Maximising information literacy skills for first year management students

In today's business environment, being able to access, analyse and effectively use information is more important than ever. This paper reports a project undertaken to embed the teaching and assessing of information literacy skills within the framework of the undergraduate business communication unit taught by the School of Management at Curtin University. The project incorporates the development of online, interactive resources to help students develop their information literacy skills. It also incorporates the development of resources for teaching staff to maximise their capacity to facilitate student learning of these skills. From a student perspective, there are two key outcomes of this project. The first is that students completing the unit will report an improvement in their information literacy skills. Secondly, it is anticipated that students will report an increased level of confidence to source and use information effectively and in a timely manner for the remainder of their studies and beyond.

Background

Business Communication 101 is taught in class groups of up to 25 students, with a team of twelve staff being responsible for the various classes. Ten of the twelve teaching staff are sessional lecturers, invited to teach this because of their expertise as facilitators of student learning and/or their extensive business knowledge and experience. As the Coordinator for this unit, the author works with the team to ensure that all team members can strengthen their ability to facilitate student learning outcomes by sharing teaching ideas and business experience with each other. In addition, all lecturers participate in various types of training to develop their skills for an academic environment.

The professional skills were first incorporated into Business Communication 101 in 2000. Subsequent evaluation of these skills has focused on improving the way in which these skills are taught and assessed. This paper reports the findings of a second semester project that evaluated how effectively Information Literacy skills are taught and assessed in this unit. At the start of semester, training was provided by Library and Information Services staff to resource and improve the IL skills of the staff teaching this unit. Subsequent to this, staff were interviewed about their confidence and ability to teach and assess this skill, and asked to subjectively comment on whether students were making any improvements in their development of this skill. Students were surveyed twice during the semester as a more objective means of assessing their skill development. A pre-test/post-test experimental design was used.

The CBS Professional Skills Taskforce define information literacy in the following way.

Information literacy

A student who has successfully completed an undergraduate degree with Curtin Business School will be information literate. This means that the student will be able to:

• Recognise the need for information: this includes recognising that information is needed for a particular task, identifying a question or topic and placing it in context;

• Understand how information is organised: this includes understanding the different forms of production and publication of information;

• Identify potential sources of information in a variety of formats: this includes being able to decide on the most appropriate sources of information from the range that are available;

• Develop appropriate search strategies: this includes the ability to think conceptually about the given topic and to be able to design and implement strategies for the location and selection of online, audiovisual and print information resources;

• Access the needed information: this includes the ability to save and /or print electronic information, understand library catalogue records and be familiar with the arrangement of print resources in a library's collection;

• Select from the available information: this includes critically evaluating the information for relevance, accuracy and suitability for the intended purpose;

• Organise the information for use: this includes careful recording of the bibliographic details to ensure correct referencing.
  (CBS Professional Skills Taskforce, 1999, p. 35)

• An Information Literacy Skills "enhancement pack" for teaching staff would be developed.

• BC101 teaching staff would report increased confidence and competence to teach and assess information literacy skills as defined above.

• Staff would develop new methodologies to effectively facilitate student learning about information literacy.

• Colleagues who teach second and third year students would report an improvement in the information literacy skills of students in subsequent semesters.

• Students would report an improvement in their information literacy skills by the end of semester.

Methodology

Data were collected from staff on three occasions. Prior to the start of semester 2, staff were surveyed about their current levels of confidence and competence in relation to teaching and assessing information literacy skills. Staff self reported their information literacy confidence by using a six point scale to respond to seven statements. They were also asked to report their behaviours in relation to:

• Using electronic tools to source information,
• Teaching information literacy skills to students, and
• Problems they encounter when attempting to facilitate student learning about information literacy.

Late in the semester, staff were interviewed again to assess whether they perceived a change in their information literacy skills, and to assess the degree to which they had successfully transferred their learning to the teaching environment.

Student information literacy skills were assessed using a 'pre-test/post-test' method in which the initial levels of student knowledge and skills were assessed in week 2 of semester (before the information literacy seminar and submission of assignment 1). This established a benchmark of prior student knowledge against which their subsequent learning could be measured. At the end of semester, students were surveyed to measure what changes (if any) had occurred.

In undertaking this research project, it was anticipated that evidence would emerge to demonstrate that student learning of information literacy skills and knowledge had occurred over the course of the semester. As the subsequent discussion demonstrates, this did, in fact, occur.

