Improving Information-Seeking Behaviors and Knowledge Base for Thesis Students in the Applied Behavior Analysis Graduate Program and Students in the Rehabilitation and Mental Health Counseling Graduate Program

We created a series of videocasts incorporating the use of library and networked technologies in the development of a thesis in applied behavior analysis. Not only does this project address departmental and college requirements regarding field of knowledge, it addresses Goal II of the USF Strategic Plan, i.e., “demonstrated acquisition of knowledge, communication and critical thinking skills; and competency to synthesize and apply new knowledge.” We used the "Taxonomy of information literacy competencies" model developed by Vitolo and Coulston (2002) as the pedagogocal framework for this project. By blending the six levels of the educational objectives of Bloom’s Taxonomy and the five fundamental units of information systems, we provide a new way of looking at skills and competencies that make sense in a statistically-intensive, computing-intensive, transdisciplinary, and quickly-evolving disciplines. This approach benefits pre-service as well as in-service training that must also consider new models of reasoning, new systems or applications, or work processes from the perspectives of both naïve and experienced users.