First Generation Success: Mixed-Methods Information Literacy Skills Assessment for First Year Writing Students

Abstract

As universities seek to improve retention and graduation rates, more attention is being paid to populations that are statistically less likely to persist, such as first-generation students. Engaging with a campus-wide initiative targeting first-generation college students, librarians at a research university were awarded a grant to study the information literacy skills of this special population and to develop intervention strategies to help retain students.

Partnering with the English department and a campus provisional admission program, librarians developed and taught special sections of the first year composition course, ENGL 104. These sections were designed to seamlessly embed information literacy concepts into the traditional ENGL 104 curriculum and to thoroughly assess the impact of this approach. This study was designed using a mixed-methods approach to better understand the information literacy knowledge and skills of first-generation students and to evaluate the impact of embedding information literacy into a course required for their degree plans.