Online Learning Communities: EnhancingUndergraduate Students' Acquisition ofInformation Skillsby Noraida Domínguez-Flores and Ling WangAvailable online 10 August 2011

The purpose of this study was to investigatethe effectiveness of online learning

communities (OLC) on enhancing theundergraduate students' acquisition of

information skills. OLC was compared withonline tutorials and one-shot face-to-face

sessions designed to facilitate students'information skill acquisition. Data were

gathered through multiple sources: apre-test and a post-test, focus groups,course discussion postings, and course

emails. The ANOVA on the post-testrevealed that there was significant

statistical difference among differentformats. The ad-hoc Tukey test revealed

that the OLC was the most effective deliveryformat in terms of student's acquisition of

information skills.

Noraida Domínguez-Flores,Graduate School of Computer and Information Sciences,

Nova Southeastern University, Via del valle K22, Urb La Vista,San Juan, PR 00924, USA

<noraida.dominguez@upr.edu>;Ling Wang,

Graduate School of Computer and Information Sciences,Nova Southeastern University, 3301 College Avenue,

Fort Lauderdale, FL 33314, USA<lingwang@nova.edu>.

The Journal of Academic Librarianship, Volume 37, Number 6, pages 495–5

INTRODUCTIONSince the Association of College and Research Libraries approved theInformation Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education,many efforts have been made to help undergraduate studentsdevelop the information skills they need.1 These skills are necessaryto define the information needs, develop effective searchingstrategies, locate and access adequate information resources, andcritically evaluate the located information and use it consideringethical and moral issues.

Different accreditationagenciesmandatehigher education institutionsto develop and implement information literacy programs,which supportsthe idea that professors and librarians should work together.2 The designand development of these information literacy activities may be donethrough the implementation of the five competency standards publishedby ACRL (2000). Each standard is presented with specific performanceindicators and outcomes that may be used for the development of theactivities required to solve information-based problems.

Although there are different activities that have been developedto facilitate the acquisition of information skills and work withthe students' limitations and the problems that are evidenced, andresearch has identified librarians as the key resource to educatestudents and to help them develop better research skills, the reality isthat librarians do not have enough time available to spend withstudents and to support them.3 As explained by Finley, Skarl, Cox andVanderPol, “Many classes taught by librarians are one-shot, singleclass sessions”.4 Students do not value the presence of the librariansin the classroom and do not consider that the provided information ispart of the content they are learning.5 It is important to acknowledgethat librarians are usually at a disadvantagewhen trying to assess thestudents' learning after only one session, for three main reasons:the limited contact with students, the absence of faculty support, andthe librarian's different responsibilities.6 Considering this situation, a50-minute one-shot session will have a questionable impact on thestudent learning of the information skills.

To address the students' needswithin the time limitations and otherpossible obstacles, librarians have been developing online tutorials tofacilitate the acquisition of specific information skills. One example ofthis type of resource is the Texas Information Literacy Tutorial (TILT),which was designed by the Digital Information Literacy Office of theUniversity of Texas System Library, and can be accessed by students andother individuals through the Internet.7

Although it seems that online tutorials provide a once-and-for-allsolution, there are limitations if the online tutorial is the only resourcethat is made available to students. They will miss the opportunityto interact, share, and communicate their different ideas, questions,

03 December 2011 495

and solutions through the whole learning process. These limitationscould make a significant difference between a student who receivesface-to-face instruction and a student who only uses an onlinetutorial.

As explained by Churkovich and Oughtred, face-to-face instruc-tions offer flexibility, variety of presentations, and the presence ofthe librarian that can reinforce the concepts that are taught.8 In termsof online tutorials, Lindsay, Cummings, Johnson, and Scales emphasizethat online tutorials should not replace face-to-face instruction.9 Theauthors explained that online tutorials should be meticulously con-structed, because they can lead students on thewrong track, making itdifficult to effectively learn what they are supposed to learn.

As discussed by Karplus, ACRL recommends that online tutorials andother types of online teaching resources should support diverseteaching approaches, incorporate appropriate information technologiesand other media resources, and include active and collaborativeactivities.10 Considering this, online learning communities provide theopportunity to offer effective teaching approaches, because everymember has the opportunity to share knowledge and communicatespecific needs. Also, throughanonline learning community, it is possibleto incorporate diverse information resources, such as documents, linksto specific web sites, videos, and images. In terms of the opportunityto enhance the development of information skills, online learningcommunities offer the opportunity to develop and use active and col-laborative activities, such as discussion forums, chats, email, and othertypes of online communication tools, which will offer different types ofresources to different types of learners.

