GIST: Getting Information Skills Today @ NC Wesleyan College

1. GIST is NC Wesleyan's Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP). The QEP is an important part of NC Wesleyan's SACS accrediting process that allows the institution a unique opportunity to enhance the quality of education at the College. The GIST/QEP project is a five year plan that works toward instituting student learning enhancement.

2. GIST stands for Getting Information Skills Today. GIST is a new, college-wide program that focuses on fostering the development of student information skills. "GIST" is "the choicest or most essential or most vital part of some idea or experience." - wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn.

3. NCWC’s working definition of Information Skills: “Information Skills refer to the set of skills needed to recognize information needs, to find, retrieve, critically analyze, and use information ethically.”

Don't freshmen come to Wesleyan with these skills already? Answer

4. GIST focuses on helping students to learn these information skills:

Understanding the nature and extent of the information needed
Finding and using search tools effectively & efficiently
Locating and obtaining the information regardless of format
Critically evaluating the information retrieved before using it
Organizing, Synthesizing, integrating, and ethically applying the information

5. NC Wesleyan professors will emphasize the information skills in upper level courses in each major. GIST Pilot Courses for 2009-2010.

6. The QEP involves three main focus areas: (I) Integrating Information Competencies with course and program teaching goals in each major. (II) Providing professional development opportunities for instructors to enhance information skills teaching strategies. (III) Develop effective methods of assessment to measure the degrees to which students are learning the Information Competencies, and using the data to optimize the program as technology continues to change how students search, access, and use information.
These initiatives will involve faculty, support staff, and students from across the NC Wesleyan community.

7. You can learn more about the QEP at: http://library.ncwc.edu/qep.htm