Can I Google That? A Study of the Multiple Literacy Practices of Undergraduate Students in a Research-Writing Course

In higher education, students have become more accustomed to using the Internet to fulfill their information need. However, research shows that students reuse ineffective strategies and overrate their research abilities, confusing technical knowledge with information literacy. Moreover, students have difficulties locating valid and reliable source information and integrating this information responsibly and rhetorically into a coherent research paper. The objective of the present study was to measure an intervention designed to improve the multi-literacies practices of student researchers in a sophomore-level writing course. The intervention included instructional support and materials to develop five literacy practices: navigational literacy, information literacy, digital reading literacy, technological literacy, and writing literacy. To measure the effectiveness of the intervention, a multiple baseline design was implemented across three participants during an academic quarter. Moreover, a mixed method design that included ethnographic methods and a textual analysis of all drafts was employed to examine student personal interests, expectations, perceptions, and rhetorical knowledge throughout the research-writing process. Results show that the intervention had limited success in improving students' online search activities and writing development. Moreover, five themes were evident in the study of student online literacy practices and research-writing processes: 1) information need is intertwined with students' domain and rhetorical knowledge, perceptions and assumptions, and the assignment context and task, 2) students reuse the same strategies, 3) students primarily evaluate source information topically, generically, and non-rhetorically, 4) the affordances and limitations of information systems and databases mediate and are mediated by students' online search activities and socio-cognitive processes, and 5) students predominantly summarize source information and integrate it using general rhetorical structures. These findings illuminate the complex nature of online search in academic contexts. Furthermore, this study illustrates how information literacy is not an isolated, generalizable cognitive ability; it is situated within complex sociotechnical information landscapes. While the scope of this study is limited to sophomore-level writing students, the findings have implications for pedagogical change, instructional support, and information system design.