Putting the Cart before the Horse: A Study of Introductory Political Science Students and the Evolution of an Assignment on Information Literacy

How can information literacy (IL) skills be improved during one semester? The proliferation of information disorders - fabricated stories, misleading content, clickbait - requires skills beyond using a fake-news checklist. Students in an introductory political science course were asked to analyze a news story every week as a course objective to increase IL. Thirty sections of American Government & Politics were given versions of an assignment eventually named "News Analysis." Class averages did not improve over time; instead, most semesters saw a negative correlation between the number of iterations of the assignment and the average class score. The instructor changed tactics multiple times to address these shortcomings, but deficiencies in IL reflected both instructor failure and systemic problems in higher education.