IDML Definitions: GEOC (2020) and CCC+ (2025)

Information Literacy (IL) asks students to engage with and assess information resources, and asks them to gain a critical understanding of how information is created, disseminated and organized. Information literacy dually calls for an understanding of how to access appropriate and reliable information and also an ability to evaluate, synthesize and incorporate information into written, oral, or media presentations.

Digital Literacy (DL) provides students with the theoretical knowledge and practical skills to navigate and participate more fully--and critically-- in today’s digital culture. DL engages a critical understanding of the following, for example: social networks, including appropriate etiquette and privacy concerns; search algorithms, including algorithmic bias and lacunae; software packages, including the role of free versus paid software; digital business and the role of Internet and computing companies in the economy; and online news, including “fake news.”

Media Literacy (ML) enables students to engage with and practice critical media studies, an international field of inquiry comparable to cultural studies, that analyzes and discusses the history, economy and ecology of media at our disposal today. Media literacy may encompass four sub-competencies: critique of media; knowledge of media systems; critical usage of media; and critical making of media content.

Information, Digital, and Media Literacy (IDML) is the ability to navigate, evaluate, and ethically contribute to complex information, digital, and media environments. This literacy fosters critical thinking and analysis to produce and share knowledge across various media. Through iterative reflection, it promotes the transfer of skills and dispositions across the three literacies. By contextualizing the lifecycles of information and media, IDML enhances learning, knowledge creation, and thoughtful engagement with the information, digital, and media landscape.

Affordances of the combined definition:

• Acknowledges the ways the three literacies work together
• Flexible application in a variety of contexts and through different foci (including AI)
• Builds on pre-existing concepts and skills, while nodding to a “metaliteracy” approach
• Simplified definition, with additional nuance added through learning objectives

IDML Learning Objectives

Students should be able to:

• apply critical thinking and reflection to transfer skills across different literacies and contexts, contextualizing resources and platforms in their lifecycles and the current knowledge creation landscape. [IDML]
• discover, organize, analyze, evaluate, and use diverse information resources to effectively support complex research questions and information needs. [Information Literacy]
• navigate and critically evaluate digital environments and tools to assess affordances and limitations, work collaboratively, and attend to privacy concerns and/or security practices. [Digital Literacy]
• analyze, interpret, and ethically use content across various media [platforms?], demonstrating an understanding of media's role in shaping opinion, knowledge production, and cultural narratives. [Media Literacy]

Fulfilling the IDML Competency

The Common Curriculum Committee (CCC) encourages all courses to include activities that address the student learning objectives above, but students specifically fulfill this competency in two stages: first by completing First Year Writing (ENGL 1007 or equivalent), and next by completing their W-in-the-major requirement.