A Case Study and Call to Action: Incorporating the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy in Undergraduate CS Courses

Information literacy (IL) is fundamentally important for CS students and graduates who are required to write research papers and stay abreast of new technologies and ideas. However, IL is absent in CS curriculum guidelines and the literature is scarce on research focused on IL skills among CS students. In this paper, we discuss aspects of IL and introduce the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy in Higher Education in the context of an undergraduate CS course covering social issues. We share how we used the Framework as the basis of our learning activities, which included lectures, a reading, and an assignment in which students reflected on core ideas pertaining to IL. We analyzed responses from the assignment to assess whether students achieved our learning outcomes. Nearly all students recognized markers of scholarly authority, but fewer students achieved learning outcomes based on more abstract concepts. We provide recommendations on incorporating IL activities in CS courses, and encourage explicit interventions to improve CS students' IL skills.