The design of an interactive learning environment on information literacy

Abstract

Citizens not appropriately prepared for the needs of the information society age, in which the amount of information increases exponentially, face the danger of misinformation or trusting non-credible sources of information. Information literacy, defined as a learner’s ability to identify, evaluate, organize and effectively use information to solve a problem, is a fundamental skill for the information society age. Recognizing the importance of this skill, the goal of this project was the systematic design, development and evaluation of an information literacy program targeting first-year undergraduate students of a public university in Cyprus.

As part of a learner analysis, an online survey on information literacy was completed by a sample of 190 students. Results indicated that students use a variety of sources for locating material, mostly from the Internet (75.6%), or books from the library (70.9%). Journal articles are used by only 33.9% of students. Most students prefer Google (70%), rather than databases (45%) or electronic journals (41%) for locating articles. The results of the survey also indicated that students are not autonomous in their search for information as they prefer to ask for support from librarians (45.9%) rather than retrieve sources of information themselves. Moreover, more than half of the students consider their training in locating appropriate material as “necessary” (58%). After identifying the need for the development of students’ information literacy skills, a proposed solution was the systematic design of an interactive learning environment based on international standards. The goal of the learning environment was to demonstrate how information can be identified, evaluated, processed and used so that students can become autonomous and responsible consumers of information. The learning environment included a) text and images, to provide and illustrate information, b) videos, for motivation purposes, c) interactive practice-exercises for the evaluation of given sources, which included instant feedback, and d) a self-evaluation instrument. As a pilot-study, only the “evaluation of information” module of information literacy was developed fully. This module was pilot-tested with a total of 38 students, in two groups of 20 and 18 students, respectively. Students worked collaboratively for approximately two hours focusing on the evaluation criteria for websites, books and journals. At the end of the session they completed an online evaluation, which indicated that 94.7% of students were generally satisfied with the “evaluation of information” module. They also thought that it was “informative” and “original” to a great extent as well as “helpful” and “user-friendly”. Two-thirds of the students indicated that they would like to use the completed version of the learning environment when it is available.

Preliminary results indicated that a student-centered, multimedia learning environment on information literacy seems to be a fruitful approach for the development of undergraduate students’ information literacy skills. The environment, which was developed based on instructional design principles, allowed users to study the material at their own pace, practice evaluation skills, receive instant feedback, self-evaluate, and interact with other users. Future research directions refer to the development of all the modules of the learning environment and the evaluation of its educational value for students.