Statement of Policy

In this age of information proliferation, students must acquire the necessary skills to understand and discern the wide range of content across all mediums. Students must be able to determine where to locate and effectively access information, critically evaluate the source and use the information within legal and ethical parameters. For these reasons, Excelsior College graduates will demonstrate competency in information literacy as part of the general education curriculum for an undergraduate degree.

Students must successfully complete the minimum of a one-semester hour course or examination in information literacy with a grade of C or better to satisfy this requirement. Because of the rapid evolution of information literacy, the course must have been taken within five years of the date of the current enrollment at Excelsior College to satisfy the requirement.

The information literacy competency may be satisfied by passing the Excelsior College one-semester hour online course, INL 102 Information Literacy, or by passing a comparable course from a regionally accredited college. If a transfer course is not on the approved list of comparable courses in the SIS course library, its syllabus must be submitted to the EC librarians for review.

Information literacy is a foundation requirement for upper level courses; therefore, it is strongly recommended that students take it before all others.

Exceptions to the Policy
Students who have completed a U.S. master’s degree or higher from a regionally accredited or otherwise approved source of credit or who have earned a degree from an institution outside the U.S. deemed equivalent to a U. S. master’s degree or higher by the College’s international credential evaluators may be exempt from the information literacy requirement if the degree was earned within five years prior to enrollment at Excelsior. Excelsior College’s MLS 500 Graduate Research and Writing course will satisfy the requirement if taken within five years prior to current enrollment.

Enrolled students who have satisfied the information literacy requirement and transfer to another Excelsior College degree program will not be required to satisfy the requirement again. (In other words, students who remain continuously enrolled at Excelsior College will be required to satisfy the information literacy requirement only once during their period of enrollment, regardless of whether they transfer from one degree program to another, and regardless of a resultant change in their academic policy date.)

Excelsior College alumni who have satisfied the information literacy requirement, and then enroll in another Excelsior College degree program will not be required to satisfy the requirement again. However, because INL 102 is continually updated, these alumni will be encouraged to retake it (no cost, no credit) upon enrollment.

Note: This policy goes into effect immediately. However, it is not yet possible for alumni to retake the course at no cost and for no credit until administrative processes are put in place.

Students who, for whatever reason, are prohibited from using computers may appeal to take a print version of the course (INL 103).

Procedure

Detailed Information Regarding Information Literacy

The INL 102 course was developed on the basis of the Standards, Performance Indicators, and Outcomes selected from the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education (2000). The course description states:

INL 102 Information Literacy (1 semester hour)
This course provides a broad overview of information-literacy concepts. It introduces skills for locating, evaluating and using, all types of resources, and includes information on the legal and ethical uses of information. Pass/Fail grade will be determined by a final examination.

INL 102 is available to all enrolled undergraduate students regardless of enrollment date.

INL 102 Course Information

There are five modules each with a graded quiz. Students must pass the module quiz with a 70 or better before proceeding to the next module; however, students can take the module quiz as many times as they would like to improve their knowledge base and grade on the quiz. A final examination is given after the five modules. The course is graded on a pass/fail basis. Seventy percent (70%) is a passing grade.

Students may print out and use all course materials when they take the quizzes and the final exam. No other forms of assistance beyond the course materials are permitted to be accessed during the completion of quizzes and the final (i.e., students may not call an advisor or the librarian when they are in the process of taking the quizzes and the final, but are encouraged to seek out assistance from Excelsior College librarians when preparing for the quizzes and/or final examination).

Students will be allowed to repeat the course immediately upon failure; however, they will be required to re-register and pay for the course again. Students may retake INL 102 once, for a maximum of two times.

After taking all quizzes and the final examination within the course, the student can check his/her course gradebook to determine if he/she passed. No grade report will be mailed to the student; however, the student can print a page from the gradebook. Grades will be uploaded into the SIS on a daily basis and an email will be sent from SIS to each school’s advising email box (e.g., LATeam@excelsior.edu).

The “on” SR flag in the SIS will be set and the course will be placed in the appropriate distribution area for each degree; advisors will evaluate the course without the student file. (See Grades Awarded and Accepted by Excelsior College Policy.)

Decisions regarding duplication or whether another course meets the IL requirement will be handled in the following manner: Advisors will send the syllabus of the course in question to SISHELP. The syllabus will then be sent to the EC librarians for review to determine if the course matches at least 70 percent of the content of INL 102. All decisions made by the librarians will be recorded in SISCL.

The Five-Year Age Limit on Transfer Courses/Examinations

Because the field of information literacy is changing at an exponential pace, Excelsior does not accept transfer courses/examinations that were completed more than five years from the date of enrollment.

If we consider the changes in the last five years with the emergence of Internet based interactive, multimedia and collaborative tools such as weblogs (blogs, wikis), RSS feeds, social networking, social bookmarking and tagging, synchronous chatting; and the use of mobile devices to access information, i.e., academic journals, electronic books; podcast lectures by professors and so on, the five-year age limit ensures that the EC student is well prepared to learn and gain the most benefits from his or her education at Excelsior, considering the rapid changes in the information landscape, such as Internet-based interactive, multimedia and collaborative tools such as weblogs (blogs, wikis), RSS feeds, social networking, social bookmarking and tagging, synchronous chatting, and the use of mobile devices to access information, i.e., academic journals, electronic books, podcast lectures by professors, and so on.

INL 103

TTI students may register for the course by submitting a paper course registration form. Once students are registered for INL 103, course materials will be sent to them from the School of Liberal Arts. A textbook is required for INL 103 and is available at the Excelsior College Bookstore via telephone orders.

INL 103 is taught by qualified Liberal Arts staff members. The INL 103 course consists of assignments, a mid-term exam and a final exam. Although students will be given feedback on their performance, only the final exam will count as their course grade. Students may use their assignments and the mid-term exam while taking the final exam; however, the textbook cannot be used during the final exam.

Advisors will evaluate student transcripts to determine if this requirement is satisfied. If it has, the status report will be marked with a code of “IL” and the student’s evaluation will reflect its completion. Students who have not satisfied the requirement will receive information about it on the Academic Evaluation Summary (AES).

As per standard procedure, students will seek approval of courses to meet the requirement. Students wishing to take Excelsior College’s INL 102 will be directed to the College’s Web site to download a registration form. The Office of Registration and Records will send the students an email that confirms registration.