and how this will help you for future work.

In summary, Part A should tell the story of your learning journey in improving and applying your skills; Part B presents the results, the goals you have achieved.

5 Effective use of information literacy skills

The purpose of this assessment unit is for you to create a portfolio of your work that shows you can improve your information literacy skills and apply them within your study or work activities. A central aim is for you to use the process to support your learning and improve your performance overall.

You will need to show that you can search for, select and critically evaluate information. Using information literacy skills effectively involves applying your skills appropriately in different situations and reflecting on your performance. You should be able to show that you can plan your work, monitor how things are going, stand back at intervals to reflect on your performance, and identify what you might do to improve in the future.

It is important to plan ahead and consider carefully what evidence you will need to demonstrate your skills. You should allow at least 3–4 months to develop, practise and apply your skills and to put together your portfolio.

6 What you should present

This assessment unit has two parts. Part A requires you to plan, monitor, evaluate and reflect upon your skills, and present evidence of that process. Part B requires you to select concise examples of your work that demonstrate what you have done to improve and apply your skills. Together the two parts form a portfolio of your achievements. You can use the guidance, Bookmarks and Skills Sheets included in OpenLearn unit U529_1 Key skills – making a difference to help you structure and present your work.

You will need to make judgements about how well you have achieved the required standards, and make your own assessment of the quality of your work. To help you do this Table 1 contains statements about the criteria you should use to assess the quality of your work and guidance about the evidence you need to present. If you were to present your work for assessment, the assessors would use the same criteria to judge the evidence you have selected.

Check your work carefully. Make sure that it shows the criteria have been met, and annotate it to identify the evidence that relates to each criterion. To help you select appropriate evidence, refer to Table 1 while you are working on this assessment unit.

Table 1 (PDF, 3 pages, 0.1MB)

View document

To complete your portfolio, include a contents page (see the example in Figure 1 above) that lists the items of evidence you are including for each part.

7.1 Evidence required

7 Part A: Evidencing skills to develop a strategy, monitor progress and evaluate performance

7.1 Evidence required

This Part is about showing that you can develop a strategy for using and improving your information literacy skills, monitor your progress, and evaluate your overall strategy and performance. The evidence you present must show what you have done as you worked through the processes of planning strategically, monitoring, evaluating and presenting your work. Part A must relate directly to the work you have selected for Part B.

You must present evidence to show you can:

Develop a strategy for improving your information literacy skills within the context of your study or work.
Monitor your progress in applying and improving your information literacy skills and adapt your strategy as necessary to meet the required standard.
Evaluate the overall effectiveness of your strategy in developing the skills you set out to improve, and assess the overall quality of your work.

7.2 Developing a strategy

7 Part A: Evidencing skills to develop a strategy, monitor progress and evaluate performance

7.2 Developing a strategy

Present notes/records to show you can plan your use of information literacy skills. Include:

the goals you hope to achieve over 3–4 months or so; you should indicate how these goals relate to the context in which you are working and to your current capabilities;
notes about the resources you might use and what information you need to research to achieve your goals; for example, online resources, course materials, skills books, workshops, specialist help and feedback from others;
a plan of action to use and improve your information literacy skills which includes notes on:
- targets you have set to achieve your goals, and how you intend to achieve them;
- opportunities you can use to develop and practise your skills; for example, working on assignments and projects, information searches, attending training sessions or skills workshops;
- resources you might use to improve your skills. For example, course materials, tutor feedback, discussions with others;
- evidence you plan to present; for example, an assignment, project report, annotated printouts of drafts or screen shots, etc., to show you how you have developed your information literacy skills;
a schedule that includes deadlines and review points to complete the work.

Be prepared to revise and update your strategy as your work develops. Think of it as a living document; you are likely to make changes and adjustments to it while you are working on the assessment unit. Keep a record of your revisions and notes about why you made the changes.

You could perhaps discuss your strategy with a study advisor and receive feedback. You could use this feedback to help you assess your progress as your work develops.

7.3 Monitoring your progress

7 Part A: Evidencing skills to develop a strategy, monitor progress and evaluate performance

7.3 Monitoring your progress

Use your records or logbook to provide a reflective commentary on:

what you did to help you set up and use information literacy methods and techniques to achieve your goals; for example, what you did to:
- search for information and explore alternative lines of enquiry;
- use different search strategies and tools effectively;
- choose criteria and use them to critically evaluate the quality of your search results;
the use you made of resources and feedback comments to improve your skills and the quality of your work; with hindsight, would you do anything differently to improve the quality of your information literacy skills?
the choices you made as you developed and used information literacy skills for particular purposes; assess, making reference to criteria and targets where relevant, how effective your use of information literacy has been. Include any changes you have made to your strategy, for example, what you changed to overcome problems, why you made the changes and what was or was not successful. With hindsight what might you do differently next time?

7.4 Evaluating your strategy and assessing your work

7 Part A: Evidencing skills to develop a strategy, monitor progress and evaluate performance

7.4 Evaluating your strategy and assessing your work

Include a reflective summary that gives details of:

a judgement of your own progress and performance in the information literacy skills you set out to improve, including an assessment of where you feel you have made the greatest progress; discuss how you used criteria and feedback comments to help you assess your progress;
those factors that had the greatest effect on your achieving what you set out to do; include those that worked well to help you improve and those that worked less well;
the changes you intend to make in your way of working as a result of working on this assessment unit, and the skills you plan to work on in the future;
an assessment of the evidence you have selected for your portfolio, using the criteria in Table 1 below; which aspects of your work demonstrate that you have developed your skills to the standard you set out to achieve? Indicate clearly where your work provides evidence of your skills.

