The Latent Curriculum: Breaking Conceptual Barriers to Information Architecture

In online instruction there is a physical and temporal distance between students and instructors that is not present in face-to-face instruction, which has implications for developing online curricula. This paper examines information literacy components of Introduction to Systematic Reviews, an online graduate-level course offered at the University of Saskatchewan. Course evaluation suggested that, although the screencast tutorials were well accepted by the students as a method of learning, there was need to enhance their content. Through grading of assignments, consultations with the students, and evaluation of the final search strategies, the authors identified common aspects of search strategy development with which the students struggled throughout the course. There was a need to unpack the curriculum to more clearly identify specific areas that needed to be expanded or improved. Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy was utilized as the construct to identify information literacy learning objectives at a relatively granular level. Comparison of learning objectives and the content of the screencast tutorials revealed disparities between desired outcomes and the curriculum (particularly for high-level thinking) – the latent curriculum. Analyzing curricula using a tool like Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy will help information literacy librarians recognize hidden or latent learning objectives.