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Integrating geographic information systems (GIS) and social media analytics can be an effective approach to monitor disease outbreaks (such as flu, COVID-19, and hepatitis A) with near real-time updates and actionable intervention methods. Social media platforms can be used to investigate the public’s view and risk perceptions as they co-evolve with an outbreak, offering public health professionals an opportunity to tailor more effective responses or interventions to outbreaks. Using geo-tagged or geo-targeted social media data, GIS researchers can analyze human mobility and compare different local opinions from various cities and regions. This chapter provides basic knowledge about social media analytics with geospatial analysis approaches and GIS tools. Three examples (flu, COVID-19, and hepatitis A) are highlighted with data visualization and spatiotemporal analysis. The example of the COVID-19 outbreak in San Diego also addresses the key health communication issues (vaccination, masking, and social distancing) using geo-targeted social media datasets. Student skill levels will be the “beginner” in GIS or public health.KEY THEMES/KEYWORDSSocial media analytics; disease outbreaks; public health; COVID-19; health communicationSPATIAL LITERACY SKILLS IN THIS CHAPTERGeo-tagged social media data; geo-targeted social media data; Pearson correlation; locational privacy
Information Literacy Frame(s) Addressed: Information Creation as Process, Information Has Value, Research as Inquiry
Contributor: Laureen Cantwell-Jurkovic
Resource Type(s): Activity, Assignment Prompt, Slide Deck
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This lesson, aimed at mid- to upper-level undergraduates, discusses how research findings can be over-inflated, distorted, or misrepresented as the research is shared outside of its original context. Students will build on their fact-checking skills to trace claims back to their source. The lesson uses a flipped classroom approach to introduce students to multiple perspectives on this issue and its impact on the information ecosystem. In the classroom, students will demonstrate this issue in a potentially familiar scenario, a large-group game of telephone. To reinforce their skills, students will review news pieces that are derived from research, identify the claims, locate the original research cited in the article, and compare the findings to the claims shared in the news. Students will understand more about the publishing lifecycle and research integrity; how distorted research can have sociopolitical impacts; and how to be a responsible consumer and disseminator of information through critical thinking and analysis. Although the lesson refers to science, the issue of misrepresented research is interdisciplinary, and students will undoubtedly encounter claims in their everyday lives that will fall out of their area of expertise and need to know how to check them.This lesson includes flipped content (assigned readings/viewing and a reflection assignment for a discussion board), a lesson plan with timings, and two handouts for the in-class activities.
Information Literacy Frame(s) Addressed: Research as Inquiry, Scholarship as Conversation
Contributor: Brittany O'Neill
Resource Type(s): Activity, Lesson Plan, Worksheet
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"The Cell Phone Search" is a legal research exercise designed to facilitate students' use of citators in subscription databases such as Westlaw, Lexis+, and Bloomberg Law by providing a series of questions for them to answer. For this exercise, the applicable frame from the Framework for Information Literacy is "searching as strategic exploration." At the end of the exercise, students are invited to think about how the results of their search and their search strategies would have been different had they used open access resources.
Information Literacy Frame(s) Addressed: Searching as Strategic Exploration
Contributor: Latia Ward
Resource Type(s): Worksheet
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This is a fun activity in which students can gain experience finding books on the shelves by playing "matchmaker" to a book. What book that is depends on what books you decide to pull. I usually go with books that are relevant to either the course or assignment. Students will need some brief instruction on wayfinding in the stacks. Great to do around Valentine's Day. :)
Information Literacy Frame(s) Addressed: Research as Inquiry
Contributor: Sarah Hood
Resource Type(s): Activity
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This lesson plan is for a one-hour orientation for entry-level nursing students. It introduces students to library resources, including searching in CINAHL and APA citation. The session includes a team-based citation exercise to simulate teamwork in nursing.
