Improving Master’s students’ information literacy through online instruction

The ability to manage information obtained from the internet for learning purposes represents a difficult task for most students, even in higher education, where this ability takes on major importance for the writing of academic texts. The Information Problem Solving (IPS) model breaks down this ability into five different skills: defining research questions; planning research activities; searching for and locating sources; processing the information found; and organizing and presenting this information. In this study, an IPS training course was designed, implemented, and evaluated in order to train master’s students to conduct a literature review task and write their final thesis. Since the university where this course took place is completely virtual, all instruction was offered online. In addition, this pilot course was based on the Four-Component Instructional Design (4C/ID) model, which includes the following components: learning tasks, supportive information, procedural information, and part-task practice. Twenty-five master’s students participated in the full two-month course and fifty-five acted as a control group. The findings of this quasi-experimental study indicate that, upon completion, the group of students that had completed the course obtained statistically better results in activities involving the following skills: defining initial questions; planning research and conducting searches on the internet or other sources; and processing the gathered sources and materials. In terms of the ability to organize and present information, no differences were observed between the two groups. Nevertheless, the online course proved to be an excellent tool for improving students’ IPS skills.