Assessing Information Literacy Skills: A Survey of Undergraduate Education Students at the University of Livingstonia in Malawi

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to assess the information literacy skills of Education Students at the University of Livingstonia. The study employed a cross-sectional descriptive survey design in which questionnaire was used to collect data. Stratified sampling technique was used to sample students from their respective degree programmes under the faculty of education. Altogether 160 questionnaires were distributed proportionally to respondents and 123 were successfully returned with a response rate of 76.9%.Data was analysed using IBM SPSS where percentages, charts and tables were obtained to present and interpret data. The findings revealed that Faculty of Education students (ES): (1) demonstrated a high level of awareness of types of information sources; (2) they accessed both print and electronic information; (3) expressed familiarity with APA referencing style and acknowledged the importance of providing citation and references to academic work to avoid plagiarism. However, students also demonstrated high deficiency in identifying diverse information sources. They did not have adequate knowledge on writing proper citation and references nor familiarity with the bibliographic and reference management software tools. Based on the findings, the study makes recommendations

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