Evaluation of Information Literacy Skill Development in First Year Medical Students

Abstract

Medical practitioners need the skills to find relevant information and evaluate its authenticity, validity, and reliability. The learning of information literacy has been embedded in the University of Western Australia (UWA) medical course since 2000. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the enhanced information literacy program with respect to medical students' information literacy skills. The Australian and New Zealand Information Literacy (ANZIIL) Standards were used to define the information literacy skills required by medical students, and the Information Skills Survey for Assessment of Information Literacy in Higher Education (ISS) was used to determine students' self-perception of information skills. Two cohorts of students were evaluated - one that had teachers who had been coached by librarians and one that had no teacher coaching. This study substantiates others' findings for ANZIIL Standards 2, 5, and 6 for beginning medical students. Higher median scores were obtained for Standard 2, 5, and 6. Lower median scores were obtained for Standard 3 and 4. Persistent significant positive differences were found for Standards 3, 4, and 6 at the beginning of Year 2. The coaching of teachers has made information literacy skills more explicit in the curriculum for learners and teachers as skills that need to be developed and practiced deliberately.