Preparing for the Informed Workplace One Micro-Credential at a Time

The modern workplace is a transdisciplinary, information-rich environment, and this makes information literacy skills vital for students. With this grant funded project, we are developing, piloting, assessing, and promoting a suite of micro-learning modules for undergraduate engineering, technology, and business students at a large, public university. The modules revolve around information literacy topics relevant to the workplace, integrated into a scalable micro-credentialing platform. The topics covered include (1) effective information gathering strategies, (2) competitive analysis, (3) patent information, (4) industry standards, and (5) informed communication. We, the module creators, take a broad view of information literacy, including gathering information from other individuals in addition to published information sources. With this, a recurring theme throughout the modules is the importance of considering intercultural communication and inclusion within information literacy and the workplace. The goal is to provide students with foundational training relevant to their future careers (as well as transferable credentials that they can share with potential employers and post on badge-compliant platforms such as LinkedIn) and to provide instructors across campus a flexible set of information literacy tools that they can use to improve student outcomes. The modules are designed with accessibility in mind and are integrated into the campus learning management system. Stakeholders were consulted during project development, including creating content, scripting, and piloting the modules. These stakeholders included industry, business, and entrepreneurship professionals, as well as undergraduate students and course instructors. This poster presentation we will explain our module development and pilot course integration process and share preliminary results.