Documenting the Information-seeking Experience of Remedial Undergraduate Students

Abstract

As presented at DOCAM’14, this proceedings paper discusses my ongoing dissertation research: Documenting the information-seeking experience of undergraduate students enrolled in a remedial English course at a 4-year state university in Ohio, United States. Because the information behaviors, needs, and information literacy abilities of these students are understudied areas in library and information science and higher education literature; I chose to investigate these areas in my dissertation research toward contributing research to this gap, using descriptive phenomenological (qualitative) methodology to do so. Although secondary data analysis is still in progress, this paper presents findings from primary analysis (a necessary step in phenomenological study to eliminate bias and assumption from secondary analysis). Ultimately, I aim to use study findings to create targeted, needs-based instruction for remedial undergraduate students, toward supporting their academic progress through information literacy development, and consequently encouraging their persistence toward graduation.