The impact of Information literacy training on academic achievement and success of the first year entering undergraduate students at Tshwane University of Technology, Polokwane campus library

Abstract

A large number of first year entering undergraduate students at tertiary institutions at Tshwane University of Technology lack skills and competencies for accessing relevant academic information for their assignments and other academic projects they are engaged in. To overcome this problem academic libraries at this institution organise Information Literacy Training Programme (ILTP) to equip students with such skills and competencies. This research investigated if there is any impact that ILTP has among first year entering undergraduate students attached to the Faculties of Humanities and Management Science, who have attended this programme at Tshwane University of Technology, at Polokwane campus. The study adopted both quantitative and qualitative research approaches through a questionnaire and focus group interview respectively to measure the information literacy skills and competencies of first year entering students before and after t attending ILITP.The study sought to measure (a) Students’ perception of information literacy; (b) Students’ ability to use library resources; (c) Students familiarity with different library resources before and after attendance of the programme. The study found that most of the first entering students had a different perception of information literacy. Furthermore, the student’s abilities to use library resources and their familiarity with library resources were very little before they attended the programme. It was only after they attended the programme that they were familiar with some of the library resources and their abilities to use those resources improved. Therefore this study discovered that ILTP has a positive impact of the academic success and performance of first entering students, even though it is minimal.The study recommends that information literacy education for students should be continuous so that students should not lose focus of what they have learnt in the formal Information Literacy Training Programmes. Furthermore, teaching of information literacy should be compulsory to all first year entering students across all faculties offered at Tshwane University of Technology and this will attach some form of accreditation to them to encourage participation.