Information Literacy Skills Assessment of Undergraduate Engineering Students

Abstract

This study assessed Information Literacy (IL) skills of first year undergraduate engineering students of a Pakistani university in order to plan instruction; and to provide the university with reliable data for integration of instruction in the university curricula. Independent samples t-test and ANOVA were applied to check gender and program based differences in IL skills of students. No gender or program-based difference in IL skills of students was found. It was also revealed that students did not possess IL skills good enough to help them in their university level studies. They do not have a fair idea about methods and tools to be used to retrieve required information from various resources. This low level of IL skills shows the need for an IL program properly planned, designed and carried out in a consistent manner. © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2013.