Identifying Challenges Faced by Chinese Undergraduate Engineering Students in Acquiring Information Literacy Skills – A Report on Survey Findings

Abstract

This study investigates challenges related to information literacy that Chinese undergraduate engineering students face in comparison with their native English speaking peers in completing a research paper. Steps of a typical research process are examined including: selecting a topic, finding information sources, planning search strategies, and gathering, evaluating, managing and presenting information. Both survey and interview methods were used to gather data. The SCONUL Seven Pillars of Information Literacy framework was adopted to develop the survey and interview questions, and the ACRL Information Literacy Standards for Science and Engineering/Technology were used to examine the findings. Only survey findings are reported in the current paper. Although there are some areas where both groups reported challenges such as finding enough relevant information and incorporating ideas from their readings into their paper, other areas such as evaluating sources and knowing when and how to cite, were especially challenging for Chinese students.