Information Literacy Frame(s) Addressed: Framework as a Whole
Contributor: Sarah Hood
Resource Type(s): Activity, Lesson Plan
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This activity assignment involves using Generative AI platforms, such as ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Pi.ai, to assist in brainstorming and refining research questions. The task is structured into three main sections:Narrowing a Topic:Experiment with different prompts to see which ones work best for narrowing down a research topic.Record the effective prompts and note whether a single interaction (single-shot) or multiple interactions (few-shot) were needed.List additional topic suggestions provided by the AI and evaluate their relevance.Refining Your Research Question:Test various prompts to refine a research question.Identify the most effective prompts and determine if a single-shot or few-shot approach was more beneficial.Document other research questions suggested by the AI and assess their usefulness.Generating Keywords/Phrases for Library Database Searches:Use prompts to generate keywords and phrases for searching in library databases.Note which prompts were most effective and whether a single-shot or few-shot approach was used.List additional keywords or phrases suggested by the AI and consider their applicability.Participants are encouraged to follow the guidelines provided in the "Using Generative AI Responsibly for Brainstorming and Refining a Research Question" handout, experiment with different prompts, and engage in a conversational approach with the AI to optimize their results.
Information Literacy Frame(s) Addressed: Authority is Constructed and Contextual, Information Creation as Process, Research as Inquiry
Contributor: Sarah Hood
Resource Type(s): Activity, Assignment Prompt, Learning Object, Worksheet
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This activity involves students working in groups to construct and organize an evaluative annotation paragraph. Each group focuses on different aspects of an article, including summarizing sections, evaluating content and target audience, and researching the author. This collaborative approach reduces intimidation, promotes teamwork, and builds essential research and documentation skills.
Information Literacy Frame(s) Addressed: Information Has Value, Scholarship as Conversation
Contributor: Sarah Hood
Resource Type(s): Activity, Assignment Prompt, Worksheet
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Disasters, natural or manmade, disrupt society and can expose people to public health emergencies. In preparation for impending natural disasters, national agencies, such as the United States Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will situate supplies (emergency food and rations) close enough to locations facing potential impacts but far enough away not to be compromised in a disaster area. However, these are emergency supplies and are not designed to meet long-term needs or the needs of specific individuals. Private businesses within the disaster zone can also experience supply chain disruptions and thus also need to prepare in advance. This book chapter reviews the topic of disasters and their impact on supply chains, then presents a lesson using GIS to anticipate and address a supply chain disruption, using a Florida hurricane as a case study.BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF ACTIVITYThrough a scenario of pre-natural disaster (hurricane) and using the information given related to distribution centers and retail stores, students will use GIS software to identify the distribution centers best fit to deliver the items needed in anticipation of a hurricane.LEARNING OUTCOMESBy the end of this lesson, students will be able to• recognize the importance of supply chain within retail contexts;• articulate the connection between supply chains and natural disaster preparedness;• utilize GIS tools to solve potential problems in real scenarios; and• propose optimal routes for distributing critical items using GIS tools within imminent natural disaster scenarios.This activity is part of Spatial Literacy in Public Health: Faculty-Librarian Teaching Collaborations (ACRL, 2024).
Information Literacy Frame(s) Addressed: Information Creation as Process, Information Has Value, Research as Inquiry
Contributor: Laureen Cantwell-Jurkovic
Resource Type(s): Activity, Assignment Prompt, Slide Deck
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Informed decision-making about spatial data selection and reliability is a fundamental part of spatial literacy. The proliferation of spatial data on the internet and the large quantity of user-generated data increases thechances of integrating unreliable data into research. This chapter focuses on evaluating spatial data using the Currency, Reliability, Authority, and Purpose (CRAAP) test with additional focus on the importance of Margins of Error (MOE) in American Community Survey (ACS) data. Reviews have shown that the ACS MOE is often overlooked during research or unreported in academic papers, resulting in misleading or invalid results that significantly impact policy and planning.The goals of the decision-making process in selecting existing data include: finding information that is most relevant to the research question; gaining a comprehensive understanding of available data and what it represents; comparing similar datasets; planning strategies for processing, integrating, and using data that are not a perfect match for project needs; and, ultimately, determining if a meaningful conclusion can be adequately derived from it.The CRAAP Test is a flexible and general framework for evaluating information resources in many disciplines and venues. To focus on specific concepts relevant to data capture in GIS using the CRAAP Test, we expand the basic concepts of the test and examine how they can be used to evaluate data sources in GIS.This activity is associated with a chapter in Spatial Literacy in Public Health: Faculty-Librarian Teaching Collaborations (ACRL, 2024).
