Information literacy skills as correlates of academic performance of science undergraduate students in federal university Oye Ekiti

Abstract

The study investigated information literacy skills and the use of open access resources by undergraduates in two universities in Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria. A descriptive survey research design was adopted and the realised sample consisted of two hundred and twenty undergraduates drawn from the University of Ibadan and Lead City University. A multi-stage sampling technique was employed, data were collected with a structured questionnaire, and the responses were analysed using frequencies, percentages, mean, standard deviation, and the Pearson product moment correlation to test the hypothesis. The questionnaire was validated through expert review and its reliability confirmed through the Cronbach alpha coefficient, which returned values of 0.82 for the information literacy scale and 0.79 for the open access resource use scale. The results showed that the majority of undergraduates used the examined types of open access resources, as reflected by a weighted average mean of 3.12 against a grand mean of 2.50, with electronic books, electronic databases, open access theses and dissertations, and institutional repositories emerging as the most used resources. The finding that a high proportion of respondents reported daily use of open courseware is noted with caution, as this figure may partly reflect social desirability in self-reported responses, a limitation acknowledged in the study. The results further revealed a positive and significant relationship between information literacy skills and the use of open access resources by undergraduates. It was concluded that information literacy skills are essential for undergraduates to navigate and evaluate the vast array of available electronic resources, and it was recommended, among other measures, that university management organise workshops, lectures, and seminars on information literacy skills