Lifelong Learning and Information Literacy Skills and the First-Year Engineering Undergraduate: Report of a Self-Assessment

Abstract

Abstract Lifelong learning and information literacy skills and the first year engineering undergraduate: Report of a self-assessmentABET accreditation requires engineering students to attain ‘a recognition of the need for and anability to engage in lifelong learning.” (Outcome 3.i)1 However, there are few standard tools thatattempt to assess the skills and techniques students need in order to achieve those outcomes.Focusing on the problem articulation and information literacy skills embedded in lifelonglearning competencies, the authors constructed a standardized assessment to measure studentself-perceptions of how often they employ those skills. The criteria for these competencies werebased on the Information Search Process of Carol Kuhlthau2, engineering design processcharacteristics, and the authors’ own analysis of previous student work. The specific behaviorsprobed include: problem or task articulation, problem solving, information gathering, and theuse, evaluation, and documentation of that information. This assessment was given to the entireclass of first-year engineering undergraduates at a Research I institution in Fall of 2010(N=1631). Results of the assessment were then correlated with other measures of studentperformance in a course required for all first-year engineers. Overall, students expressed lessconfidence in their ability both to find and to evaluate information than in the other conceptsprobed, while they reported documenting and citing sources as one of their most highly ratedskills. Comparing self-assessments with more direct measures of student performance yields asubstantial ‘novice effect’ of inflated self-perception of competency. 1. ABET Engineering Accreditation Commission. 2010. Criteria for Accrediting Engineer- ing Programs. Baltimore, MD: ABET. [http://www.abet.org/Linked%20Documents- UPDATE/Criteria%20and%20PP/E001%2010-11%20EAC%20Criteria%201-27-10.pdf] 2. Kuhlthau, Carol.2004. Seeking Meaning: A Process Approach to Library and Infor- mation Services. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited.