What kind of test is suitable for measurement of Students’ Information Literacy skills at Payame-Noor University?
Subject Areas : Journal of Knowledge Studies
1 - Assistant professor at Payam-e-Nour University, branch of Nahavand-
Keywords: Reliability, validity, Higher Education, information literacy, the scale of information literacy skills, students of Paya,
Abstract :
Objective: the general aim of this research was to make a reliable and valid test for assessing the students’ information literacy at Payame-Noor University. Methodology: the method of this research was descriptive (survey) research, and statistical population of it included all students that enrolled in all branches of Payam-Noor University of Hamedan province. The total number of those were 28530 people. For sampling ofpopulation, a cluster sampling method was used. On the basis of this method, the 387 subjects were selected. For gathering of dada a research-made questionnaire was used. This questionnaire has made based on the Likert scale (very high, high, moderate, low, and very low). The component of scale (questionnaire) included 5 standard competency of ACRL. The questionnaire included 30 items in the form of self-report statements. For becoming suitable of items, the discriminative power method was used and formal, content and constructive (convergent validity and factor analysis) methods were used for validating of it. Based on the convergent validity, the correlation coefficient between my questionnaire and Asgharnia’s Questionnaire (2009) was 0.77. Also, results of explanatory factor analysis on the items of questionnaire lead to extraction of 6 factors with a total cumulative variance explained nearly 66/5%. Also, on the basis of confirmatory factor analysis, the 5 factors with a total cumulative variance explained nearly 63%, were extracted. For making items reliable, the Cronbach’s alpha was used (α=0.94). Findings: in general, results show that the research-made scale (information literacy questionnaire) is a suitable and reliable instrument for assessing the information literacy of distance learner. Also, other result of research shows that the level of students’ information literacy skills at Payam-e-Noor University is moderate. Conclusion: one of the results of this study was that the instrument (scale) is valid & reliable, so using this scale is proposed for assessing of Students’ Information Literacy at other branches of Payam-e-Noor University. Another result of research was that level of students’ information literacy in PNU isn’t desirable and there is a gap between status quo and desirable situation; therefore some interventions (such as: formal and informal instruction) for rising of students’ information literacy is proposed.
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