The ILE project: A scalable option for customized information literacy instruction and assessment

With the vast amount of information available today, information literacy (IL) education is a critical component of undergraduate education necessary to prepare students for tomorrow's world. Instructors want students to demonstrate critical thinking skills and are often disappointed with student submissions resulting from undeveloped IL skills. Library Instruction programs are often tasked with addressing this educational need and often struggle to find a scalable method to provide IL instruction to the student body. The Information Literacy Education (ILE) Project is an asynchronous learning environment tailored to deliver instruction and assessment. Posited as a customizable option to present IL instruction, this flexible learning environment can be tailored to develop skills not taught in the classroom setting, but often expected of the students as they complete their assignments. Applications at a major research institution are presented, demonstrating the variety of ways ILE has been integrated into the curriculum. ILE has been used in 240 sections of nine courses across six colleges, involving 4500 student participants.