Using clickers to support information literacy skills development and instruction in first-year business students

Abstract

Course-integrated information literacy (IL) instruction can be enhanced via the use of student response devices, or ‘clickers’. The first phase of this study focused on how first-year undergraduate students perceived the use of clickers as a mechanism to encourage active learning and engagement in order to establish a baseline of information seeking behaviour and to actively engage students in the learning process. Data collected within IL classes and subsequent surveys of student perceptions are examined with discussion on the implications for future practice and research. Our findings from this first phase of this study through the quantitative data collected with clickers indicate that first year business students have shortcomings in information literacy and can improve their information literacy skills in relation to research and assignment work in their formal assessment. Furthermore the use of clickers are positively viewed by undergraduate students and postgraduate students as a technology which can facilitate active learning and engagement if used appropriately with clearly aligned learning objectives.