Investigating the impact of demographic and academic variables on assessing students' perceived information literacy self-efficacy

Abstract

This paper explores the demographic and academic variables influencing students' perceived information literacy self-efficacy using Kurbanoglu et al.'s Information Literacy Self-Efficacy Scale (ILSES) and its two subscales. An online survey was created to gather data from students which contained Bangla version of the 28-item ILSES together with demographic and academic questions. A printed version of the survey was also distributed to students locally. A total of 408 students participated in the study. The findings revealed that students had moderate self-efficacy, with higher confidence in basic and intermediate-level information literacy (IL) tasks compared to advanced skills. There were significant differences in IL self-efficacy based on students' demographic and academic variables. The results suggest that age and computer proficiency were significantly associated with students' self-efficacy beliefs in information literacy. Overall, the 28-item ILSES and its two smaller subscales yielded similar results, indicating that shorter versions of the ILSES can be utilized to reduce questionnaire completion time without compromising the validity of the results. This study highlights the importance of demographic and academic variables in shaping students' IL self-efficacy beliefs and emphasizes the need for providing adequate support and training to improve information skills among students.