The impact of library information literacy instruction on the subsequent academic performance of community college students in online courses

• Main Author: Moore, Evia Briggs
• Format: Others
• Published: Scholarly Commons 2006
• Subjects: School administration; Community colleges; Library science; Information systems; Communication and the arts; Education; Academic performance; Community college; Information literacy; Library information literacy; Online
• Online Access: https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/uop_etds/2510; https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3509&context=uop_etds

This study investigated the effectiveness of Library Information Literacy 1, on the academic performance of San Joaquin Delta College (Stockton, CA) students in their subsequent online courses. Four research questions compared successful completion of online courses by students who completed Library Information Literacy 1 and those who did not across gender, ethnicity, and number of online courses taken by students. Successful completion of Library Information Literacy 1 at San Joaquin Delta College does not appear to improve students' abilities to succeed in subsequent online courses. Success rates are almost the same for the experimental group and the randomly selected control group when comparing percentages. When controlling for gender, females who are successful in Library Information Literacy 1 do slightly better in subsequent online courses than females who do not take Library Information Literacy 1. However, males who are successful in completing Library Information Literacy 1 do worse in subsequent online courses than male students who did not take the course. When controlling for ethnicity, Caucasian students did just as well in online courses, regardless of whether they had passed Library Information Literacy 1. In addition, Black, Hispanic and Asian students had lower rates of success in online courses than Caucasians, with Black students having the lowest level of successful completion. For the two other ethnic groups, Hispanics and Asians, there are no real differences in successful completion of online courses when comparing students in the control group and experimental group. Curriculum revisions are offered as a way to improve online student learning outcomes for completers of Library Information Literacy 1. Community college administrators of instructional or student services might also use this information to encourage counselors in advising students who plan to take a large number of online courses to enroll in Library Information Literacy 1.