Information Literacy Frame(s) Addressed: Authority is Constructed and Contextual, Information Creation as Process, Research as Inquiry
Contributor: Laureen Cantwell-Jurkovic
Resource Type(s): Activity, Assignment Prompt, Slide Deck
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Environmental health (EH) is the study of physical, chemical, and biological factors in the environment that affect human health. EH data include environmental exposures, health outcomes, and socioeconomic status (SES), which are often place-based or have geographic correlations. This chapter aims to develop students’ spatial literacy skills to address two EH themes—environmental disparities and exposure-health associations—with open online mapping tools. Environmental disparity studies address the disproportionate exposures among populations of low SES and of color. Students will learn to use EJScreen to display maps of emission clusters, pollution levels, and SES, and interpret their relationships. Environmental exposures are associated with multiple adverse health outcomes—e.g., respiratory and cardiovascular diseases. Students will explore the associations by comparing spatial patterns of exposure and disease generated with EJScreen and PLACES, respectively. Students will gain an impression of EH topics and online geospatial tools with class activities and examples.This activity is associated with a chapter in Spatial Literacy in Public Health: Faculty-Librarian Teaching Collaborations (ACRL, 2024).
Information Literacy Frame(s) Addressed: Information Creation as Process, Research as Inquiry
Contributor: Laureen Cantwell-Jurkovic
Resource Type(s): Activity, Assignment Prompt, Slide Deck
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To visualize entities that could potentially address the unmet needs of at-risk and disadvantaged community members, a series of activities and exercises geared to participants with little programming or GIS experience were developed using geographic and population information. The learning activities and exercises progress from navigating an existing map to creating a map and uploading to harnessing freely available resources like US Census Bureau data to produce visualizations that link geographic and demographic information. Participants will apply these tools and resources to a specific public health question in a specific region and produce a data-driven report on the answers.By the end of this lesson, students will have combined geographic and demographic data related to public health resources. By processing and uploading data to the map, you have created a custom display where geographic information can be related to other data elements (e.g., population, etc.). This basic workflow is analogous to that used by GIS professionals using sophisticated tools. However, in this activity, we were able to approximate this capability using freely available and relatively user-friendly resources.
Information Literacy Frame(s) Addressed: Information Creation as Process
Contributor: Dana Abbey
Resource Type(s): Activity, Assignment Prompt, Slide Deck
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The two learning activities outlined in this PowerPoint will aid in developing students’ understanding of spatial epidemiology and the intersectionality of socio-economic and environmental factors. Task 1 involves a short presentation on the software SaTScan covering cluster analysis and including the data types needed for the analysis. Following this, students receive a scenario-based task using a pre-designed hypothetical dataset of the spread of a contagion in the UK. Students input the appropriate text files, developed from contagion datasets, into SaTScan to produce a cluster analysis of unusually high rates of contagion in the region. This task allows for many different manipulations and outputs from the analysis by changing the parameters, such as cluster size and type of analysis in the software. Guidance on the use of SaTScan for the lesson is provided for teachers to help students understand and interpret output using multiple parameter settings. In brief, SaTScan tests the null hypothesis that cases of disease are randomly distributed. Statistical significance suggests that unusual spatial clustering is unlikely to have occurred by chance. This method has been used previously to identify clusters of contagious diseases, such as malaria,23 HIV,24 tuberculosis,25 as well as chronic diseases.26 The output of this session will be a cluster analysis Keyhole Markup Language (.kml) file which shall be used in task 2.Task 2 utilises the cluster outputs produced in task 1. Students then import the .kml cluster analysis layer produced by SaTScan into ArcGIS (or QGIS if preferred) and overlay this layer over a publicly available dataset that contains multiple spatial indexes. This socio-economic dataset uses real-world data on a region of the UK. This process allows students to visually explore the possible characteristics of a region that may explain where clusters fall. For example, students can choose to layer a measure of deprivation (The Index of Multiple Deprivation) over cluster output to visually examine the socio-economic characteristics of individual clusters. The assessment for this task is a student-led presentation and discussion based on their own critical thinking about which factors may predict cluster membership as well as maps that reflect these ideas. This activity is designed to help students develop their visual presentation and interpretation skills and become familiar with linking spatial factors to epidemiological trends.This activity is associated with a chapter in Spatial Literacy in Public Health: Faculty-Librarian Teaching Collaborations (ACRL, 2024).
