Impact of Purposefully Designed Learning Activities in the Case of Information Literacy Self-Efficacy

Objectives: Developing information literacy skills of medical students is one of the basic skills to become lifelong learners. Method: The study focuses on the development of a first year integrated information literacy course for medical students during three consecutive years. Students filled in a validated information literacy self-efficacy scale for medicine at the beginning and at the end of the course. Results: Integrating a search-report has a significant positive effect. For 'Medical information literacy skills', a positive difference is found for the academic year in which a peer review was introduced. Integrating personal experience has an undeniable impact and should be stimulated in the educational design in higher education. Performing a peer review impacts information literacy self-efficacy related to the specific medical information literacy skills and should be further integrated in the course. Teachers need to evaluate the impact of course development continuously, as not all adaptations always have the expected impact.