REVIEW OF THE LITERATUREOnline Learning Communities

In terms of online learning communities, it is important to under-stand that, as indicated by Lock, “These new forms facilitate the linkingof educators and their sharing of ideas beyond their geographicseparations”, meaning that these communities are formed by educatorsand their students to share ideas.11 Specifically, educators share theirknowledge and experiences to help students create new knowledgethrough online technologies. Justus indicates that this type ofcollaboration is essential because it allows knowledge building, andfacilitates knowledge acquisition through shared learning.12 Santovecexplains that online learning communities help students develophigher order thinking skills and they also gain a deeper understandingof the subject manner. As stated, “Online learning communities alsooffer a place for academic discourse, a place to challenge, share andreformulate ideas”.13 In general, and as stated byMa, “anonline learningcommunity is a group of people who meet online and communicatevia communication networks, sharing common interests and goals,engaging in knowledge-related transactions, and supporting each otherin their learning agendas”.14

“an online learning community is a group of peoplewho meet online and communicate via

communication networks, sharing commoninterests and goals, engaging in knowledge-relatedtransactions, and supporting each other in their

learning agendas”.

Davies, Ramsay, Lindfield, and Couperthwaite discuss the results of alearning community that was built with students of a BS Physiotherapydegree programat the University of Birmingham.15 The objective of thiscommunitywas toenable students tobridge thegap they facedbetweentheory and practice. The professors designed activities to encourage

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peer and independent learning using the problem-based approach.WebCT (the virtual learning environment) was used to create aninformation page about specific conditions and online resources thatstudents could use while completing the course work. As part of thelearning community, students worked face-to-face with other studentsand used the online resources provided through WebCT. Students hadaccess to specific URLs and they were encouraged by professors to postand discuss issues related to their research.

After describing the learning community design, Davies et al.discussed the staff experiences, the problems that were confrontedduring the process, and the lessons they learned. After gathering data,the researchers found that students had the opportunity to improvetheir communication skills, enjoyed the interaction with differentpeople and sharing their ideas and, after their participation, were ableto develop their knowledge. They also identified some problems thatwere faced during the process. First, they indicated that studentsdemonstrated different levels of technological skills, which causedthe additional effort of developing different activities to teach somestudents basic technological skills. Also, some students confrontedproblems in accessing online resources that were provided by theprofessors, while others did not have access to the Internet from theirhomes. In terms of the students' participation through the learningcommunity, Davies et al. observed that it could not be ensured thatevery student would participate equally, which means that it is im-portant to encourage every student and give some benefits or grade asa result of their participation.

From the discussion and the conclusions that were presented, it canbe understood that learning communities can be built by combiningface-to-face activities and online discussions. As was evidenced, thelearning community provided students the opportunity to interact,share their ideas, and solve different problems that were part of theircourses. On the other hand, the study evidenced the need to encouragestudents to participate in the online discussions because of the poorparticipation of some students. This last aspect is something that needsspecial attention during the design of an online learning community,whichmeans that it is necessary to build effective strategies to promotestudents' participation. One important strategy that could be usedwhendesigning an online learning community is to provide activities to helpdevelop a sense of community among the participants.

Ma conducted a study in which he examined 12 students and oneinstructor in an online Master's degree program at a major distanceeducation institution. The objective of the study was to understand ifan online learning community was a natural phenomenon in theonline course and degree program and to identify what the impact wasof the existence or non existence of an online learning community onthe teaching–learning process. The necessary data was collectedthroughquestionnaires, online chat observations, individual interviews,and transcripts of asynchronous discussions and communications. Asa result, the author found that there was no real sense of an onlinelearning community among the participants and that the interactionwas centered around the professor and not among the students. As partof the conclusions, the author acknowledges the need to intentionallydesign and implement an online learning community as part of anonline course and degree program. For this process it is necessary toidentify and implement specific teaching and learning strategies, andfor this it would be necessary to train and support the professors. Also,the author states that it is important to consider social and culturalfactors that could affect the development of the online learning com-munity. For the purpose of this study, it was necessary to consider theimportance of identifying, designing, and implementing effectiveteaching and learning strategies for the development of an onlinelearning community.16

It is important to acknowledge the fact that there is a large amountof literature that can be found that discusses the process of developinga learning community and the many benefits it can provide to all

participants.17 For the purpose of this research, it was necessary toconsider online learning communities developed and managed in alibrary or by librarians.

Online Learning Communities inLibrary Environments

Voelker discusses a learning community developed by referencelibrarians at Kent State University whose main objective was to learnmore about the first year students' needs.18 The librarians developed alearning community with 25 students. After the students' participation,the author was able to identify and analyze the students' perceptionrelated to different aspects of the library services and resources. Usingthe results gathered, the author was able to determine that “Thepresence of a librarian was found to be critical, regardless of the stud-ents' experience level”.19 Some of the topics the students were able todiscuss through the learning community were how to locate and useprint and electronic resources, plagiarism, library services, libraryfacilities, and environment. It is necessary to acknowledge that theseare topics related to some information skills, and that although thislearning community focused the attention on identifying the students'perception toward the library services, it is evident that it provided anopportunity to share knowledge related to specific information skills.

