Evaluating the Quality of an Online Course in Information Literacy Applied to Engineering Students

An academic library created an online course in information literacy skills in 2007 for engineering students. This chapter reports the evaluation of the course's effectiveness in developing those skills. In the academic year 2015/2016, a case study with a mixed-methods approach was applied to 5th-year students (N=91) enrolled in a course unit for Master Dissertation's preparation in the informatics and computing engineering programme. Students showed high confidence in their information literacy skills. Online assignments' performance was good, but activities revealed quality issues. Performance in the course unit's assignments reveals a poor application of acquired skills. But satisfaction is high: students value independent learning and online access to resources and content. Despite evidence of some positive impact, the course lacks effectiveness due to issues in the course unit's assignments. Needed improvements include a better realignment with students' needs and a redesign with an instructional model to assure the promotion of students' success.