Sharing from the EIUI blog. Read the full post here:

The scheduling of the graduate course, “Information in Public Policy and Decision Making,” offered by the Dalhousie University School of Information Management could hardly be more timely or important. Troubling as the COVID-19 pandemic has been, as the virus infiltrated countries and caused havoc around the globe, it presented an exceptional case for students to consider in the midst of a course about the role(s) of information in decision making. While it did not take the pandemic to highlight the importance of evidence for informing decisions, the disease certainly shone a spotlight on the variation and complexity of decisions processes employed by both political leaders and citizens generally. As Sir Peter Gluckman, Chair of the International Network on Science Advice to Government, noted in a recent blog post: “What is striking is the diversity of decisions that have been made in different jurisdictions from early and total lockdown to the imposition of social restrictions….Different jurisdictions have very different ways by which evidence is brought to the policy and political tables” (Gluckman, 2020).

During the term, the students worked in assigned teams to present seminars based on recent literature on the course themes. These seminars resulted in informative blog posts, which outlined key findings from this literature, as follows:

“Information Production and Selection in Development of Effective Policies,” by Ally Patton, Kyle Doucette, and Shannon Faires

“Pathways and Models: Recent Literature on Communication of Research Information,” by Cali Kehoe and Mikyla Bartlett

“Enablers and Barriers in the Communication of Research Information for Policy Development,” by Matthew Cawood and Catherine Thompson

“The Role of Public Consultations and Public Advisory Processes in Decision Making,” by Mary Macgowan and Mohan Raj Manohar

“Disinformation, Misinformation, and Decision Making,” by Cora-Lynn Munroe-Lynds and Jean-Luc Lemieux

“Challenges in Measuring the Use and Influence of Research-Based Information,” by James Ledger and Lauren Skabar

“Improving Use of Research-Based Information in Policy Contexts,” by Sara Lawlor and Tamanna Moharana