Graham, Faix, and Hartman present the experience of KimbelLibrary. As explained by the authors, the library staff created a groupthrough Facebook,whosemain objectivewas to update students aboutnew library resources, services, and events. Librarians also share pho-tographs of the different library areas and different activities held atthe library. As a result, many students joined the group and sharedtheir comments through the discussion forum and through email. Asthe authors discussed in the article, the experience of using Facebookwas a new adventure for the librarians, but with very positive results.On one side, the librarians that were new to this technology hadthe opportunity to learn new ways of communication while, on theother side, students had the opportunity to share comments and askquestions through a tool they enjoy andwithwhich they are familiar.20

Another aspect of Facebookwas examined in research conducted byScale.21 The purpose of this researchwas to explore the concept of socialsearch and evaluate Facebook as a social search engine. As it wasevidenced through the literature review, the development of newtechnologies is creating friendly and social environments to retrieve andshare information. These developments change the users' expectationswhen searching for information and services provided by librarians.As it is explained, the concept of social search has appeared as a part ofnew developments. Scale explains that this concept has two maindefinitions: onedefinition identifies social search as “people search” andanother defines it as “the search for people via social networks oras human intermediary search, or the refining of web informationretrieval results by human input”.22 Scale also presents the perspectiveof scholars that define social search as the human intermediary withcomputer algorithmic search.

Another experience with Facebook is presented in an articlepublished by Glazer.23 The author describes the experience of thelibrarians at Rutgers University Libraries. These librarians initiated theirexperiencewith Facebook in the fall of 2006. As explained, the librarianswere encouraged after reading an article about the use of Facebook in alibrary and after observing students spending hours connected toFacebook. Their intention of creating a group through Facebook was topublish the library news, what is happening at the library, and informa-tion about new resources and services.

The librarian who began the participation through Facebookinitiated communication through the group wall and sending emailsto the library friends. Also, they conducted surveys that resulted infew responses about the library resources and the students' interests.After gathering the information through the surveys, the librarians

understood that the experience produced effective results, but theyalso acknowledge that it is difficult to predict what the results will be.

After this first initiative with Facebook, the librarians identified twogoals regarding the use of Facebook. The first goal was to recruit morestudents and the second goal was to post short items on the groupwall.Both goals were going to be measured by the number of studentsrecruited and by the number of messages posted on the wall. At theend of the article, the author acknowledges that “We've learned thatFacebook activities can lead to useful information about students'preferences, positive press coverage, terrific testimonials, and reward-ing extensions of established relationships”, which evidences some ofthe benefits the use of Facebook in a library environment.24

After describing the effectiveness of the Facebook group topromote the library services, resources and events, Powers, Schmidt,and Hill identified one limitation when using Facebook, which is thefact that it is not possible to customize the look of the group page.25

Despite this limitation, the authors stated that “Facebook remains anexcellent tool to have in our collection toolbox”, which evidences theperception of librarians when integrating Facebook to their libraries.26

After discussing different experiences related with the use ofFacebook in libraries, it is evident that this tool provides the opportunityto create a new way of communication. As explained by Mitchell andWatstein, “Online communications, such as virtual learning environ-ments, common collaboration and learning environments and Facebookare increasing the placeswhere students and scholarswork, collaborate,share and plan”.27 This newway of communication is possible, because“Web 2.0 provides the foundation for the development of such onlinecommunications…”, and this is something that many librarians arerealizing.28

Online Learning Communities and InformationLiteracy Programs

The literature that was discussed in the previous section evidencesthe benefits of the collaboration between librarians and facultymembers, the benefits of an effective interaction between librariansand students, the popularity of Facebook as a social network, andthe possibilities it provides to create new ways of communicationwith users. In general, it was also evidenced that “The majority ofarticles about Facebook found in library publications are concernedwith explaining to the uninitiated exactly what Facebook is and withexploring various ways that Facebook might be used by librarians topromote library services”.29 The importance of beginning this type ofexperience relies on the fact that Facebook is part of the Web 2.0technologies that students are constantly exploring and using, andthat many librarians are also starting to explore.

“Facebook is part of the Web 2.0 technologies thatstudents are constantly exploring and using, andthat many librarians are also starting to explore.”

Considering that students tend to use these types of websites veryfrequently, it is necessary to consider these resources when developingan online learning community, because it is important to select the besttool that will allow librarians to connect with users and provide themwith information and educational resources to develop informationskills. “The Washington Post reported in June 2008 that Facebook hadsurpassed MySpace in reliable measures of popularity, attracting 123.9million visitors and 50.6 billion page views worldwide in May alone”and this is one of the reasons of why Facebook was selected to conductthis research.30

Some of the possibilities Facebook provides for librarians arepresented in an article published by Harris and Lessick.31 The authors

December 2011 497

mention some services that can be created through Facebook. Some ofthem are: link to the online catalog; link to the Ask-a-Librarian service,but this has some limitation; links to library resources; request forms;online book renewals, and news feeds. But, of all the literature thatwas reviewed, only one article mentions the opportunity thatWeb 2.0technologies (such as Facebook) provide the support to studentswhile they are developing information skills. In this case, Mitchell andWatstein indicate that information literacy services such as “links tobasic information literacy information (how to use, online tutorials,pathfinders, library staff responsible for information literacy instruc-tion)” may be used through Facebook.32 Also, the authors mentionthe possibility of providing links to learning objects for a course orproviding access to a list of learning objects. Although this is mentionedas a possibility, there is still no evidence that there are librarians thatare currently using Facebook to develop an online learning communityto support students while they are developing specific informationskills.

