Game-Based Learning and Information Literacy: A Randomized Controlled Trial to Determine the Efficacy of Two Information Literacy Learning Experiences

Information Literacy

The term information literacy (IL) is used to describe the skills needed to utilize a wide range of information tools to create solutions to problems (Zurkowski, 1974). Though first applied to librarianship (Zurkowski, 1974), IL skills are now recognized as necessary tools required to navigate today’s information age (Fabbi, 2015; Obama, 2009; U.S. National Commission on Library and Information Science, 2003). In 1989, the Presidential Committee on Information Literacy defined IL as the expertise required for an individual to recognize, locate, evaluate, and use information (American Library Association). The American Association of School Librarians (AASL) reiterated the complexity and underlined the importance of IL skills in its Standards for the 21st-Century Learner (Johns, 2008). Recognition of the importance of IL skills continues to increase. As such, renewed efforts to incorporate IL into secondary education abound, and considerable resources have been allocated to concretely define the construct (Rader, 2002).

The evolving definition of IL has been influenced by its relationship to other competencies including computer literacy, library literacy, media literacy, network literacy, and visual literacy (Breivik, 2005). These literacies share a unique requirement: to be considered literate in a particular field one must be able to access, manage, integrate, evaluate, and create information (International ICT Literary Panel, 2007). For the purposes of this research, we define IL as the ability to: (1) identify problems that stem from a lack of information; (2) efficiently access, gather, and manage necessary information from a variety of credible sources; (3) consider multiple interpretations and uses and synthesize information to construct new knowledge; (4) utilize newly constructed knowledge to identify solutions; and (5) communicate the information in a manner appropriate to the audience being addressed (Addison & Meyers, 2013; Bruce, Hughes, & Somerville, 2012; Crane et al., 2003; Vanderpol, Brown, & Iannuzzi, 2008). This definition, as well as National and State Standards, were closely observed during development of both the Verona and Bavaria games (University of Oklahoma, 2015b, 2015a). Both games were designed to increase students’ ability to identify and utilize appropriate pieces of information through a specific subset of skills.