Information Literacy Training Evaluation: The Case of First Year Psychology Students

Abstract

The purpose of our study was (a) to evaluate an effect of information literacy (IL) training in the first year psychology students and (b) to follow changes in acquired IL in time. Two groups of first year psychology students from two Slovenian universities participated in a quasi-experimental study. Experimental group (EG) consisted of 44 students and control group (CG) consisted of 42 students. Students' IL was assessed using Slovene version of IL test (Mittermeyer & Quirion, 2003). EG students attended IL training as a part of their study, whereas CG did not. The IL test was applied three times in both groups, namely before the beginning of IL training (pre-test), at the end of the training (immediate post-test) and a few months after the training (delayed post-test). EG's IL was increasing significantly over time and was the highest in delayed post-test, showing long-term effects of IL training. At the same time the differences in IL between EG and CG were increasing in favor of EG. Results have shown an important role of IL training in students' IL development over time. Study implications and limitations are discussed.