Digital and information literacy teaching resources
As a strategic partner for digital and information literacy education, the University Library offers rich expertise and years of experience to translate and tailor our digital- and information offers into the discipline-specific context of your faculty. Our services include comprehensive online modules and workshops designed to fit the Problem-Based Learning (PBL) environment.
Why integrate digital and information literacy into your teaching?
In a PBL setting, we cultivate essential skills to independently and critically manage a wide range of information, from academic literature to discipline-specific sources such as statistics, data visualizations, historical documents, images, and popular media.
These competencies are indispensable in the 21st century job market, where employers seek individuals proficient in searching, evaluating, organizing, and communicating information. In today’s world, the digital element is indispensably connected with finding information, this is why we next to information literacy are also developing our services for digital literacy and AI.
For more details, please explore our offers below and our digital literacy service catalogue to see how we can support your educational ideas. Additionally, visit our Digital Lab facilities for information about our multimedia facilities.
Skills modules
The online skills modules offered by the library are Open Educational resources (OER) and can be used by all UM teaching staff to provide their students with a common ground to digital- and information literacy. Most of our modules are micro-modules, meaning they are short and easy to embed into your courses and assignments.
Skills modules can be integrated into your course in two ways. You can share the URL link to the module with your students, or you can embed the skills module into your Canvas course. Visit our skills modules page to find out what we have to offer!
Workshops
Workshops and trainings in the field of information and digital literacy skills, such as systematic searching, referencing, plagiarism, the responsible use of GenAI, and digital content creation, such as podcasts, are available for students (from bachelor to PhD), staff members and alumni from Maastricht University and the academic hospital (MUMC+).
Programme coordinators and teaching staff who wish to implement information and/or digital literacy skills activities (such as workshops, modules and assignments) in their courses, can contact us via Ask Your Librarian.
Canvas Support course
The University Library provides support in embedding the digital- and information literacy online modules into the Canvas environment. As a starting point for integrating these online modules, check out the Canvas course digital and information literacy education (via Canvas login). If you do not have access yet, please contact AYL to request access.
For information literacy, please contact your respective library information specialist for your faculty through Ask Your Librarian:
• FASoS: Roberto Cruz Martínez
• FSE: Marieke Schor
• FL: Angélique Bessems and Petra Bouts
• FPN: Rinus Verdonschot
• FHML / MUMC+ / AVM: Floor Ruiter and Remy van Alebeek
• SBE: Leonne Portz
For digital literacy contact one of the following specialists through Ask Your Librarian (all faculties):
- For students / help with material / workshops for students: Anna-Lena Hoh
- For educators: Katja Shcherbakova
Examples of digital and information literacy embedded in programme courses
Developing and designing teaching material for digital- and information literacy education from scratch can be time consuming. Oftentimes, it is more efficient to adapt existing materials to integrate information literacy skills into your teaching. Below, you will find examples of faculty integration based on the dimensions of the digital and/or information literacy framework into teaching and assessment.
Resource Discovery
- Using a Search Planning Form to define the search strategy
- Student’s reflection on their information literacy skills by writing a Learning Diary as PBL task (can also be used as task within the dimension ‘Organising Information’)
Critical Assessment
Organising Information
Creation and Communication
Other
Other resources for inspiration
The following resources provide additional teaching materials for information literacy education:
ACRL sandbox: This sandbox provides learning and assessment activities from other universities. You can search per discipline or per dimension of the ACRL information literacy framework (a prominent framework for information literacy developed by US-American university libraries).
Edusources: Open Educational Materials platform from SURF, created in the Netherlands.
ACRL WordPress page: This webpage was created to support the uptake of the ACRL framework. Although a more conceptual framework than we use at UM, the page offers valuable assignment and assessment examples, as well as academic research on information literacy education.
Digital Literacy: Dig Comp 2.2 is the Digital Competence framework for citizens with new examples of knowledge, skills and attitudes.
Digital Literacy for Educators: Dig Comp Edu European framework for the digital competence of educators