Building something wonderful

Let me tell you how much I love folders. I like how everything has a place, how it de-clutters spaces, how smart and prepared you feel carrying around folders, how a stack of folders is more put together than a stack of papers. Sure there are downsides (What folder did you put in? Can it be in more than one folder? What do you label your folders?), but if you have a system that works for you, stick with it.

Dream office supply. 

The best office item purchase I made was a box of 100 assorted color folders (just plain colors, no Lisa Frank). Now everything is not only organized, it's brightly colored. When Gmail transitioned into it's primary-social-promotions tabs to sort your emails, it took me awhile to give up my elaborate, automated, file folder system.

I have now created a series a folders for our instruction program. Every undergraduate major gets its own folder. Each folder, listed by program, has at minimum a document identifying the course/absence of a course that meets the information literacy requirement in the major, along with liaison and program direction information, the core courses for that major, and the student learning outcomes for the course. Most folders also contain an excel sheet of all the times we’ve taught in an undergraduate course related to that program. Some folders also include a list of student learning outcomes (SLOs) for all courses in a particular program. A few folders have some random documents related to the information literacy intensive course designation for that major.

Now liaisons can go into those folders and find all the documentation. They can make recommendations on which courses should meet the information literacy requirement, see what we are currently doing with a course (primarily instruction), and find gaps. We will fill all the gaps!

We will have all the pieces! Fill in all the gaps!

When the new general education program comes, we'll be ready and proactively be able to identify courses that should be flagged with information literacy.