CUNY Information Competency Tutorials are made up of eight different tutorials and quizzes. The topics covered in the tutorials include: Determine Your Information Needs, Define the Research Topic, Locate and Retrieve Relevant Information, Use the Technological Tools For Accessing Information, Take the Quiz, Evaluate Information, Communicate Using a Variety of Information Technologies, Understand the Ethical, Legal, and Socio-Political Issues Surrounding Information and Information Technology, and Use, Evaluate, and Treat Critically Information Received From the Mass Media (Information Competency Tutorials, n.d.).
These eight tutorials will not only teach you how to become an A+ researcher but will develop your information literacy and critical thinking skills. The tutorials follow a set of CUNY information literacy learning goals and objectives that all students should achieve by the time they have completed 60 credits. The first tutorials are intended to prepare a student to use library and other information sources in order to do research. The third tutorial explores possible information resources and teaches how to search them. One will learn how to access information using various print and electronic finding aids. They will also see that some Reference sources are useful for background and others for data while still others have extensive information that help them focus or refine their research. The fourth tutorial is a lesson on how to use various electronic resources including: an overview of Databases including information on records, fields and indexing, search strategies, and an overview of the Web and how to use it. The fifth tutorial shows how to determine the usefulness and value of retrieved information. One will learn to ask...
In the seventh tutorial one will learn about the legal and social issues confronting information. The last tutorial has to do with the usefulness and credibility of information communicated through the media (Information Competency Tutorials, n.d.).
Overall these tutorials are very easy to use and well organized. They provide a lot of very helpful information for students who have to do research. The key to successful research is to know what you are looking for and how to going about finding it. These tutorials provide an excellent overview of how to define the subject that one is looking for and then goes through the various avenues that are available for finding information. There is also a lot of information presented on the different forms in which information can be located and communicated (Information Competency and Ohio University's Libraries, 2008).
Information competency is the ability to successfully recognize and act on information needs. These needs include locating, evaluating and using suitable information to make rational decisions. Even though information competency requires technology and computer skills, it entails a focus on content, communication, and analysis rather than mere utilization of technology. By way of critical judgment and reasoning, people who are information competent are able to have more control over their own learning at all stages of life. Information is exploding in…
