Framing and reframing: Adapting a learning activity to a new context

This poster discusses adapting an information literacy learning activity developed as part of a one-class workshop and assignment for science students to become part of AUC’s interdisciplinary semester-long information literacy course.

This poster discusses the adaptation and integration of a learning activity developed in a non-AMICAL institution to suit the needs of American University in Cairo’s (AUC’s) information literacy course, LALT 1020. The initial activity was developed at Carleton University, a comprehensive university in Canada.

The initial workshop was created as a one-shot guest lecture workshop and take-home assignment for a science seminar course. The workshop focused on connections between the scientific literature and the scientific process and helped students develop skills in identifying and citing academic information. The workshop content was inspired by the frame “Information Creation as a Process” from the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy in Higher Education.

At the American University in Cairo, the workshop was incorporated into the existing semester-long information literacy course LALT 1020, in a week titled “Scholarship as Conversation”. Significant adaptation of the workshop material was required due to a new context, audience, and theoretical framework. Despite these adjustments, the activity itself remains largely unchanged. This case demonstrates the interconnectedness of the frames within the ACRL Framework, and the adaptability of learning activities across different pedagogical contexts.