Presented at LILAC 2009

1. Investigating the perceived value
of information literacy skills for
social workers
Clarissa Hunt, LILAC 1st
April 2009

2. Outline
• Background to Social Work degree in OU
• How we sold Information Literacy to the Social Work
team
• How skills are developed through the course
• Survey details of 1st
& 3rd
level practice-based courses
• Quantitative data
• Qualitative data
• Conclusions

3. Background
• OU previously offered a Social Work Diploma
• Care Councils decided that all new social workers must
be qualified to a minimum of graduate level
–England from 2003
–Scotland and Wales from 2004
• First 346 OU Social Work Degree graduates in 2008

4. Information Literacy & Social
Work
• QAA Benchmark statement for social work
• National Occupational Standards
• OU Learning & Teaching Strategy – develop
independent learners
• CoBE levels framework

5. Format of Social Work degree at
The Open University
• Requires you to be working in social care & sponsored
by your employer
• Scottish, English & Welsh versions of degree
• 5 compulsory courses:
–introduction to health & social care (1st
level)
–introduction to the law in this area (2nd
level)
–3 practice learning courses (1st
, 2nd
& 3rd
level)

6. Skills development
Informatio
n Skill
Level 1 (K113) Level 2
(K216)
Level 3
(K315)
Plan and
carry out a
search for
information
using the
most
appropriate
sources
Introduction to
searching
important
social work
database,
Social Care
Online.
Students follow
a sample
search with
extensive use
of screen shots
to guide
Students
searching
skills are
developed
using a
different
database.
Boolean
operators,
truncation,
wildcards,
search
strings and
Students
identify their
own topic.
More
advanced
functionality
of databases
is
investigated
using Web of
Science as
an example.

7. Skills development (2)
Informati
on Skill
Level 1
(K113)
Level 2
(K216)
Level 3 (K315)
Organise
informatio
n so that it
can be
retrieved
and
presented
Introduction
to the
systems
available for
organising
information.
Extensive
use of
screen
shots is
used to
guide
students.
Students
are
introduced
to more of
the
functionalit
y of
RefWorks.
No use of
screen
shots.
Students are
encouraged to reflect
on the different tools
and electronic
resources they have
used through the
programme, to identify
those that will still be
available to them in
their practice and to
transfer information
from tools that will no
longer be available

8. Survey details
• Project to evaluate ICT & IL in the 1st
level practice
learning course.
–80 responses out of 357 students (22% response)
• Also, evaluation activity in the 3rd
level practice learning
course to look at development of ICT & IL skills
–50 responses out of 418 students (12% response)
• Both surveys carried out with 2008 cohort of students for
each course
–Means student groups for the two surveys are
different

9. Compare quantitative data
1st
level course 3rd
level course
I could see the
benefit to having
IL integrated
within the course
60% agree or
strongly agree
63% agree or
strongly agree
IL brings added
value to the
practice of social
work
62% agree or
strongly agree
78% agree or
strongly agree
• Improved slightly from 1st
level to 3rd
level, but due to
small samples is not necessarily significant

10. Qualitative data 1st
level
• “I didn't find the Information Literacy useful as I don't use
spreadsheets within my work.” (K113 student)
• Not all comments were that useful, but did show
confusion between IL & ICT
• 21 out of 80 comments were about IL

11. Qualitative data 1st
level (2)
• “Access to the internet to research information to assist
service users. ”
• “I learnt most in relation to creating a database and
online research, and although I have not yet used them
in my practice, I certainly will make use of it in the
future.”
• Fairly basic integration of IL into practice
• NB Only Welsh students are actually required to do any
practice as part of 1st
level course

12. Qualitative data 1st
level (3)
• “I think learning how to search for online reports and
documents has been helpful.”
• “I was able to identify quality information by
understanding the source of the information I was
reading.”
• General comments re IL are about searching for
information online
• Little reflective evidence of value or of benefit to service
users

13. Qualitative data 3rd
level
• Many comments showing evidence-based practice and
real-world application of the skills and how they were of
value and benefitted the service users.
• “i am able to carry out research on particular aspect of my
practice, which i can use for evidence when presenting facts to
the service user.”
• “the benefits to the service user come when good research is
used to understand thier issues and to assist in making informed
decisions.”
• “By being able to research on line was in th eend a benefit to
service users because it enabled me to provide a better, more
holistic evidence based service.”
• “it helped me to make a more informed decesion.”
• “evidence enabled me to work more effectively with a service
user.”

14. Conclusions
• Feedback really demonstrated the value of IL to
students for evidence-based practice
• Their understanding of the importance of evidence-
based practice improved over their study of the degree
• The students didn’t always appreciate the differences
between information literacy and information and
computing technology
• Format of questions asking for feedback on IL or ICT
meant the data was not comprehensive, but still very
interesting

15. Library and Learning Resources Centre
The Open University
Walton Hall
Milton Keynes
MK7 6AA
www.open.ac.uk/library
c.h.hunt@open.ac.uk