Newsletter Edition: Spring 2026
Contributed by Dr. Ahmed Alwan and Dr. Eric Garcia
Every day, CSUN students scroll, swipe, search, stream, and submit. They move seamlessly between social media and scholarly articles, between AI tools and academic databases. But in a world overflowing with information and misinformation, knowing how to navigate that landscape thoughtfully is more important than ever. That reality inspired LIB 290: The Information Ecosystem, a one-unit course developed by Dr. Ahmed Alwan, Dr. Eric Garcia, and Christina Mayberry to help students better understand the digital world they inhabit both inside and outside the classroom.
Launched in Spring 2023 as an experimental course, LIB 290 emerged from both practical campus needs and Dr. Alwan’s doctoral research on how academic librarians can better serve underserved students at public universities. That research affirmed the tremendous value of the traditional one-shot library session, the targeted workshop model embedded in courses to support students at critical research moments. At the same time, it recognized that today’s information challenges often require deeper and more sustained engagement. Credit-bearing courses create space for reflection, discussion, and applied practice in ways that a single guest lecture, however impactful, cannot always provide.
LIB 290 was designed to complement, not replace, those vital instructional partnerships. Rather than focusing only on how to search databases, the course invites students to look behind the screen. They examine who creates information, how algorithms shape what appears in their feeds, how artificial intelligence (AI) tools are transforming research, and how misinformation spreads. Students explore media bias, data privacy, and the economic forces driving digital platforms. The emphasis is not simply on completing an assignment, but on building awareness and confidence that extends well beyond the classroom.
The response from students has been strong. Since its launch, LIB 290 has been offered in 27 sections and has reached 535 students, with enrollment steadily increasing each year. What began as a small experimental offering has quickly grown into a consistent and in-demand course, reflecting a clear appetite for deeper conversations about information, technology, and digital life. To date, five University Library faculty members from both Library departments have taught the course, and the team hopes to continue expanding that number. The students enrolled reflect the diversity that defines CSUN, representing a wide range of cultural backgrounds, gender identities, and academic majors across the university.
Many of the students who enroll are seniors. Often, they are looking for a one-unit course to graduate on time, maintain financial aid eligibility, or secure and maintain campus housing for their final semester. What they frequently discover, however, is more than a convenient credit. At a pivotal moment in their academic journey, they gain practical skills they can immediately apply, whether completing capstone projects, preparing for graduate school, entering the workforce, or navigating an increasingly complex media environment. In this way, LIB 290 not only supports graduation timelines but also contributes meaningfully to closing equity gaps and reducing attrition. Importantly, the course’s impact is not simply anecdotal. Student Evaluation of Faculty (SEF) responses consistently reflect how much students value the course’s focus and relevance, with many describing it as eye-opening and directly applicable to their everyday lives.
A defining feature of LIB 290 is its collaboration with Academic Technology, led by Dr. Helen Heinrich, AVP of Academic Technology. From the beginning, this partnership strengthened both the course's design and visibility. Academic Technology supported outreach efforts, helping ensure students understood that the University Library offers credit-bearing courses. The collaboration also brought guest speakers from Academic Technology into the classroom, connecting students to real-world perspectives on digital literacy, the digital divide, accessibility, and emerging technologies. The result is a course that feels current, practical, and closely aligned with the technological realities students face.
Building on the success of LIB 290, the Library has proposed a new three-unit General Education (GE) course, LIB 291: Critical Thinking in the Age of Artificial Intelligence, now under review. The proposed course would focus specifically on helping students think critically about AI, how it generates information, how bias and power shape its outputs, and how privacy, fairness, and accountability intersect with emerging technologies. Like LIB 290, this course is designed as a formal collaboration with Academic Technology and IT, ensuring that critical inquiry is paired with institutional expertise and real-world application. Recent campus survey data show that while many CSUN students have significant concerns about AI’s long-term impact, most have had little formal instruction in the topic. If approved, LIB 291 would mark a historic milestone as potentially the first three-unit course and the first GE course ever offered by the University Library, at a time when very few AI literacy courses exist nationwide and even fewer are led by academic libraries.
LIB 290’s journey from experimental offering through CSUN’s curriculum process reflects the care and commitment behind its development. More broadly, the course represents an evolving vision of the University Library, one that continues to value embedded instruction and faculty collaboration while also embracing opportunities for deeper, sustained teaching when students need it most. Through LIB 290, hundreds of Matadors are learning to navigate the digital world with greater clarity, confidence, and purpose, skills that will serve them long after graduation.