There is evidence of the development and use of learning com-munities in a library environment and some experiences werediscussed. Also, there is evidence of the use of Facebook by manylibrarianswhoare exploringnewways to communicatewith their users.The experiences that were presented demonstrate that Facebook is asocial utility that may be used by librarians to share informationabout library services, resources, and events. The possibility it offers as atool to support students while developing information skills is evident,but the reality is that there is still no literature that evidences thatthis has been done. There is a great deal ofwork that can be done relatedto this topic and how it can be developed as an effective tool forinformation literacy programs.

PURPOSE OF THE STUDYOnline learning communities provide a tool for the librarians of greatpotential to enhance and support the students' acquisition of informa-tion skills that are necessary to become an information literate student,as specified by ACRL. The concept of the online learning community isused to identify a group of people that have a common interest and thatinteract through online technologies.33 Brook and Oliver acknowledgethat this type of community is distinguished by the “willingness ofmembers to share resources, and accept and encourage new member-ship, regular communication, systematic problem solving, and pre-paredness to share success”.34 Price explains that online learningcommunities have been developed by many colleges and universitiesfor the last few decades, and this movement has grown because of theopportunity it brings to deliver curricula and forge closer bonds amongstudents, faculty, and the institution.35

Online learning communities could be considered as an alternativeto face-to-face instruction and online tutorials, and an additional tool toenhance the acquisition of information skills by students. Furthermore,online learning communities will offer students the support they needin completing their course work when librarians do not have the time,space, and availability to meet their needs.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness ofthe design and implementation of online learning communities onsupporting students while they develop specific information skills. Thefollowing research questions facilitated the investigation and guidedthe study:

1. What are the information skills already possessed by undergraduatestudents?

2. How does the effectiveness of an online learning communitycompare to the effectiveness of library online tutorials regardingthe students' acquisition and development of information skills?

3. How does the use of an online learning community compare withthe use of online tutorials in terms of the communication andinteraction between the librarian and students?

498 The Journal of Academic Librarianship

4. What is the level of satisfaction experienced by students whocompleted the library online tutorials when compared to thestudents who participated in the online learning community?

5. What are the steps that should be followed and the aspects that areimportant to consider for the effective development of onlinelearning communities and online tutorials in order to enhance thestudents' acquisition of information skills?

METHODOLOGY

Context of the StudyThe University of Puerto Rico (UPR) is the largest institution of

higher education on the island, having 11 campuses located indifferent cities around the island. One of these campuses is theUniversity of Puerto Rico in Carolina (UPRC), which is an autonomousunit, located in the city of Carolina, which is part of the San Juanmetropolitan area.

The UPRC community consists of approximately 4000 students,250 faculty members, and 230 administrative personnel. The LearningResources Center (LRC) of UPRC began operations in 1974 as the firstacademic department of the campus. Today, the LRC staff consistsof 28 employees, including eight professional librarians, all withALA accreditedmasters degrees. The LRC includes the following publicservice areas: Reference, Circulation and Reserve, Periodicals Collec-tion, Puerto Rican Collection, and the Information Literacy andTechnology Program (ILTP). ILTP offers a great number of teachingactivities to faculty and students. Orientations, conferences, andworkshops are offered to develop the users' information skills. Someof these activities are included in the course syllabus, which allowsan effective integration of the course content with the informationliteracy competencies. These activities are developed considering theinformation literacy standards published by the Association of Collegeand Research Libraries.

As part of an evaluation process conducted at the library in 2007, theLibrary Evaluation Committee of the UPRC stated that “Many facultymembers are unwilling to integrate information literacy activities intotheir courses”.36 This finding evidences the limitation that the librarystaff experiences in the development of the students' informationskills, and the need to effectively integrate the teaching of informationskills into the courses. As a result of this evaluation, the followingrecommendations were presented: install a computer laboratory atthe LRC at UPRC, integrate all library staff to collaborate with the ILTP,promote the integration of information literacy activities among allfaculty members, and include these activities as part of all GeneralEducation courses. The ILTP is currently working on the integration ofthe information skills in the General Education courses, which willincrease the information literacy activities. Because of the need to offeran effective service and meet the ACRL standards, it is necessary toconsider different and creative strategies thatmay be used to guaranteethe students' development of information skills. The research willprovide a better understanding of the development of online learningcommunities and online tutorials, and how they can be used to accom-plish specific objectives related to the teaching and learning ofinformation skills.

ParticipantsParticipants in this research were 95 undergraduate students

registered in four sections of a second year English course. On aver-age, these students ranged in age from 18 to 20. Since the Englishcourse is required for all academic programs offered at the Universityof Puerto Rico at Carolina, the participants were from different pro-grams, such as business administration, hotel and restaurant admin-istration, graphic arts, business advertising, office systems, touristculture, and criminal justice. All academic programs were repre-sented in the study.

Table 2

Each English course section that participated on the study wasassigned to one of the four experimental groups. Group one receivedthe traditional face-to-face library session; group two participated inan online learning community; group threewas required to completefour library online tutorials; and group four participated in the onlinelearning community and was required to complete four onlinetutorials.

