Information Literacy Awareness, Perception and Skills Assessment Using Students of National Open University in Southwest Nigeria

Abstract

This study was carried out to find out the level of information literacy (IL) awareness, perception and skills of students of National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN). It was based on the fact that IL instruction course is missing in the curriculum of NOUN, thus, it is therefore a necessity to ascertain awareness and perception levels of the students about IL issues well as their skills assessment test. Survey research method was adopted involving 197 respondents that were found during visits to the four study centres for data collection. Questionnaire was used for data collection, which was administered, properly filled, returned, and used for data analysis with descriptive statistics. Findings revealed that NOUN students have poor level of awareness and perception about IL, as a result of rejection level in seven out of ten statements. However, the other accepted three see IL issues as antidote to poor IL skills of students. Generally, the IL assessment test shows that a greater percentage of the students, when summed together lack IL skills. Avenues through which they acquired IL skills were analysed as well as the challenges affecting their IL skills development. Recommendations were made among which are integration of IL Instruction into the curriculum of NOUN and provision of adequate and functional human, infrastructural and information resources for result-oriented service delivery in the libraries.