Margaret Phillips

Libraries & School of Information Studies

Margaret Phillips is an associate professor and engineering information specialist at the Libraries & School of Information Studies. Prior to her selection as an Exceptional Early Career Teaching Award nominee, Phillips earned the Libraries Award for Excellence in Teaching. 

Phillips works to educate students about information literacy, focusing heavily on informed design, technical standards education (e.g. ISO, ASTM), and the information aspects of transitioning from academia to the workplace.  

As a Libraries faculty member, she develops and instructs courses such as ILS 595 Information and Communication Strategies for the Technical Workplace, which she created in fall 2020. 

As Libraries liaison to three College of Engineering schools – Industrial Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, and Nuclear Engineering – and the Polytechnic Institute School of Engineering Technology, Phillips works to include technical standards and integrate information literacy into the curricula. She has co-taught numerous courses for which she has built guides and resources, including the Open Education Resource (OER) Standards are Everywhere funded by the National Institute of Standards and Technology. That OER – used at Purdue and beyond – allows students to complete modules and a related assignment before class, and dive deeper into standards content during class. 

Phillips co-advised the EPICS service-learning engineering design course teams, focusing on information gathering and use for informed design and proper data management practices for the Smart Cities project. Under her guidance, EPICS Smart Cities students won 17 awards, including the EPICS Team Innovation Award. 

She has published numerous journal articles on her work and earned the 2020 Libraries & School of Information Studies Award for Excellence in Research. Phillips is a 2022-2023 CILMAR Growing Intercultural Leaders fellow. She is also a member of one of five teams that received Innovation Grants in spring 2022. Her team is developing, piloting, assessing, and promoting a suite of instructional modules for undergraduate students revolving around information literacy topics relevant to the workplace, integrated into a scalable badging platform.  

How has your teaching evolved over the last five years? 

My teaching has evolved to become more learner centered. One example is that I always try to gauge students’ prior knowledge and experience with a topic so I can meet the students where they are in their learning. I may give a short questionnaire or engage the students in a discussion at the beginning of class to understand their prior knowledge and experience with a topic. This allows me to tailor the lesson to meet the needs of the students in that particular class.  

I also strive to integrate more inclusive practices in my teaching, such as using inclusive language and sharing my gender pronouns with students. 

What changes to your teaching during the pandemic did you take with you going forward?

I’ve became more compassionate and flexible with students. I’ve found that sometimes content has to take a back seat to compassion. When students are not able to be mentally and emotionally  present in class, they are not able to learn.   

What suggestions do you have to Purdue instructors who want to improve their teaching and/or their students’ learning?

Find your community. Consider joining a professional society that focuses on teaching and learning in your discipline, to network and become part of a group of professionals interested in continuously improving their teaching practices. For me that community is the American Society of Engineering Education, Engineering Libraries Division.    

What motivates you to do your best work in a student-centered learning environment?

My teaching centers around information literacy, which encompasses the interconnected skills and abilities needed to locate, evaluate, use, and manage information. I am motivated knowing this content is vital for student success in all aspects of their lives – academic, workplace, and personal.   

The Exceptional Early Career Teaching Award recognizes undergraduate faculty members with the rank of assistant professor/assistant clinical professor. It is among several PWL-wide teaching honors awarded annually in the spring semester. Each college/school selects and advances its own nominee the previous fall as a model in exceptional undergraduate education and includes input from its students. For other nominee interviews, see the Insights webpage. Further details on the award and selection procedure and university awardees are available on the Office of the Provost website.