Presented By: Joe Raczkowski, The Ohio State University
Co-Authors: Ellen Klinger, The Ohio State University
Ben Philip, The Ohio State University

Discipline specific information literacy is an essential skill for undergraduate students to learn tacit knowledge and create social connections with the discipline. To foster the development of these skills in undergraduate students, we created several online asynchronous modules guiding students through the process of selecting and evaluating references in science, a skill identified as underdeveloped by some senior level students. The modules are customized specifically for the entomology discipline and highlight our faculty and graduate students in an effort to break the barriers between undergraduate students and members of the department. To assess the effectiveness of one of these modules, we deployed it as part of the curriculum in two undergraduate classes aimed at non-majors (n=25, n=32). We used pre and post testing to evaluate student improvement in defining various sections of a scientific paper. In both classes, student ability to define a section of a paper improved for most sections. The Methods and References sections were most easily identified as suggested by the similar scores in pre and post tests. We also evaluated the ability of students to recognize excerpts from scientific papers as attributable to various sections of a scientific paper in the post test. The accuracy of these designations mirrored that of the definition accuracy, showing that students can apply their skills in real-world situations. Finally, the modules increased undergraduate knowledge of the OSU Entomology faculty. Pre test scores indicated a small percentage of students felt familiar with the research areas of Entomology faculty (20% and 29.7%) while post-test scores indicated improvement (87.5% and 65.7%).