An Assessment of Information Literacy Curriculum in a Family Science College Course

As misinformation proliferates in social media and news, information literacy skills are increasingly important for family science professionals and scholars. Family science courses’ focus on controversial issues may contribute to dispositions and practices that support information literacy. However, it is unclear whether there is any added benefit to incorporating an information literacy-focused curriculum. This study presents the pre-and post-test assessment of a family science course on poverty and discrimination that integrated an information literacy curriculum. Repeated-measures ANOVAs tested whether there were significant increases in information literacy dispositions and practices over the semester and whether students in the treatment groups improved more than the control group. Six-week online summer versions of the course, with and without an information literacy curriculum (n = 8 students in each group), did not see significant changes in related attitudes or practices, possibly due to small sample sizes or ceiling effects. However, students in fifteen-week fall courses—in both online (n = 12) and hybrid (n = 21) formats—reported significant improvements over time, particularly in their self-reported information literacy habits and feelings of self-efficacy, though less so in attitudes. Quadratic effects in the online courses suggested a Dunning-Kruger effect, wherein students overestimated their abilities and initially experienced a decline in self-efficacy and habits before experiencing improvements by the end of the semester. Family science educators are encouraged to work with librarians to develop a pragmatic and practice-oriented curriculum to help students increase their confidence and competence in information literacy.