Information Literacy Frame(s) Addressed: Research as Inquiry, Scholarship as Conversation
Contributor: Laureen Cantwell-Jurkovic
Resource Type(s): Activity, Assignment Prompt, Slide Deck
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Public health concerns are often multi-faceted, complex problems. Any exploratory analysis conducted to support public health concerns should be scalable to this multi-attribute nature. This activity pairs with a chapter focused on spatial clustering techniques for multivariate analysis, which can reveal the locations with unusually high or low occurrences of multiple diseases. We will use obesity and insufficient sleep, which often occur together, as conditions to analyze considering their serious impacts on public health. Once contributing factors are determined, policymakers can be informed so that they can begin to address the negative impacts.In the activity, students will use SaTScan to find spatiotemporal hotspots and coldspots in obesity and insufficient sleep data representing American children. After a brief Q&A session, students will follow the walkthrough to complete the spatial clustering with SaTScan (Version 9.4). (SaTScan is a free software designed to detect clusters of spatial, temporal, or spatiotemporal data using scan statistics. This allows for complex relationships within the data to be revealed and explored. You can download SaTScan at https://www.satscan.org/.) The lecture can be closed with a discussion session where students will evaluate the statistically significant hotspots where they are found.LEARNING OUTCOMESBy the end of this lesson, students will be able to• analyze multivariate spatiotemporal data on obesity and insufficient sleep among children by using SaTScan;• interpret and evaluate hotspots and coldspots regions; and• create spatial cluster maps by handling spatial data files.This activity is part of Spatial Literacy in Public Health: Faculty-Librarian Teaching Collaborations (ACRL, 2024).
Information Literacy Frame(s) Addressed: Research as Inquiry, Scholarship as Conversation
Contributor: Laureen Cantwell-Jurkovic
Resource Type(s): Activity, Assignment Prompt, Slide Deck
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Ready-made Canvas Module that explores one way of introducing students to the research process, providing them with the opportunity to practice planning and executing their research. Note: the last video will not show up because it is specific and accessible only to my institution. But it's just a 5-min library orientation video. Feel free to use/substitute a similar type of video that covers your library! Approx. Completion Time: ~45 min Help with importing objects from Canvas Commons: https://ittraining.iu.edu/help/import-from-canvas-commons/index.html
Information Literacy Frame(s) Addressed: Authority is Constructed and Contextual, Information Has Value, Research as Inquiry, Searching as Strategic Exploration
Contributor: Sarah Hood
Resource Type(s): Activity, Assignment Prompt, Learning Object, Tutorial
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The lesson covers using PolicyMap and Social Explorer to visualize socioeconomic variables. These two mapping tools let learners view geographic distribution of variables (e.g., evidence) and begin their exploration of spatial literacy. In addition, the visualizations can lead learners to question assumptions and examine the impact of social determinants of health among other issues. The lesson walks learners through using these tools to examine issues, and combine a narrative and visualizations to write a policy report.
