Student Beliefs About Information Literacy Skills: Search Engines, Social Media, and Assessing Accuracy

• In Event: Computational Thinking and Computational Modeling in Higher Education and K–8 Contexts

Abstract

This study uses a survey of college students to investigate their literacy skills, focusing specifically on their use of search engines and social media to locate information and their ability to access the accuracy of that information. Findings show that students develop these skills from school and non-school based sources, with personal experience serving as the most common learning experience. Students have high confidence about their search skills, and a lesser but still high level of confidence about their ability to assess information accuracy. Students who believe themselves to have a high level of knowledge about current events rate themselves higher on assessing accuracy than students with medium or low levels of knowledge of current events.

Authors

• Vanessa Paz Dennen, The Florida State University

• Lauren Bagdy, University of Georgia

• Yujin Park, Florida State University