Learning Analytics for Information Literacy: Research Backgrounds of Incoming First-Year Students

Incoming students at Trinity University were asked to describe their research process for a recent major research paper or project as part of a survey included in an online summer research assignment. The responses were coded for several information literacy behaviors in order to determine which information discovery, evaluation, and citation methods students reported applying. The results were then used to infer the research sophistication of the incoming class. Investigators expected a normal distribution of frequency for behaviors, but discovered a trimodal distribution. Opportunities for providing differentiated instruction are in greater evidence in light of this information regarding incoming first-year students.

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