Adapting to How Students Learn: Rethinking Information Literacy Instruction in the Age of Short-Form Content

Abstract

I started my career in academic librarianship in August 2023, and from the start, I was
immersed in teaching. In addition to conducting library instruction, I was assigned to
teach a credit-bearing course on critical thinking in academic research. Since then, I have
taught the course five times across modalities. While I expected to learn a great deal about
pedagogy and information literacy, one of the most noticeable lessons has been about students
themselves and how dramatically their relationships with information has changed.
There is no question that COVID-19 altered higher education. The years between 2020
and 2023 were defined by a necessary mindset of “do what you can.”