New vistas of information literacy education: a case from South Eastern University

Teaching information literacy and developing critical thinking skills to undergraduate students can be more successful if these concepts are demonstrated properly. Teaching information literacy skills will help undergraduates develop essential competencies for life long learning. A case study of how information literacy is taught to fresher and the special degree students of South Eastern University of Sri Lanka is discussed in this paper. Also, designing aspects of a web tutorial has been presented. The objective of this study was to provide an overview of an innovative information literacy programme at South Eastern University of Sri Lanka. Fifty six special degree students of Social Science disciplines participated in the workshop. Course modules were discipline based. Feedback responses were analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively. It was found that participants have achieved some skills on searching, finding, evaluating and presenting information. More than 87% students stated that this workshop would be very much useful. It was recommended that preparing a proper design or syllabi to the Sri Lankan context is very important to teach Information Literacy.

Key words: information literacy education, higher education in Sri Lanka, course content, web tutorials.

Journal of the University Librarians Association of Sri Lanka, Vol.13 (Special Issue). 2009 23-36