Research DesignThis study used a mixed method. The mixed method made it

possible to collect all the data that was needed to answer the researchquestions.

The qualitative inquiry was a case study that provided theopportunity to conduct an in-depth exploration of the developmentof an online learning community and online tutorials, as well as theexperiences of the users in a real-life context, using multiple datasources, such as focus groups, discussion postings, and emails.37

The quantitative inquiry adopted a factorial design to examine theeffectiveness of the online learning community and online tutorials.Vogt indicates that through a factorial design, the researcher studiestwo or more independent variables at two or more levels.38 Thetwo independent variables investigated in this study are the twoinstructional delivery methods: online tutorial and online learningcommunities. The dependent variable was the acquisition of informa-tion skills. The information skills already possessed by studentswere identified through the pre-test. The post-tests evidenced theinformation skills acquired after their participation in the onlinelearning community and after completing the online tutorials. Theindependent and interactional effects of the two independent vari-ables on the dependent variable were examined, as shown in Table 1below.

Data Collection ProceduresAfter obtaining IRB approval, the researcher identified four

sections of an English course that would be used for the study. Thesections were randomly assigned to one of the four study conditions:

• NOT-NOLC: The section received the traditional one library sessionof face-to-face instruction for the acquisition of information skills.

• NOT-OLC: The section received the traditional one time face-to-faceinstruction and was required to participate during 12 weeks in anonline learning community to enhance their acquisition of informa-tion skills.

• OT-NOLC: The section received the traditional one time face-to-faceinstruction andwas required to complete four library online tutorialsto enhance their acquisition of information skills.

• OT-OLC: The section received the traditional one time face-to-faceinstruction andwas required to complete four library online tutorialsand participate during 12weeks in an online learning community toenhance their acquisition of information skills.

It is important to acknowledge that all the groups received thetraditional one time face-to-face instruction, because thiswasoffered bydefault to all students. After finishing with the study, all participantswere invited to participate in the online learning community and tocomplete the online tutorials that were available to all students.

Table 1Independent variables in the factorial design

Factor 1: Online Tutorial (OT)

Factor 2: Online LearningCommunities (OLC)

NOT-NOLC OT-NOLC

NOT-OLC OT-OLC

ANOVA for pre-test resultsSum ofsquares

Df Mean square F Sig.

Between groups 57.855 3 19.285 1.088 .358

Within groups 1790.202 101 17.725

Total 1848.057 104

Note:Group1 (NOT-NOLC)N=21;Group2(NOT-OLC)N=25;Group3(OT-NOLC)

Online tutorials and online learning communities were developedand used to facilitate students' acquisition of information skills. Theresearcher designed four online tutorials. Each online tutorial included apre-test, a post-test, the course objectives, the course work, and thelibrary instructions. Specific exercises about the content of the tutorialswere included to reinforce the material that was explained. Specificinformation skills were practiced through each online tutorial, offeringall the needed skills for the development of the course work. Par-ticipants were able to access the online tutorials at any moment, fromanywhere.

The online learning community was developed using Facebook,which is a social utility and often used by students. Through this tech-nology, one activity was offered each week for a total of 12 activitiesduring the study. These activities included: questions to be answeredabout posted videos, PowerPoint presentations and questions related tothe topics discussed through the presentations, link to Web sitespreviously evaluated, and discussion boards. All these activities weredeveloped to teach specific information skills that are necessary tomeetthe course objectives and complete the course work.

An information literacy pre-test (see Appendix A)was administeredthat helped to identify the information skills already possessed bystudents before the study and their informationneeds. This pre-testwasdeveloped based on the course objectives and the information skills thatwere to be developed through the course.

Throughout the study (i.e., the12-weekcourseperiod), the researcherrecorded the students' participation in the online learning communityand collected the students' logs to complete the online tutorials. Thestudents' acquisition of information skills across the four study conditionswas measured by the results in the post-test (see Appendix B).

At the end of the 12-week course period, the researcher asked agroup of 15 students (three groups of five from each of the OT-NOLC,NOT-OLC, and OT-OLC conditions) to participate in a focus group (seeAppendix C) to assess their satisfaction level with their participation inthe online learning community andwith the library online tutorials. Thefocus group discussions were recorded and then transcribed for dataanalysis. Using the transcripts, the researcher compared the students'answers to the questions with their messages posted during their par-ticipation in the online learning community (discussion forums andemails). Through this comparison itwaspossible to identify if therewereany discrepancies betweenwhat they expressed in the focus groups andthe online learning community. Also, one week after the focus groups,the researcher visited in the classroom and individually asked eachparticipant if what they said actually matched their experience in theonline learning community. This individual conversation allowedstudents to express what they really felt without any group pressure.

All study instruments (pre-test, post-test, and focus groups) werevalidated using a pilot group of 5 students who were not registered inthe English courses. Their comments and observations were collectedand utilized to modify the instruments for enhanced validity.

N=25; Group 4 (OT-OLC) N=34.

