Abstract

Information literacy skills (ILS) have been recognized as critical success factors in higher education (HE). However, there is a dearth of research concerning the nature and development of ILS within different fields in HE.
Existing survey research highlights a problem, namely, faculty believe ILS skills are underdeveloped or insufficiently developed among HE students. This problem is most marked in the hard sciences and engineering. At the same time, there is little evidence that faculty in these disciplines understand how to address this problem, or have a general view that it falls within their purview. This is changing somewhat in the field of engineering now that accrediting bodies have recently focused on ILS competencies and associated life-long learning skills in their new objectives for programs. For the first time, program administrators and instructors will have to grapple directly with this issue.


Yet, little is known of engineering faculty’s understanding of ILS skills in general, or specific to the context of engineering, their conceptions of how ILS are acquired or developed and their role in this, the role of ILS skills at different stages in a students’ progression, obstacles or challenges to ILS development.
The research reported in this dissertation attempts to provide answers to some of these questions, primarily through online surveys distributed to engineering faculty at two institutions, located in Canada and the United Arab Emirates, supplemented with two focus groups. In addition, students at both institutions were also surveyed with a set of questions similar to those distributed to faculty. Student perceptions are notably absent in the HE literature on ILS. Understanding both faculty and student views of ILS, their significance, nature and development is arguably a critical first step in planning policy and developing effective curricula that address ILS in engineering education.
This is an exploratory, largely descriptive, study may form the basis for further, more focused or fine-grained research including design- or action-oriented research that would involve the development and assessment of actual strategies to support the improvement of ILS.