Inferno

In today’s digital era, information comes at us fast and furious, and we must learn to decipher the correct information. Whether we are looking for the day’s news headlines, researching data for a college paper, or reading about our favorite movie actor, where we get our information and what we trust as correct is crucial.

Just as imperative is the ability to recognize when more information is needed, find that data, and effectively use it.

“We live in a world where we’re constantly bombarded with information. And there’s so much of it that we need to be able to sift through and find what’s useful,” says Ben Pearson, department chair of general education and social sciences in Excelsior University’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. “But we also need to sift through it and understand what we can and can’t trust. … Information literacy is a multifaceted skill. And that’s part of what’s complicated about it. It’s not just one thing; it also involves the ability to evaluate that information and determine its quality.”

Information literacy is a powerful tool that enables individuals to obtain accurate information and make their own decisions on a variety of topics. What’s more, the ability to critically evaluate information is essential for effectively engaging in society, which fosters a sense of confidence and capability. Individuals with information literacy can critically evaluate information from leaders, media outlets, and interest groups. The result is the ability to make informed decisions, participate in meaningful public discussions, and hold leaders accountable.

In an October 2023 LinkedIn post, Wazi Nxumalo, founder and president of the University of Eswatini Information Science Society, wrote that one of the most significant benefits of information literacy is its effectiveness in combating fake news and misinformation. In an era where social media has made it increasingly challenging for people to distinguish fact from fiction, information literacy provides individuals with the necessary skills to evaluate sources, verify information, and make decisions based on reliable data. This focus on fighting misinformation can help people feel more secure and less vulnerable in the digital age.

But information literacy is not just important when reading the news. It’s also an important competency for students.

Building Firebreaks

In higher education, ideas are conceived, tested, and refined. Within this environment, information literacy is not only a skill but also a fundamental component of the educational process that many colleges and universities have consistently explored. Emphasizing the importance of information literacy in higher education can help students feel more prepared and competent in their academic endeavors.

The term “information literacy” was first included in the Middle States Commission on Higher Education’s standards for accreditation in 1989. (Excelsior University is accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, an institutional accrediting agency recognized by the U.S. secretary of education and the Council for Higher Education Accreditation.) In 1998, the Association of College and Research Libraries established the Task Force on Information Literacy Competency Standards for higher education, which were revised in January 2000.

With these standards as a foundation, Project Information Literacy (PIL), a nonprofit research institute, began a comprehensive study in 2008. The aim was to understand why students nationwide chose to use public search engines and internet sites like Google and Wikipedia, respectively, for academic research instead of resources offered by their local campus libraries.

Over the subsequent 14 years, PIL published reports and articles based on 12 studies involving nearly 21,000 students and graduates from 91 institutions across the United States. Their findings reveal the challenges students face when trying to locate and engage with information.

In PIL’s first report, titled “Finding Context: What Today’s College Students Say about Conducting Research in the Digital Age,” published in 2009, studies reveal that participants rely on various sources, including libraries, Google, and Wikipedia. However, they expressed frustration and confusion when trying to find relevant results for their college assignments or everyday questions. This indicates that even at the beginning of the century, students were overwhelmed by confusing, inaccurate, and irrelevant information, highlighting the need for a clearer understanding of information literacy.

Now, in 2025, students are still struggling with where they get their information. A recent study by the Faculty of Communication and Media Studies of the Universiti Teknologi MARA finds that students are increasingly using social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok to obtain their news, resulting in consistently receiving misinformation, since these platforms are only lightly moderated. After interviewing and studying 241 students, they find that students with more advanced literacy skills were better enabled to fact-check and analyze the content they consumed from a variety of sources.

The Pew Research Center, based in Washington, D.C., supports these findings. Pew has found that since 2020, a growing number of U.S. adults and young adults have been using TikTok as their information source.

Taming the Conflagration

At Excelsior University, staff and instructors are helping students ask the right questions and become masters of information literacy.

Excelsior has offered its Information Literacy course, INL 102, since around 2018. All students who attend Excelsior must complete this required information literacy component within the first 13 University credits they take. It’s important for students to learn how to research, read and process information, and cite sources while at Excelsior.

Recently the University introduced an updated version of the course that provides more faculty involvement and intriguing discussion topics. “We have a little more interaction and engagement with faculty in the class than we had before, … [and] the students appreciate it a lot more. … We can have conversations. We can have questions about things, and it’s not just, you know, ‘Read this chapter and take this test,’” Pearson says. As one example of a discussion topic, students talk about how even academic scholars and journalists sometimes get things wrong and how they have processes designed to minimize those problems and help them stay accurate.

Nicole Childrose, an INL 102 instructor, outlines the course: “From the outset, students engage in collaborative discussions to master critical concepts, such as identifying misinformation, navigating library and online databases, detecting cybersecurity threats like phishing, and understanding the nuances of citing sources and paraphrasing. This foundation ensures they grasp the principles of academic honesty and integrity, critical thinking, research skills, and communication.”

INL 102 provides students with foundational skills to use throughout college and life to make sound judgments about credible information. Students learn how to evaluate the quality and credibility of information presented in textual and nontextual sources, which ensures that their research is grounded in factual, well-supported evidence. This skill is necessary for writing research papers, preparing presentations, and participating in academic discussions.

“Students are guided through important discussions about scholarly resources and how to move through the world of information gathering, which is foundational to creating research reports and college success in general,” says Adam Rafalovich, another INL 102 instructor.

For some students, the temptation to copy and paste when working on multiple papers can be challenging to ignore. However, understanding the ethical use of information and the importance of original thought is critical to information literacy. Students in INL 102 and courses like it learn that proper citation is an academic requirement and a way to respect intellectual property. Students learn about citing sources, respecting the intellectual contributions of others, and the importance of producing original work. This not only upholds academic integrity but also fosters a culture of respect and honesty.

Additionally, students in INL 102 learn how to identify common cybersecurity threats and strategies to avoid them. This helps students avoid dangerous online behavior and navigate the digital landscape.

Igniting Smarter Info Seekers

Research shows that higher education students significantly improve their overall engagement and study habits when they learn to make information-literate decisions.

At Excelsior, students benefit from learning about information literacy through INL 102. Course outcomes include assessing the quality of information in various sources and evaluating arguments for logical fallacies. Based on course reviews, students are gaining these important skills they can use in academic and nonacademic environments. “From course evaluations and talking to students, I would say the majority of them really find it interesting,” Pearson says. He adds that many students have changed their way of thinking about gathering and interpreting information and that “they dig a little deeper into where [information] comes from and then evaluate the quality based on that.”

Childrose notes that the human element is crucial to effectively understanding all forms of knowledge in a world with increasing use of artificial intelligence. “Leveraging information literacy equips us to question and interpret AI outputs and ensure technology’s ethical and practical use in academic, real-world, and professional settings,” she says. “Beyond AI, it encompasses the ability to navigate and manage digital tools, platforms, and new technologies—an essential baseline skill in the 21st century.”

Building on this idea, Childrose emphasizes that information literacy not only helps individuals engage with AI responsibly but also equips them with the critical skills needed to navigate the broader digital landscape effectively. “By understanding ethics, conducting research, and applying these [information literacy] skills across various situations,” she says, “students are well-prepared to handle the complexities of the digital age with confidence and competence.”