December 2011 499

Table 4ANOVA for post-test results

Sum ofsquares

Df Mean square F Sig

Between groups 658.815 3 219.605 16.375 .000

Within groups 1220.406 91 13.411

Total 1879.221 94

Note:Group1(NOT-NOLC)N=16;Group2 (NOT-OLC)N=25;Group3(OT-NOLCN=22; Group 4 (OT-OLC) N=32.

Table 5Tukey out-put for the post-test scores

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Pre-testA pre-test was administered to identify the information skills

already possessed by the students at the beginning of the study. Thepre-test consisted of five parts: the first part was a matching exerciseof concepts related to the library services and resources; the secondpart consisted of an exercise in which students needed to answersome questions using a catalog entry retrieved from the online catalog;the third part required students to select appropriate answers related tothe use of the library online databases; the fourth part presenteddifferent questions about the Internet; and the last part was a matchingexercise in which students needed to identify the type of resourcepresented in a citation.

One way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to determinewhether there were significant differences among the pre-test scoresof all groups. As presented in Table 2, there was no proof that therewas significant statistical difference in the pre-existing informationskills of the students across the four groups.

Post-testTable 3 presents the mean scores and standard deviations in the

post-test for the four groups. As it is shown, OT-NOLC had the lowestmean value, while the NOT-OLC group had the highest mean value. Interms of the standard deviation, it is interesting to see that the NOT-OLCevidenced the lowest standard deviation,while the OT-NOLC group hadthe highest one.

After identifying and comparing the mean and standard deviationvalue it was necessary to conduct an ANOVA to determine if there is astatistical significantdifference among groups. The results of theANOVAshowed that there was significant difference among the groups in theirpost-test scores (Table 4).

Since therewas evidence of a statistical significant difference amongthe post-test scores, to find out, pair-wise, which group significantlydiffered from which group among the four, a post-hoc multiple com-parison test (Tukey)was performed. To be able to perform this analysis,a table of two columns was prepared. On the first column a valuewas assigned for each group; 1 for the control group (NOT-NOLC), 2 forNOT-OLC group, 3 for OT-NOLC group, and 4 for OT-OLC group. Table 5presents the out-put of this analysis.

The results showed that, when comparing to determine whichgroup significantly differed from which group, NOT-OLC was thegroup that significantly differed from the other three groups, meaningthat this group was the one that obtained better scores on the post-test, thus demonstrating that the online learning community wasmore effective. When comparing OT-OLC with the other groups, thescores of OT-OLC significantly differed from the scores obtained byNOT-NOLC and OT-NOLC. When analyzing these results, it can beassumed that the OT-OLC group obtained better scores whencompared with OT group because of their participation through theonline learning community. In general, it can be concluded that

Table 3Means and standard deviations of the

post-test results

N Mean Std. deviation Minimum Maximum

NOT-NOLC 16 19.25 4.480 11 26

NOT-OLC 25 25.32 2.174 22 29

OT-NOLC 22 18.64 4.716 5 23

OT-OLC 32 22.9 3.306 17 28

Total 95 21.86 4.471 5 29

(I) Group (J) group Meandifference

(I–J)

Std. error Sig

Tukey 1 3 .614 1.203 .957

2 1 6.070 ⁎ 1.172 .000

3 6.684 ⁎ 1.071 .000

4 2.633 ⁎ .978 .041

4 1 3.438 ⁎ 1.121 .015

3 4.051 ⁎ 1.014 .001

Note:Group1(NOT-NOLC)N=16;Group2(NOT-OLC)N=25;Group3(OT-NOLCN=22; Group 4 (OT-OLC) N=32.⁎ Denotes pb .05.

500 The Journal of Academic Librarianship

.

)

the online learning community was more effective when enhancingthe acquisition and development of information skills, and that whenboth treatments were combined, the acquisition and development ofinformation skills was not increased.

Communication and Interaction through the OLCand Online Tutorials

The online learning community created through Facebook offeredstudents the opportunity to interact with the librarian in differentways,such as direct messages through the inbox, chat, andmessages throughtheprofilewall. After ananalysis of the communication thatwasheldviaFacebook, the researcher classified the communication into differentcategories depending on the content of the messages or the reason forthe communication. The categories are explained below.

Technical problemsA total of seven messages were classified under this category;

these messages were received through the Facebook inbox. The firstmessages received from students were about the process of preparingtheir PowerPoint presentations, and some questions they had in theprocess. In some cases, the librarian explained step by step the processthey needed to follow while, in other cases, the librarian guided thestudents to other PowerPoint presentations prepared by librariansthat explain how to prepare their coursework.

The other two questions received were about the access and use ofthe online tutorials. One participant wanted to use the online tutorialand did not remember how to access it, and the second question camefrom a studentwho confronted problemswhile completing the tutorial.

Information skillsOther questions received through messages (Facebook inbox) and

posted through the Facebook wall were about specific informationskills. Three students sent messages (through Facebook) because they

.

)

needed support while identifying the topic they needed to select fortheir course project. The librarian provided them with informationand guidance so they could select appropriate topics. After thisguidance, the students sent messages appreciating the supportprovided during the process.

