An e-learning approach to data information literacy education

This paper presents the University of Minnesota Libraries' contributions to the ongoing Data Information Literacy project, an IMLS-funded project to educate the next generation of escientists through developing a library-run curriculum. Our project team at the University of Minnesota interviewed graduate students in Civil Engineering to determine their needs in data management and curation. We found many skill areas that were missing or needed support in the graduate program and proposed a list of learning outcomes that might be addressed through library training efforts. This paper will focus on our resulting approach to providing Data Information Literacy (DIL) instruction utilizing Google tools (Sites, Drive, YouTube) to present a self-paced, interactive online course. The paper also provides an examination of our assessment methodology and discusses our findings after a pilot launch with Civil Engineering graduate students in Fall 2012.