Enhancing Information Literacy Skills of Doctor of Physical Therapy Students: Collaborative Project with Health Science Library
Purpose : The purpose of this poster is to present the process developed in our department to assess and enhance information literacy skills of Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) students in collaboration with health science librarian.Description : In order to improve information literacy skills of our students, we undertook a systematic approach to first assess their current skills and development of those skills across our DPT curriculum. The collaborative project includes a retrospective analysis of course assignments completed in multiple courses during the DPT program in three phases: Phase 1: Assessment of single assignment to establish the efficiency of the Information Literacy Rubric, Phase 2: Assessment across multiple assignments from multiple courses, Phase 3: Assessment of evidence based physical therapy (EBPT) presentations done during clinical rotations. For assignments to be included in the study they had to include: 1) Seeking information from any/all of the information sources (e.g. Databases, Journal articles, textbooks, websites), 2) Appraisal/Assessment of gathered information, 3) Usage of the gathered information to complete the course assignment (e.g. class presentation, review of literature paper, case report, EBPT presentation). Additionally, data related to studentsÕ perception of their information literacy knowledge, skills, and attitudes was collected via an in-house developed questionnaire before and after librarian-led instruction on information literacy. Wilcoxon signed-rank test was used to analyze pre and post-test questionnaire data. Longitudinal ordinal data from the Information Literacy Rubric will be assessed with a mixed model. Preliminary data analysis shows that students tend to use free online resources more as compared to library supported resources. Students were competent with effective use of information to accomplish the specific purpose of an assignment. However students may need additional instruction on critical information criteria related to authority, accuracy and purpose when using online information resources.Summary of Use : Information from this project can be used by DPT programs to determine information literacy skills of their students specifically related to: 1) Quality and quantity of information gathered for practice, 2) Evaluation of information and its sources prior to its use, 3) Ethical and effective use of informationImportance to Members: This poster presents a model to assess development of information literacy skills in the DPT program. Information presented may benefit educators from DPT programs.