8 Part B: Evidencing your information literacy skills

This Part requires you to present a portfolio of your work to demonstrate that you have used and integrated your information literacy skills within your study or work activities to achieve the standard required. For example, you might include learning about new search tools and user interfaces; using databases, catalogues and other resources more effectively; organising and presenting citations and bibliographies; reviewing critically the coverage, authenticity and authority of your sources.

The work you select for your portfolio must meet the assessment criteria in Table 1 and show that you can:

explore different information sources, developing alternative lines of enquiry where appropriate;
use a variety of search strategies and tools effectively;
record and critically evaluate the results of your search;
interpret results and identify the main findings from your work;
organise and clearly present information to suit your purpose and your audience, ensuring that the information is accurate.

Your portfolio might contain one or more items based on your assignments, or from a project report or other work that includes activities where you have taken responsibility for developing your information literacy skills to meet your purposes.

In choosing work for your portfolio, it is your responsibility to be selective and concise. If at all possible, choose just one or two pieces of work. Each item you include must be annotated clearly to show how it is relevant to the assessment criteria in Table 1. You may not need to include all your assignments, notes or a complete project report. Including material that is not relevant, or which is not closely related to the assessment criteria, will not strengthen the assessment of your skills. Remember that you are not being assessed on technical content but on the relevance of your evidence to the assessment criteria and the reflective commentary you provide.

Table 1: Criteria for assessment of your information literacy skills portfolio and a checklist to help you select the evidence you need

Criteria for assessment: the evidence you present must show you can:	Checklist: check that your evidence shows what you have done to:

Develop a strategy for using skills in information literacy over an extended period of time.

Establish opportunities for using information literacy skills and clearly identify the outcomes you hope to achieve.	Identify where you can use and improve your information literacy skills (e.g. learning about new methods or techniques, seeking and using feedback) within your study or work activities.
	Recognise a knowledge gap and define the information needed to fill it.
	Identify your targets and goals, explaining why you have chosen them.
	Establish the criteria you will use to judge your progress and performance, and in seeking feedback from others.
	Identify relevant sources and research the information you need for planning purposes.
	List reference sources and resources that you might use (e.g. librarians, tutors, reference books, the internet, catalogues and databases).
Plan your use of information literacy skills and make a reasoned selection of methods for achieving the quality of outcomes required.	Draw up a plan for achieving your goal(s) that:
	• divides the work into stages;
	• identifies interim targets;
	• gives a time schedule and deadline for each stage.
	Keep notes and/or a log to record changes to your plans, and reasons for them.
	Take into account factors that may affect your plans (e.g. access to information, work patterns, copyright, intellectual property rights, other commitments).
	Select, giving reasons, the methods you are going to use to achieve your goals and targets.

Monitor progress and adapt your strategy, as necessary, to achieve the quality of outcomes required.

Explore different information sources, developing alternative lines of enquiry where appropriate.	List information sources you have used.
	Identify the type of information you are seeking, the questions you have formulated and the appropriateness of different sources.
Use different search strategies and tools effectively and critically evaluate information to meet your purpose.	List your search strategies, identifying what worked well and what did not.
	Identify which tools you found most effective in helping you track down information.
	Establish and apply criteria you used to assess the quality of your results.
Monitor and critically reflect on your use of information literacy skills, adapting your strategy as necessary to produce the quality of outcomes required.	Establish and use criteria to help you monitor your progress and critically evaluate your results to check that they are meeting your requirements.
	Use feedback and your own self-assessment to check your skills development.
	Describe any changes you had to make to your plans along the way.
	Identify any modifications you have made to your strategy.
	‘Stand back’ at intervals to reflect on your progress and performance.

Evaluate your overall strategy and present outcomes from your work, including citations and a bibliography.

Interpret results and identify the main findings from your work, including evidence to support your conclusions.	Identify where you have interpreted the results of your information searches (e.g. analysed data, examined generalisations, assessed coverage of searches and the authority and authenticity of sources).
	Assess the quality of your main findings against criteria.
Organise and clearly present information to suit your purpose and audience, ensuring that the information is accurate.	Identify the audience(s) for your work and make judgements about how best to present your information.
	Explain why the format you have chosen is appropriate for your purpose and your audience.
	Identify where you have used your information literacy skills in your work (e.g. in citations, lists of references, bibliographies).
	Use criteria to judge the quality of your presentation.
Assess the effectiveness of your strategy, including factors that had an impact on the outcomes, and identify ways of further developing your information literacy skills.	Reflect on and assess the quality of your information literacy work by making connections between criteria you have set, feedback you have received and your own judgement of your performance.
	Reflect on and assess the effectiveness of your strategy for developing your skills. What worked well and what worked less well?
	Identify those factors that affected the production and presentation of your work (e.g. availability and quality of resources, working environment, level of your expertise).
	Relate your original goals, targets and criteria to your progress so far and to possibilities for future development.

9 Notes to help you complete your assessment

To complete your portfolio, you must include a contents page indicating how your reflective commentary in Part A and your evidence in Part B are related. An example of a suitable format for the contents page is shown in Figure 1 above.

Figure 1 (PDF, 1 page, 0.1MB)

View document

Although the requirements of Parts A and B are listed separately, you should think of them as parts of a whole in which each part relates to the others. Parts A and B together must show that you can plan strategically to improve your skills, monitor your progress and evaluate your overall strategy as you produce a piece of work.

The work you put into your portfolio should meet the criteria given in Table 1. As you work on this unit, use the criteria to help you keep track of your progress and to check that it meets the required standard. Your evidence and commentary should be sufficient to verify your achievements.

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Acknowledgements

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