The attitudes of students with diverse backgrounds on computer and information literacy subjects: Evidence from a first year course

Abstract

Teaching computer and information literacy subjects to students with diverse backgrounds is an instructional challenge. This study aims to identify the students' attitudes towards a first year computer and information literacy course. Several factors such as student gender and student's department have been taken into consideration in order to understand the effects of the homogeneity of the classes in learning. Students' final term grades have been used to discern the factors that are effective in learning. This research study aimed to explore if the students with similar backgrounds, i.e. students who study in the same department or faculty, would work well together, would learn from each other and would be more successful and the course objectives would be more effectively met when compared to mixed classes.