Five students contacted the librarian through the Facebook chat.These students confronted problems in finding articles through thelibrary online catalogs and through the Internet. During these chatsessions, the librarian guided the students in identifying adequatekeywords they needed to use and how to combine these keywordsusing the Boolean connectors. Also, after guiding students on how toaccess the library online databases, the librarian recommendedappropriate databases to use for their topics and guided students onhow to conduct the searches.

Throughout the 12 weeks of the study, three messages werereceived in relation to the selection of the information resources bythe participants. The students were provided guidance on how tounderstand the different criteria for evaluating Web information.Some information was given through educational materials preparedby the librarian about this topic and posted in Facebook. Also links toother information resources that could help them understandevaluation criteria were provided.

The largest number of questions related to the use of the APAmanual; only two of these questions were received through the emailaddress provided in the online tutorials, send by students from thegroup that completed the online tutorials only, while the other fivewere received through Facebook. In this case, all the questions wereabout the preparation of the bibliography that was assigned. Theywere instructed on how to work with the APA instructions, and theywere provided with additional information sources they could accessthrough Internet that could help them develop their bibliographies.All the students who requested for help sent through email theirappreciation for the support.

Messages of appreciationDuring the 12 weeks that the study lasted, some messages were

received in which the students expressed their appreciation about theresources and information that were posted to support and enhancetheir acquisition of information skills. Some of these messages helpedto identify which information was helpful to them and what type ofinformation they needed toward their coursework.

After analyzing the communication and interaction that was heldthroughout the 12 weeks of the study, it was apparent that, whencomparing the participation through the online learning communityand the use of online tutorials, the former proved to bemore effective.Specifically, the studentswere able to receive the support they neededto acquire and enhance specific information skills, while clarifyingtheir questions which in turn allowed them to effectively completecourse projects.

Focus GroupsAt the end of the 12-week course, the researcher guided three

focus groups; each one was recorded. This method helped to identifytheir satisfaction level with the treatments. The researcher tran-scribed the recordings to be able to compare with the students'participation in the online learning community. Also, the researcherasked each participant individually if what they said actually matchedtheir experience in the online learning community and with theonline tutorials. This individual conversation allowed students toexpress what they really felt without any group pressure.

When the students that completed the online tutorials were askedto describe their experience, the first adjective that four studentsused was educational, since they were able to learn a lot from theinformation that was provided. Three students indicated that theylearned much about how to use the APA manual; two students indi-

cated that they learned much about how to search for informationthrough the Internet, and one student indicated that he learned muchabout searching for information through the library online databases.Other adjectives that were used by the students to describe theirexperience were: interesting, helpful, and good.

On the other hand, when the researcher formulated this questionto OT-OLC, the first adjective that was used to describe the experiencewas good, since they were able to learn new things. Other studentexpressed that “it was difficult”, and when she was asked to explainwhy it was difficult, the student answered that she needed tocomplete different course work and sometimes she got confused withall the information that was provided. At the same time, this studentrecognized that the information was useful and that it helped her tocomplete the course work.

The students were asked to select one of the following: Verysatisfied, satisfied, or unsatisfied to identify their satisfaction level withthe experience. The results from the OT-NOLC group were: threestudents answered that theywere satisfied, and two students answeredthat they were very satisfied. On the other hand, four students fromOT-OLC answered that they felt very satisfied, while one studentanswered to be satisfied related to the use of the tutorials. Some of thestudents who answered that they were very satisfied explained thatthey recognized that they were able to learn how to complete theircourse work, especially their bibliographies. Also, these studentsappreciated the initiative of using the computer as part of the course.

When the students were asked if they recommended the use ofonline tutorials as part of their courses, from the OT-NOLC group, fourstudents agreed to recommend, and some of their reasons were: “thesetools offer something dynamic to the course”; “because not all thestudents possess the skills that are necessary to search for and useinformation”; “I was able to learn how to prepare my course work”. Onthe other hand, only one student said that he would not recommendthe use of the tutorials, since he got bored reading the information.

In terms of the answers from the OT-OLC group, all the studentswould recommend the use of these tutorials, and some of their reasonswere: “because they provided information that we needed to prepareour course work”, “because I learned about things I did not know”, and“because now I can use more the computers and the libraryWeb page”.Considering these answers, and the ones from the other group, it showsthe importance of identifying the specific information needs of thestudents before developing online tutorials. Also, it is necessary todesign those tutorials using different strategies like video, sound files,images, and text, since it is necessary to meet different learning styles.

When the students from the OT-NOLC groupwere asked tomentionother resources and tools that should be considered to support thestudents' development of information skills, each participant offered adifferent response. One student said that it is important to share,through the libraryWebpage, coursework developedby other studentsso that they could use it as examples ofwhat theyneeded to do. Anotherstudent indicated that it would be more attractive if the librariansprepared short movies to teach students specific information skills.Other suggestions presented were the use of Twitter, Facebook, andMySpace, and the students from the OT-OLC group agreed with thissuggestion.One last suggestionwas that the library shouldoffer tutoringto support students while they are preparing their course work.

