Information Evaluation Skills among University Students

Since critical evaluation of information and its sources is one of the important topics in Information Literacy (IL). The present paper seeks to assess information evaluation skills among university students with respect to the Under Graduate (UG) and Post Graduate (PG) level; gender; and mode of education (regular and distance education). A five point scale, the Scale of Information Evaluation Skills (SIES) with 20 items, was prepared by the authors to assess these skills on the Internet (9 items); Books or other Print Material (7 items); and Newspapers (4 items). To identify significant differences between various groups of students, t-test was performed and its effect size has also been reported. Significant differences in the information evaluation skills were found between UG and PG level students; and between the students of regular and distance mode of education.