INFORMATION LITERACY: A STEP TOWARDS MOVING COLLEGE STUDENTS TO THE E- LEARNING ENVIRONMENT

In recent years, there has been a growing advocacy for information literacy (IL) in higher education in general and in e-learning environment in particular. To support the adoption of e-learning at Ajman University of Science and Technology, this study aims to measure the level of information/digital literacy skills of new education major students at before and after the IL/ digital training sessions. The study also compared the level of academic achievement (AGPA) of students who participated in information/digital literacy training with that of students who did not.
Two groups of education students in their 1st year of study were trained to upgrade their information skills. The first training intervention (group one) were exposed to a four hours- training session, while the second training intervention (group two), information/digital literacy was taught to them as a practical application of a lower level of an educational technology course (15 two hours-sessions). Students took an identical pre-test and post-test. Scores were compared, the results of these treatments confirmed that one information literacy training session is insufficient to make a significance difference and students who had more than one session gained more and performed better on assignments and post-test.
The results also guaranteed that e-learner who gained knowledge of information/digital literacy through training would use that knowledge in consequent coursework and thus would achieve a higher accumulative grade point average (AGPA) than e-learners who did not participate in training.

The results from this study are expected to provide a basis for designing and delivering an online tutorial or a regular course on information/digital literacy. An introductory information literacy course has been described and principles behind the preparation of the course have been discussed.