General Information - Course Description - Course Objectives - Assessment -
Instructor: Harry Bruce
Number of credits: 5
The goal of this course is to equip students with knowledge and methods to describe and analyze information behavior and to apply this analysis to the design of information services and systems.
This course introduces students to the user-centered approach and to the literature about information behaviors such as information needing, utilizing, gathering, seeking, giving and evaluating. Students will learn how to read and synthesize user studies, how to construct a user profile, how to perform gap analysis, how to restructure and repackage information for specific needs and uses and how to apply the results of user studies to the design of information resources, services and systems.
At the end of this course students will be able to:
understand the various types of information behaviors
understand the major approaches that are used to study information behavior
synthesize previous studies about information behavior
construct a profile for a group of users
perform a gap analysis
apply the results of user behavior studies to the design of information resources, services and systems.
Assessment for INFO 414 will be based on the development of an information resource, service or system. This outcome will demonstrate how information behavior knowledge and research informs information practice. The information resource, service or system will be proposed, built and justified by an integration of the processes of information consolidation, the value added model and user centered design. Students may work individually on this project but are encouraged and advised to work in pairs or in a group of three.
Novak, J.D. and Gowin, B. (1984). Learning how to learn. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Chapter 2 – Concept mapping for meaningful learning.
Westbrook, L. (1993). User needs: a synthesis and analysis for the practitioner. RQ. 32(4), 541-49.
Wilson, T. (1999).
Models in information behavior research. Journal
of Documentation. 55: 249-270.