Influence of Information Literacy on Utilization of Electronic Resources by Bachelor of Education Teacher Trainees, University of Nairobi, Kenya

Abstract

Utilization of electronic resources is a reading culture that benefits bachelor of education teacher trainees by directly exposing them to up-to-date and diverse subject content in motivating multimedia presentations. To utilize e-resources efficiently bachelor of education teacher trainees require literacy on information need recognition, online searching, information evaluation and citation and referencing techniques. However, there have been complaints from library staff and lecturers that bachelor of education teacher trainees hardly utilize e-resources. This raises concern because the teacher trainees are not linked directly to enormous and current subject content and this may lower their performance in the subject. The present study examined the relationship between information literacy (IL) and utilization of e-resources by bachelor of education teacher trainees of the University of Nairobi. The objectives of the study sought to: establish the relationship between bachelor of education teacher trainees’ ability to recognize information needs and utilization of e-resources; determine the relationship between bachelor of education teacher trainees’ information searching ability and utilization of e- resources; examine the relationship between bachelor of education teacher trainees’ information evaluating ability and utilization of e-resources; examine bachelor of education teacher trainees’ referencing ability and utilization of e-resources and assess the relationship between collaborative information literacy efforts and utilization of e-resources. The study adopted descriptive survey research design and data were collected using questionnaires, interview guides and document analysis guides. The independent variable for the study was information literacy while the dependent variable was utilization of e-resources. Stratified random sampling was used to draw a sample of 370 Bachelor of education teacher trainees. Purposeful sampling method was used to obtain 30 staff. Education communication experts from the University of Nairobi who also served as supervisors of the study were consulted for expert guidance on the construction of valid data collection instruments. The instruments were piloted to ensure reliability of data collected. Questionnaires and interview guides were administered to undergraduate students at the School of Economics of the University of Nairobi, and the results were compared with those drawn from the School of Education. Data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistical techniques. The findings confirmed the following statistically significant association between independent and dependent variables: improving bachelor of education teacher trainees’ information needs recognition increases utilization of e-resources; improving bachelor of education teacher trainees’ searching ability increases utilization of e-resources, improving bachelor of education teacher trainees’ evaluating ability increases utilization of e-resources and improving collaborative information literacy effort increases utilization of e-resources. The study recommends improvement of the following practices: bachelor of education teacher trainees’ searching ability, bachelor of education teacher trainees’ evaluating ability and campus – wide collaborative information literacy among staff from different departments. The study recommends that a clause be included in the University of Nairobi’s mission statement emphasizing collaborative institution-wide information literacy to promote utilization of e-resources by bachelor of education teacher trainees. Further research is recommended comparing the influence of information literacy on utilization of e-resources by undergraduates in different colleges of the University of Nairobi