In attempting to identify whether identified changes were significant or not, the results were tested for educational significance rather than statistical significance. Using this method of analysis, it was possible to determine if the identified change was due to learning that had occurred, or if it was due to some other factor. Carver (1996) suggests that in educational research, statistical tests should be replaced with estimates of effect size and of sampling error. Borg and Gall (1989) agree, arguing that researchers should calculate effect sizes which, when used appropriately, prove to be a helpful method for assessing the practical significance of relationships and group differences. In this study, therefore, effect sizes are a measure of the direction and strength of the difference between the pre and post test mean scores (Hattie, Biggs & Purdie 1996).

When interpreting the effect sizes the following conventions were adhered to:

• in relation to direction, positive effect sizes were interpreted as indicating higher post than pre scores and negative effect sizes indicated lower post than pre scores;

• in relation to magnitude, an effect size of less than 0.2 was considered trivial, effect sizes between 0.2 and 0.5 were deemed small, moderate if they were between 0.5 and 0.8, and large if they were in excess of 0.8.

Findings

Part A of the survey instrument (see Appendix One) asked students to respond to each of 15 statements using a Likert scale in which 1 = not at all true of me; and 5 = very true of me. The pre and post scores for each statement were averaged, and the change in means analysed for significance. Significant positive changes were identified in ten of the fifteen statements (see Table 1).

It appears that the areas in which students seemed to learn most were in relation to sourcing information, evaluating information for relevance and usefulness, and correctly citing and formatting sources in assignments. It is not clear from this survey whether this learning is 'deep' learning, or 'surface' learning, or whether students are able to generalise from this situation and apply their skills in research tasks in other subject areas.

From Table 1, clearly the area in which the greatest learning occurred was the ability to search electronic databases for relevant articles. For this item, g = 0.75, demonstrating that a medium effect size change was noted for this item. The medium size effect for this item was also noted for the subgroups of males, females, and those from a non-English speaking background. For those from an English speaking background, g>0.8 signifying a large effect size change. Clearly, this item represents the most significant area of across the board learning for Bus Com students in the development of their information literacy skills.

For some of the statements in Table 1, medium effect size changes were reported by certain subgroups. These results are shown in Table 2.

It is interesting to note that the male student cohort report greater improvements in aspects of their information literacy skill development than do other subgroups, or the population as a whole. In comparing the responses of males and females to each of the three statements reported in Table 2, it is evident that the means of the male pre test results are lower than the comparable means for the female cohort in each case. However, the post test means for both groups are almost the same for each statement.

Student use of IL resources

Of these resources, the Harvard Referencing Guide and InfoTrekk were clearly the resources that students used the most frequently. InfoTrekk is an award winning interactive, online resource developed by Library and Information Services staff to assist students in their information literacy skill development. Students are directed to it in the Unit Outline and in class as a useful tool that will enable them to develop their information literacy skills beyond their current level, whatever that may be.

The cumulative increase in resources accessed by the end of semester indicates that many more students now have first hand experience using these resources. When combined with student responses to other questions and staff reports of an improvement in student information literacy, it suggests that this program has had a significant role in the development of student information literacy skills.

Student use of electronic databases

While the improvements in student confidence range across all databases, the most impressive improvements can be seen in their use of the ABI/Inform Global Proquest Direct and Expanded Academic ASAP databases. These two databases are given particular mention in the unit outline and in class as being both important and relevant for student research within Business disciplines. Once again, this result is suggestive that this project has been a causative agent in the improvement of student information literacy skills.

Discussion

In Business Communication 101, a contextualised approach has been adopted alongside a conscious attempt to develop information literacy skills (de la Harpe, Radloff & Wyber 1999). It is envisaged that further units of study will provide students with additional opportunities to continue their development of these skills in context without the need for students to receive further instruction regarding information literacy skills.

The results of this research project indicate that Business Communication 101 students have significantly developed their information literacy skills and knowledge across a range of discrete tasks. Self reporting by students indicates that their confidence to complete information literacy tasks is now significantly higher than it was at the start of semester, suggesting that some important learning has occurred for most students. It is anticipated that students will be able to generalise their learning and skill development to other subject areas, and so gain a benefit for their subsequent units of study. Furthermore, it is hoped that the development of these skills will form the foundation for ongoing use and development of information literacy skills in professional settings that students will encounter after completing their university studies.

The reported improvement in students' ability to search electronic databases for relevant information is the most significant improvement noted through this project. Given that most students are completing Business Communication 101 at the end of their first year of study at university, this represents a particularly strategic improvement in their research skills for the subsequent duration of their studies. Vast amounts of current research are available through electronic databases, and students who are unable to tap this source of information in an effective and efficient manner are severely disadvantaged within a university context.

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