A recent study outlined several misconceptions first year students have related to research / information literacy. The top five misconceptions were that first year students believe that :
- every question has a singular answer;
- research is a linear, uni-directional process;
- Google is a sufficient search tool;
- freely available internet resources are sufficient for academic work;
- all library resources are credible.
By recognizing these common misconceptions, we can better understand where our students are coming from as well as provide resources to help overcome some of these perceptions.
Hinchliffe, L. J., Rand, A., & Collier, J. (2018). Predictable Information Literacy Misconceptions of First-Year College Students. Communications in Information Literacy, 12(1), 4-18.