"One student first said that before the session, research meant 'school,' but afterwards he responded, 'everything.'"

~Paul Waelchli,
St. Norbert College
De Pere, WI

Fantasy Football

University of Dubuque, Dubuque, IA

One way to introduce information literacy is through fantasy football, a game enjoyed by more people than play World of Warcraft. Players are organized into leagues run by a commisioner, and participants "draft" real-life football players for their team. Points acquired through the course of the season are affected by player statistics. The game has been in existence for nearly 50 years, and many companies and organizations associated with professional football, such as NFL.com, host leagues or offer fantasy football support and online tools.

Running the Session

The University of Dubuque librarians conducted two fantasy football-themed orientation sessions in August 2007, with a total of 71 students.

Each session began with a brief PowerPoint on how to evaluate web resources, followed by just 2 minutes to answer the question, "Who is currently the #3 rated running back (RB)?"

The research activity resulted in a wide variety of potential sources and created opportunities to touch on information literacy topics. The student athletes discussed the sources and argued over their conclusions. These discussions could have taken place in any traditional information literacy class and were the true intent of the session itself. The students seemed surprised at the similarities to academic concepts.

The librarians who taught the sessions had varying degrees of experience with fantasy football. One librarian had no previous experience and emphasized that the program's success was more about research than about football.

Marketing

Student athletes arrive on college campuses earlier than any other students, but are they included in outreach efforts? This workshop is a result of the librarians observing library use by student athletes with minimal introduction and orientation. The librarians saw this fantasy football workshop as a creative way to connect personal interests with academic skills. The fantasy football workshop is a partnership with the library, the technology department, student life, and athletics.

While this workshop is focused on student athletes, the focus and content can be applied to any audience. Statistics show that many college-aged fantasy sport players are not student athletes and the idea of connecting personal interests to information literacy skill sets can be marketed at multiple audiences.

Literacy Connections

Fantasy sports players apply information literacy skills when playing. The goal of fantasy football is to create a roster each week in pursuit of the greatest statistical production so that when you compete head-to-head against another participant, your team will produce a win. All of this requires players to practice strong research, critical thinking and communication skills in order to succeed.

Fantasy sports activities also include identifying a variety of information formats, evaluating and refining search results, applying criteria to determine the bias and credibility and creating new knowledge. Fantasy players identify a variety of sources including: printed guides, websites, interviews, peer conversations, forum discussions for information. Players then construct strategy from the raw data (game statistics) and from the box score (primary sources). Players assess the quality of the information they obtained and determine if they have enough data to make roster, player, and draft decisions. Players determine the reliability, bias, validity, authority and timeliness of sources. It is important for fantasy players to recognize the potential prejudice in fan-based sites compared to professional sites. These skills practiced in fantasy football are traditional information literacy skills.

Impact

At the end of the sessions, the students completed a short evaluation that assessed both criteria for evaluating sources and library perceptions. More than 80 percent of students were able to describe two of three appropriate source evaluation criteria and more than 60 percent provided all three. The students were asked to describe what research meant to them before the session and responses included, "headaches," "work I didn't want to do," and "school work." The responses to the same question after the sessions showed a dramatic change in perspective and included, "making sure one is getting accurate information," "comparing and knowing where I'm getting my information," and "fun work."

While the "fun work" might be a stretch when homework is involved, it does show a change in perspective and awareness about research. One student first said that before the session, research meant "school," but afterwards he responded, "everything."

In addition to the change in perception of research, the student athletes were asked about their perception of librarians. Prior to the fantasy football orientation session, the students had a 66 percent "very positive" impression of librarians. After the session, the students "very positive" perception was more than 90 percent. While these results are not scientific or large enough to generalize from, they show a distinct change in students' impressions of libraries and their own abilities. One student stated, "I made the fantasy football connection to looking up school stuff quick, it worked well."

Funding

The session didn't cost any money.

Resources

For more information, please contact Paul Waelchli at researchquest@gmail.com.

Lesson Plan

PowerPoint

Evaluation

Fantasy Football Web Resources

ACRL. ACRL Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education. January 18, 2000. This document produced by the Association of College and Research Libraries outlines the skillsets needed by college students to recognize when information is needed, and then locate, evaluate, and use it effectively.

ACRL Information Literacy Outcomes mapped for the specific lesson

Fantasy Football Practices Mapped to ACRL Information Literacy Indicators
Pairs the ACRL Informationg Literacy Competencies to practices in the game of Fantasy Football.

"Fantasy Football." Wikipedia. January 15, 2009.
This overview includes history of the game and how play typically commences.

Waelchli, Paul. Research Quest. http://researchquest.blogspot.com/. January 5, 2009.
Educational applications for videogames and gaming strategies.