Information Literacy Requirement

Statement of Policy

Excelsior students must acquire the necessary skills to understand, evaluate, and use information across a wide range of mediums in a world where information is easily published, widely disseminated, and accessed digitally.

Excelsior University graduates are required to demonstrate competency in information literacy as part of the general education curriculum for an undergraduate degree by completing Excelsior University’s 1-credit Information Literacy course with a passing grade within the first 13 Excelsior University credits attempted.

Information Literacy provides foundational knowledge and skills in the following areas:

• Cyber literacy
• Information literacy
• Library and online research
• Evaluation of the quality of information in academic and non-academic contexts
• Attribution and integration of sources in research-based writing
• Excelsior policies concerning academic integrity and information ethics

Time Limits and Exceptions to the Policy

Students who have completed a U.S. master’s or higher degree 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 Excelsior’s international credential evaluators, may be exempt from the information literacy requirement if the degree was earned within 10 years prior to admission at Excelsior.

Admitted and enrolled students who have satisfied the information literacy requirement and transfer to another Excelsior degree program will not be required to satisfy the requirement again. Students who remain continuously enrolled at Excelsior will be required to satisfy the information literacy requirement only once during their period of enrollment, regardless of whether they transfer between degree programs, and regardless of a resultant change in their academic policy date.

Excelsior University alumni and previously withdrawn students who have satisfied the information literacy requirement, and then enroll/re-enroll in another Excelsior University degree program will be required to satisfy the requirement again if the original Information Literacy course is older than 10 years from the admission date for the new degree program.

Any exceptions to the completion of the information literacy requirement will be managed on a case-by-case basis by the dean or designee of each School.

Excelsior reserves the right to modify this time limit as needed in response to technological changes in the information field.