Evaluation of teachers’ information literacy based on information of behavioral data in online learning and teaching platforms: an empirical study of China

Abstract

PurposeAdvances in information technology now permit the recording of massive and diverse process data, thereby making data-driven evaluations possible. This study discusses whether teachers’ information literacy can be evaluated based on their online information behaviors on online learning and teaching platforms (OLTPs).Design/methodology/approachFirst, to evaluate teachers’ information literacy, the process data were combined from teachers on OLTP to describe nine third-level indicators from the richness, diversity, usefulness and timeliness analysis dimensions. Second, propensity score matching (PSM) and difference tests were used to analyze the differences between the performance groups with reduced selection bias. Third, to effectively predict the information literacy score of each teacher, four sets of input variables were used for prediction using supervised learning models.FindingsThe results show that the high-performance group performs better than the low-performance group in 6 indicators. In addition, information-based teaching and behavioral research data can best reflect the level of information literacy. In the future, greater in-depth explorations are needed with richer online information behavioral data and a more effective evaluation model to increase evaluation accuracy.Originality/valueThe evaluation based on online information behaviors has concrete application scenarios, positively correlated results and prediction interpretability. Therefore, information literacy evaluations based on behaviors have great potential and favorable prospects.

Editorial: 40th anniversary: contemporary library research

“…Information literacy of library and information science professionals Information literacy is an essential skill for modern life, and it is an essential professional skill for library and information systems science researchers and practitioners (Li et al, 2021;Tse et al, 2022). Ali and Ahmed (2022) investigated the information literacy skills of Pakistan's university library and information science professionals.…”

Editorial: Special selection on contemporary bibliometric analytics

“…They suggested that higher education institutions maintain subscriptions to the most required e-books databases and that the LIS professionals conduct orientations and information literacy programs to help their users. Readers may be interested in recent articles on literacy issues, like teachers' information literacy (Li et al ., 2021b), parents' health literacy (Batool et al ., 2022) and information literacy self-efficacy (Soroya et al ., 2021).…”

“…They discovered 14 research topics in this area which can help specialists in health and medical areas to grasp the structured morphology of the current COVID-19 research. Readers may also notice our wealth of articles on bibliometrics related to COVID-19 (Li et al ., 2021a; Shueb et al ., 2022; Loan and Shah, 2022; Riahinia et al ., 2022; Zhu and Lei, 2022; Danesh et al ., 2021; Saab et al ., 2021; Allen, 2021; Yari Eili and Rezaeenour, 2023; Nadi-Ravandi and Batooli, 2023) and healthcare (Balaei-Kahnamoei et al ., 2022).…”

Evaluating Facebook as aids for learning Japanese: learners' perspectives

“…Therefore, according to our question setting, they did not encounter any issues using Facebook as a learning aid. Also, Hong Kong students and teachers generally have a high level of information literacy and are thus ready to use SNSs (Wang et al, 2021;Chan et al, 2020;Li et al, 2021).…”