---
title: "Losing Time: The Real Impact on Faculty When Students Lack Information Literacy Skills"
description: "Losing Time: The Real Impact on Faculty When Students Lack Information Literacy Skills"
image: https://blog.credoreference.com/hubfs/Imported_Blog_Media/lecture-300x189.jpg
---

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# Losing Time: The Real Impact on Faculty When Students Lack Information Literacy Skills

Posted by [Duncan Whitmire](https://blog.credoreference.com/author/duncan-whitmire) on 7/2/15 8:30 AM

[Information Literacy](https://blog.credoreference.com/topic/information-literacy), [Research](https://blog.credoreference.com/topic/research), [Uncategorized](https://blog.credoreference.com/topic/uncategorized)

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[![lecture](https://blog.credoreference.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Imported_Blog_Media/lecture-300x189.jpg?width=352&height=221&name=lecture-300x189.jpg)](https://blog.credoreference.com/hubfs/Imported_Blog_Media/lecture.jpg)We recently [surveyed hundreds of faculty members](http://marketing.credoreference.com/acton/attachment/5363/f-00b7/1/-/-/-/-/Credo%20Survey%20of%20Students%20and%20Faculty%3A%20Findings.pdf) across the country to gain a better understanding of how they perceive students’ information literacy skills. More than 200  faculty responded to an open-ended question about what impact poor student information literacy skills had on their work. Almost two-thirds reported time lost addressing this gap and preparing information literacy materials, and five percent stated that it affected their decision on whether or not to assign research projects.

 

**Lost Time**

*“What students don't know, I feel it is my obligation to teach them.  HOWEVER, that becomes problematic when so many other concepts and topics need to be covered within a semester course.”*

61% of respondents said they had to spend their already limited time either teaching basic concepts or preparing lessons and materials to help them learn the basics of good research.

 

**Low-Quality Papers**

*“Grading a sheaf of poor papers takes a lot of time if you want to provide quality feedback.  Time is in short supply for your average professor.”*

15% of those surveyed remarked that poorly written papers take longer to grade.

 

**More One-on-One Time**

*“The instructor may have to stay later than normal, or work with the student one on one.”*

13% noted the extra time spent proofreading student essays and working with students one-on-one.

 

**Finding Sources for Students**

*“It takes away the thrill of seeing someone actually finding something new.”*

10% help students find the sources for their research assignments, rather than trust them to locate relevant scholarly information on their own.

 

**Plagiarism**

*“Having to constantly flag plagiarism is a nightmare.”*

7% of respondents noted emotional drain of citing students for plagiarism.

 

**Assigning Fewer/Smaller Projects**

*“I am frequently hesitant to assign research projects because of the tremendous workload on myself.”*

5% of faculty admitted to either altering the type of research assignment, or to not assigning a research project altogether due to poor student information literacy skills.

Image Credit: *University of Washington,* via National Science Foundation website: http://www.nsf.gov/news/news\_images.jsp?cntn\_id=131403&org=NSF

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