Undergraduate information literacy self-efficacy: A cross-sectional study of cambodian provincial universities

Abstract

Introduction. This paper examines the information literacy self-efficacy of undergraduate students at provincial universities in Cambodia, and to determine whether there are significant differences in information literacy self-efficacy in terms of sex, academic year, faculty and university. Method. We adapted the information literacy self-efficacy skills survey by Kurbanoglu and administered to 1,009 undergraduate students at three public provincial universities to measure their confidence on information literacy. Analysis. Descriptive and inferential statistics using independent sample t-test (t-test) and analysis of variance (ANOVA) were used to analyse the responses. Results. The results indicated that the information literacy self-efficacy of provincial universities in Cambodia was low as the mean scores were lower than the midpoint value of the original scale. Significant differences were also observed across the faculties and universities. This study revealed no significant difference of information literacy self-efficacy between male and female students. However, significant difference was observed between universities due to the performance of infrastructures and supporting funds. Conclusions. The findings indicated that undergraduate students at the provincial universities in Cambodia exhibited low confidence in information literacy. Policy making on information and communication technologies should be well implemented to provide practical skills to students from first to fourth year. The authors sincerely thank Dr. Eam Phyrom at the Cambodia Development Resource Institute for his contributions to this paper by providing comments on the literature review, discussion section, conclusions and future directions. The first author also sincerely appreciates the support and scholarship provided by the JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency) AUN/SEED-Net programme.