Another focus group that was developed included five par-ticipants from NOT-OLC to identify their satisfaction level with theirparticipation through the online learning community. The adjectivesthat the participants from this group expressed to describe theirexperience were: enriching, good, innovative, beneficial, and excel-lent. One student that considered this an enriching experience ex-plained that “the use of Facebook is a useful alternative since almostall the students use Facebook almost all day”. The student that con-sidered that it was a good experience explained that “I know how touse Facebook, but I never used it for a course before. This experience

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was something new for me”. A similar response was offered by thestudent who described this experience as excellent; this studentindicated that “It would never occur to me to use Facebook for aneducational purpose; this experience opened my mind about otheruses Facebook offers”, related to this, another student added that “theinteraction with the librarian was beneficial, and this is somethingthat the online tutorials do not offer”.

“[One] student indicated that “It would never occurto me to use Facebook for an educational purpose;this experience opened my mind about other uses

Facebook offers … .”

In general, these responses evidence that the students consideredthis experience as beneficial and enriching, since theywere able to useFacebook to learn things they needed for their course work. They alsoagreed that this was something new, and they appreciated thisintegration. The participants think that the students who use Face-book daily are going to be able to have access to information they mayneed when they are developing their course work and projects. Ingeneral, when answering this question, all the students expressedthat they appreciated the experience, which was new for them andthat now they know they can also learn through Facebook.

The students were asked to select one of the following: Verysatisfied, satisfied, or dissatisfied to identify their satisfaction level withthe experience. All the participants from NOT-OLC and OT-OLC, agreedthat theywere very satisfiedwith their participation through the onlinelearning community. They expressed that that this was an interestingstrategy that allowed them to develop their works. All the participantsfrom both groups answered that they would recommend the use ofFacebook. Some of the reasons participants gave were: “it was a usefulexperience for all the students”; “we felt confident in sharingquestions”; “it provided us, as students, the information we need atany time, and the opportunity to have direct communication with thelibrarian”; “Facebook offers students another way to clarify questions”;“Facebook demonstrated to be a complete teaching strategy”; andbecause “it was useful”. All these reasons demonstrate that all thestudents were satisfied enough with the experience to recommend itto other professors and librarians.

After answering the different questions formulated by the research-er, the participants did not add any comment or suggestion differentfromwhat they shared when answering the previous questions. At thistime, they emphasized the satisfaction level and their opinion that thistype of experience should be integrated into other courses. At the end ofthe focus groups, all the participants appreciated the time and theinformation that was shared during the weeks that the study lasted.

CONCLUSIONS

After comparing and analyzing the results from the post-test, it can beconcluded that the online learning community was more effective inenhancing the acquisition of information skills by undergraduatestudents. The ANOVA that was performed with the post-test scoresrevealed that there was a significant statistical difference between thegroups. Furthermore, the results of the Tukey analysis revealed that thescores from the NOT-OLC group significantly differed from the othergroups, proving it to be a more effective treatment. On the other hand,OT-NOLC group did not perform in a better way than the other groups.

In terms of the results from the control group, it can be concludedthat one shot sessions of face-to-face library instruction do not providethe support students need to acquire and develop the information skillsthat are needed to complete different workshops. The time limitationof this type of activity only provides the opportunity to offer basic

502 The Journal of Academic Librarianship

information about the library services and information resources,whichis not enough to meet the students' information needs.

After analyzing the results of the guided focus groups of the studentswho completed the online tutorials and participated in the onlinelearning community, it can be concluded that the students who par-ticipated through the online learning community unanimously agreedthat they were very satisfied with the experience, while a great per-centage of the participantswhocompleted theonline tutorials answeredthat they were satisfied. Specifically, their responses demonstrated thattheonline learningcommunitywasmoreeffectivewhenproviding themwith the information and support they needed during their course,although it can be understood that thedifference in this satisfaction levelwas not significant. This same situation was shown in the differencesbetween the students description of their experience, demonstratingthat both treatments were effective.

Themost important implication of this study is thedevelopment andimplementation of online learning communities as a tool to enhance theinformation skills by undergraduate students. The decision to imple-ment this type of experience requires librarians and professors to worktogether and make decisions regarding the specific objectives andactivities that will be offered to students. During the planning process itis necessary to consider different aspects, such as: course objectives,course assignments and activities, and the specific information skillsthat are necessary to develop. After these decisions are made, librariansneed to design teaching products that will be used during the process,anddeterminewhat informationwill be shared. Tobeable to developaneffective online learning community, it is also important to schedule theactivities thatwill be offered during the semester, since it is important topromote an effective interaction and communicationwith students. It isthis interaction the one that will provide the support students need toenhance their information skills.

It is recommended that further research in this area be done. The factthat Web 3.0 technologies could be used to enhance the informationskills of students is still a topic that should be examined. It is importantto consider that the study revealed the students' high level ofsatisfactionwith the online learning community because of this; furtherstudy should address attitudes toward the use of other technologies forthe same purpose.

APPENDIX A. SUPPLEMENTARY DATA

Supplementary data to this article can be found online at doi:10.1016/j.acalib.2011.07.006.

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