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During the first week of the Fall 2002 term, the English 111 and 112 faculty administered an Information Literacy Pretest to first-year students. This was the third year for the pretest. In addition, a brief Information Literacy test for IS 201 students was given to measure the progress of Information Literacy for second year students. This was the second year for the IS 201 test.

The purposes of the tests were to generate objective data regarding what Information Literacy skills the students brought to Wartburg and what had been retained in the second year. Information Literacy librarians Randall Schroeder and Karen Lehmann designed the tests along with College Librarian Jill Gremmels. Professors Judy Griffith and Fred Ribich also provided assistance.

The EN 111 and 112 sections returned 255 tests (110 of 110 EN 111 students and 155 of 226 EN 112 students) counted by the optical scanner. It should be noted the poor return results of the EN 112 sections (58 percent) can largely be attributed to an instructor who failed to administer the test to any of his three sections. This accounts for 67 students and would make the EN 112 population a more respectable 222 of 226. The results compare to 540 traditional first-year students enrolled at Wartburg for the 2002 Fall Term (47.2 percent) and 367 total enrollment in all 111 and 112 sections (69.5 percent). The numbers are the lowest in the history of the tests, due to the loss of three sections.

For IS 201, 166 tests were scanned from 209 enrolled students (a return rate of 79.4 percent), slightly up from 2001.

• First Year Students
Compared to last year, the gap in the percentage of correct answers remained the same between the 111 and 112 students. Of 22 items, 7 had a gap of 10 percent or more between 111 and 112.

The demographic difference between 111 and 112 students in computer availability at home has largely disappeared. A gap of six percent in 2001 has narrowed to only 2 percent more EN 112 students having computers at home versus EN 111. For those who have had a computer at home for five years or more, there was virtually no difference between the sections (52.7 percent to 51.7 percent).

For the third year in a row, students indicated that the first place to look for information was a blind search on the Internet (60.7 percent) and the last place they look is a scholarly journal (40.7 percent). Both of those numbers have increased since 2001.

Selection of databases and evaluation of citations generated the poorest scores, with only 20-40 percent answering correctly, which is a similar result to the last academic year. There was a significant increase in correct answers for search term questions. Also, students could pick out the legal definition of plagiarism, but when asked about a practical application, less than half answered correctly. This is a drop from 2001.

These results would suggest that if students were going to regard the Internet as the font of all knowledge, the Information Literacy program’s energies must focus on the evaluation of the wealth of information sources as well as navigation through the information universe. There is also a need to teach the ethics and legalities of the information age.

• Second Year Students
Second year students had no difficulty defining the various types of information sources at the Vogel Library. A substantial majority, 87 to 90 percent, could correctly identify the characteristics of overview, finding, and fact sources, although this was a slight drop from 2001 (92 percent). When provided a specific title, the percentages improved by 10 to 20 percent from 2001.

When given a choice of four information sources to start research with, only 28.9 percent gave the correct answer, but that was still an improvement of almost 5 percent from 2001. Database selection still seems to be problematical.

The poorest scores came in relationship to finding Biblical Commentaries. Being able to find and identify commentaries is an integral part of the class Literature of the Old and New Testament. Only 9 percent knew where to find a commentary in the Vogel Library and 32.5 percent knew how to search for commentaries in theological journals.

• Test design
The problems of test discrimination of two years ago came back in 2002 despite a test revision. Discrimination in this case is a statistical means to determine those who did and did not do well. Two years ago, four items had poor discrimination compared to two in 2001. In 2002, the number of poor discrimination items returned to four.

The second year test had three items with poor discrimination, which is no change from 2001. Revision and refinement will continue to be a priority.

For those interested in seeing the complete results of the test, contact Randall Schroeder or Karen Lehmann at the Vogel Library.