Information Literacy Frame(s) Addressed: Research as Inquiry, Scholarship as Conversation
Contributor: Todd Quinn
Resource Type(s): Assignment Prompt
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This activity is faciliated for biology 1A students as a science literacy activity but it can be adapted to any discipline. Students are given a brief presentation on authority and objectivety. The slides has my notes. You can review them to see how I steer the conversation but it's completely up to you how you want to discuss certain points. Make any changes you'd like or add anything that is missing!After the presentation, students will be put into groups to work on an activity where they will have to evaluate the authority and objectivity of 3 different types of sources (scholarly article, news article, video). Students are instructed to input their answers on a Padlet but this can be done on a Google document or form.*Updated 6/11/2024 @12:54 PM with downloadable PPT of the slides and sources*
Information Literacy Frame(s) Addressed: Authority is Constructed and Contextual
Contributor: Anna Yang
Resource Type(s): Lesson Plan
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This activity involves using Generative AI platforms, such as ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Pi.ai, to assist in brainstorming and refining research questions. Students will experiment with different prompts, and engage in a conversational approach with the AI to get the best, most useful results.This activity is intended to provide students with an introduction to effective GenAI prompt construction and does not explore the ethical issues of using this technology. Estimated Time: ~1 hour, give/take 15 minThis activity is structured into three main sections:Narrowing a Topic:Experiment with different prompts to see which ones work best for narrowing down a research topic.Record the effective prompts and note whether a single interaction (single-shot) or multiple interactions (few-shot) were needed.List additional topic suggestions provided by the AI and evaluate their relevance.Refining Your Research Question:Test various prompts to refine a research question.Identify the most effective prompts and determine if a single-shot or few-shot approach was more beneficial.Document other research questions suggested by the AI and assess their usefulness.Generating Keywords/Phrases for Library Database Searches:Use prompts to generate keywords and phrases for searching in library databases.Note which prompts were most effective and whether a single-shot or few-shot approach was used.List additional keywords or phrases suggested by the AI and consider their applicability.
Information Literacy Frame(s) Addressed: Information Creation as Process, Research as Inquiry
Contributor: Sarah Hood
Resource Type(s): Activity, Assignment Prompt, Learning Object, Tutorial
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This resource is an outline of a workshop TTU librarians conducted in April 2024. We used Padlet for discussion and wrap-up of series.Learning Objectives:Grasp the complexities of defining authorship and ownership of AI-created works. Understand the legal status of works created by artificial intelligence and the implications for creators and users. Learn about Creative Commons licenses and other licensing options for AI-generated works.
Information Literacy Frame(s) Addressed: Framework as a Whole
Contributor: Erin Burns
Resource Type(s): Activity, Learning Outcomes List, Lesson Plan
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Resource is the outline and resources/news articles and research used for a workshop on AI ethics and possible uses and misuses of AI in social justice issues at Texas Tech University. This session was held in March 2024. As this topic evolves, so will resources used.Learning Objectives:Learn how to recognize and mitigate biases in AI algorithms and data and to evaluate and ensure fairness in AI systems, including demographic parity and equal opportunity.Understand the ethical issues surrounding data collection, storage, and usage in AI applications.Learn about ethical guidelines for AI creators and users.
Information Literacy Frame(s) Addressed: Framework as a Whole
Contributor: Erin Burns
Resource Type(s): Activity, Assignment Prompt, Lesson Plan
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This session was developed for the Texas Tech University community of faculty, staff, and all students who were interested in the topic from a critical standpoint. This was part 6 in an 8 part series which is discussion based. As such, this workshop may only touch on certain aspects of this technology that was not covered previously while focusing on visual literacy skills. Special attention was given to the ways in which this technology is being used in facial recognition softwares, and the work of Dr. Joy Buolamwini.Setup Padlet as appropriate using recent news coverage related to academics and social life. Resource is outline of session. Learning Objectives for this session:Participants will learn about strengths and weaknesses of AI tools for generating images, photos and art.Understand issues related to copyright, attribution, and authenticity in AI-generated images and art.Explore how AI-generated art is used in various industries, such as academic research, advertising, entertainment, and design.
