Information Literacy Instruction in Engineering Graduate Courses: Instructional Design and Reflection

Abstract

Prior research on information literacy instruction in engineering graduate programs rarely considers course instructor perspectives, and instead only uses student feedback to evaluate the efficacy of information literacy instruction. This study documents the authors’ efforts to evolve the library curriculum to motivate student learning and meet the course needs. Data collected from the student survey and course instructor questionnaire found that most students reported that the instruction was engaging and satisfying, but evaluations of the usefulness of the instruction were mixed. The course instructor was satisfied with the students’ overall work in information gathering though found their project reports unsatisfactory in terms of report writing and critical thinking. The findings shed light on student needs and faculty expectations of engineering project-based graduate courses.

A Rubric-Based Assessment of Information Literacy in Graduate Course Term Papers

“…On the other hand, the graduate students did seem to excel at finding a variety of sources that met the information need, and generally selecting high-quality, refereed sources, suggesting a higher level of comfort with accessing and selecting scholarly literature than was seen with the undergraduates. This is consistent with previous findings showing that graduate students did well with gathering quality sources but not as well with evaluating or synthesizing that research in a meaningful way [15], [17].…”

“…Citation analyses of upper-level and graduate-level literature reviews, theses, and dissertations show that as students progress up the curriculum, they tend to cite increasingly more sources, and more scholarly sources [11], [12]. Other studies indicate some significant challenges with IL skills, including trends like overreliance on websites, lack of diversity in sources [13], [14], inaccurate citations [11], [13], [15], lack of experience with patent searching [16], and lack of deep engagement with the primary literature [17]. In 2022, Xie & Savory found that graduate students generally did well with gathering quality sources, but many produced summaries of those sources rather than critical evaluations or syntheses of the information [15].…”

“…Other studies indicate some significant challenges with IL skills, including trends like overreliance on websites, lack of diversity in sources [13], [14], inaccurate citations [11], [13], [15], lack of experience with patent searching [16], and lack of deep engagement with the primary literature [17]. In 2022, Xie & Savory found that graduate students generally did well with gathering quality sources, but many produced summaries of those sources rather than critical evaluations or syntheses of the information [15]. This finding is consistent with Carroll's broader assessment of graduate students across STEM disciplines, which calls out a lack of the information literacy skills it takes to engage meaningfully with primary research [17].…”