Online Learning Communities: Enhancing Undergraduate Students’ Acquisition of Information Skills

• In Event: Library Research

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of online learning communities (OLC) on enhancing the undergraduate students’ acquisition of information skills. OLC was compared with online tutorials and one-shot face-to-face sessions designed to facilitate students’ information skill acquisition. Data were gathered through multiple sources: a pre-test, a post-test, and focus groups. The ANOVA on the post-test revealed that there was significant statistical difference between different course delivery formats. The ad-hoc Tukey test revealed that the online learning community was the most effective delivery format. The analysis of the qualitative data indicated that the students who participated in the online learning communities were more satisfied with the experience than students participating in other formats.

Authors

• Ling Wang, Nova Southeastern University

• Noraida Dominguez, Nova Southeastern University