#ECIL2023 Students’ Perceptions of Using Artificial Intelligence in Written Assignments – Is Information Literacy Still Needed

Pam McKinney live blogging from the ECIL conference in Krakow. Krista Lepik from Tartu university in Estonia. Krista’s opening slide featured a picture of her created by an AI programme! AI chat bots are becoming increasingly popular and available, and students use them to help create their written assignments. There are mixed feelings about the use of AI chatbots in education activities by university administrators and faculty members, and as a results Tartu university has created some guidelines on the use of AI chatbots in teaching. Students have to write a short literature review in the course “information behaviour theories and practices” that uses a minimum of 3 scholarly sources. They had to use an AI chatbot to help write the assignment, and also to write a reflection on how they had used the chatbot and whether they thought it was a useful tool. Reflections from 26 students were analysed thematically.
Students did trust the results from the chatbot, but did go through a process of verification. Initially students were optimistic about the use of the chatbot, and the process seemed smooth and the interface was easy to use. But later they became more cautious. They encountered fake references, and there was an illusion of high quality text.
The material created by the AI was often off topic, and the quality of translation into Estonian was poor. Students advised caution particularly if they were not very familiar with the topic. Relevance is subjective, and students questioned whether they would summarise the same points from the text. It takes an unexpectedly long time to verify the information generated by the AI. However they valued the opportunity to use their own language, and felt that they could discover new ideas, perspectives, and inspiration.
It is better to use a chatbot to explore topic where you have some previous knowledge. Banning AI generated content does not help, also it is difficult to identify AI generated content. It is better to work in partnership with students to explore the affordances and limitations of chatbots. These programmes are here to stay so it is important to be aware of how they work and what they do.
Photo by Pam McKinney - tram ticket machine

Recent articles: IL of Slovakian students; Information overload; information behaviour; fact-checking

The latest issue of the priced Journal of Documentation, Volume 77 Issue 2, includes:
- Modelling the information seeking and searching behaviour of users with impairments: are existing models applicable? by Gerd Berget, Andrew MacFarlane, Nils Pharo
- Information experiences of Bangladeshi immigrants in Canada by Nafiz Zaman Shuva
- Tag analysis as a tool for investigating information behaviour: comparing fan-tagging on Tumblr, Archive of Our Own and Etsy by Ludi Price, Lyn Robinson
- An emerging genre of contemporary fact-checking by Amalia Juneström
- Information cultures and strategies for coping with information overload: case of Estonian higher education institutions by Liia Lauri, Sirje Virkus, Mati Heidmets
- Social aspects of personal information organization by Kyong Eun Oh
Go to https://www.emerald.com/insight/publication/issn/0022-0418/vol/77/iss/2

The previous issue (vol 77 issue 1) included:
- Technologies, knowledge and truth: the three dimensions of information literacy of university students in Slovakia by Jakub Fázik, Jela Steinerová
- Searching, sharing and singing: understanding the information behaviors of choral directors by Christine Fena
- Affordances for information practices: theorizing engagement among people, technology, and sociocultural environments by Yuxiang Chris Zhao, Yan Zhang, Jian Tang, Shijie Song Go to https://www.emerald.com/insight/publication/issn/0022-0418/vol/77/iss/1  

Photo by Sheila Webber: goslings! February 2021

Perception of Information Literacy among Faculty #ecil2015

Still liveblogging from the European Conference on Information Literacy 2015 in Tallinn. The next paper I heard was Perception of Information Literacy among Faculty at the University of Graz, Tallinn University and University of Zagreb was presented by Valentina Kirinić, coauthored with Christian Schlögl and Sirje Virkus.
The study explored how IL is perceived by academic staff in 3 different disciplines at the three universities. The perception was explored by looking at attitudes and behaviour and practice.
26 academics were interviewed, mainly using closed questions. They were asked to express their familiarity with IL, say whether they thought they were info literate and express the needs, benefits etc. of IL training. Awareness was greatest at Tallinn, but there the discipline was information science. At Graz (business studies) awareness was lowest and at Zagreb there was more familiarity than at Graz, but it tended yo be associated with information technology. In terms of different elements of IL, there was no broad agreement between academics at Graz and Zabgreb, with information sources and quality assessment prioritised at Zagreb, and articulation of information needs at Graz, whilst at Tallinn they were all seen as important, depending on context. Most respondents saw advanced training in IL as important, with only one person at Graz and 3 at Zagreb disagreeing. However there were various views of what kind of training ws needed. Academics at Graz and Zagreb mostly thought IL should be a separate course, whilst at Tallinn they thought it should be integrated.
Photo by Sheila Webber: Tallinn, 2011

PowerPoints from workshop

The PowerPoints from the UNESCO-sponsored Training The Trainers workshop in Tallinn, Estonia (held in August 2008) are available online. There are contributions from Sirje Virkus, Susie Andretta, Aira Lepik, Hela Ojasaar, Albert Boekhorst, Niels Jørgen Blaaberg and others. They cover various information literacy topics such as assessment, collaboration, research.
The slides are at http://www.slideshare.net/group/tttworkshops
Photo by Sheila Webber: Torshavn, May 2007

PPts from Scottish conference

The presentations from the CILIP Scotland conference are online. There are 2 directly concerning information literacy: Information literacy: tools and resources "An introduction to the Information Literacy Framework and Portal for health information. Presented by Eilean Craig and Rob Westwood" and Teaching information literacy to the net generation "A description of how the National Library of Estonia is teaching information literacy skills to young people, presented by Hela Ojasaar" All the presentations are on Slideshare at http://www.slideshare.net/scottishlibraries/slideshows, scroll down to see the Info Literacy ones.