Information Literacy Frame(s) Addressed: Framework as a Whole
Contributor: Erin Burns
Resource Type(s): Activity, Assignment Prompt, Lesson Plan
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This is an outline of the session "AI Literacy at Lunchtime: Research Tools," part of the TTUL's AI Literacy workshop series. This is a discussion based series that allows for critical examination of AI tools, generative tools, and their applications in research.Session is meant to be approximately one hour. Our sessions are conducted in hybrid form (online through Zoom and in-person). These tools can offer ways to simplify workflows, look for connections between papers and researchers, and offer different perspectives that we might not usually see with regards to traditional literature searches of academic databases. Learning Objectives:Differentiate which tools are considered AI tools for literature reviews Evaluate tools such as Research Rabbit, Connected Papers and Rayyan. Utilize tools like Semantic Scholar
Information Literacy Frame(s) Addressed: Research as Inquiry, Searching as Strategic Exploration, Framework as a Whole
Contributor: Erin Burns
Resource Type(s): Activity, Learning Object, Learning Outcomes List, Lesson Plan
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This is an outline of a session created for the Texas Tech University for the AI Literacy at Lunchtime series, currently running during the spring 2024 semester. This session relies on a powerpoint presentation of Dr. Leo Lo's CLEAR framework and two Padlets:1. for sharing the prompts and generative outputs2. for the discussion questions listed.This session was approximately 1 hour long.This series is discussion based with undergraduates, graduates, faculty and staff participating in the session, but can be adapted.Learning Objectives for this session:Understand the basics of prompt engineering.Create their own prompts for generative AI chatbots like Gemini or ChatGPT.Create their own prompts for AI image generators like Midjourney, DALL-E or HotpotUnderstand the biases inherent in this technology
Information Literacy Frame(s) Addressed: Framework as a Whole
Contributor: Erin Burns
Resource Type(s): Activity, Lesson Plan
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Texas Tech University Library’s AI Literacy workshop series developed weekly for spring 2024. Included here are materials related to part 2. This resource can be used as a general starting point for evaluating generative AI.Additionally, the workshop utilizes Padlet to facilitate discussion for active learning. Sessions can be held online, in-person, or hybrid. These sessions are also for broad appeal, and included faculty, staff, graduate students, and undergraduate students in attendance. The Padlets for this session included an evaluative Jeopardy-like game where participants could rate whether they felt a piece of media (text or image) was AI generated or "real," ie, human-made.Learning objectives for this session included:Utilize AI detection tools for their courses.Understand current Texas Tech policies related to AI use in the classroom and within research.Understand other ways of evaluating AI created materials. This resource drew on different aspects within the ACRL Framework, including Searching as Strategic Exploration.Included in the documentation is an outline with discussion questions. There are no slides for this workshop.
Information Literacy Frame(s) Addressed: Information Has Value, Research as Inquiry, Searching as Strategic Exploration
Contributor: Erin Burns
Resource Type(s): Activity, Lesson Plan
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Texas Tech University Library’s AI Literacy workshop series developed weekly for spring 2024. Included here are materials related to part 1. This resource can be used as a general starting point for introducing and understanding the technology. Additionally, the workshop utilizes Padlet to facilitate discussion for active learning in a hybrid setting. Sessions can be held online, in-person, or hybrid. These sessions are also for broad appeal, and included faculty, staff, graduate students, and undergraduate students in attendance.Learning objectives for this session included:Understand what generative AI is.Understand the background of generative AI in higher education.Understand the biases and other problems inherent in AI systems.This resource drew on many different aspects within the ACRL Framework.Included in the documentation is an outline with discussion questions and slides.
Information Literacy Frame(s) Addressed: Framework as a Whole
Contributor: Erin Burns
Resource Type(s): Activity, Learning Object, Lesson Plan
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This resource was designed as a jumping-off point for discussions between librarians and peer tutors who work outside of the library, specifically undergraduate subject-specific and writing tutors. Tutors are asked to examine ACRL framework by considering a learning objective and a brief related video. Videos were created by North Kentucky University's Steely Library.
Information Literacy Frame(s) Addressed: Framework as a Whole
Contributor: Bria Sinnott
Resource Type(s): Assignment Prompt, Worksheet