Questioning a discourse of information literacy practice in web-based tutorials

Introduction. A number of Scandinavian Web-based tutorials on information seeking mediate a kind of discourse of information literacy practice by combining the two themes, written academic assignment and information seeking. The aim of the paper is first to examine students' experience of the pragmatic value of two of these Web-based tutorials, 'VIKO' (www.ntnu.no/viko/english) and 'UB-testen' (www.ubtesten.dk), and second to discuss the discourse and it's way to contextualise information seeking in the particular Web-based tutorials. Method. Individual interviews with twenty-seven students have been carried out in 2011. Analysis. In the analysis, concepts from Schatzki's practice theory (2002, 2012) and an ideal typology from Halkier (2010) have being applied. Results. The analysis indicates that there is a gap between, on the one hand, the intended use of the Web-based tutorial seen from the perspective of the discourse, and on the other hand, the students' reactions to the same tutorial during interviews about Page 1 of 10 Questioning a discourse of information literacy practice in Web-based tutorials 11/12/2013 http://informationr.net/ir/18-3/colis/paperC36.html their study activities. The result of the analysis is a questioning attitude towards the written assignment as a way to contextualise information seeking in the particular Webbased tutorials. Conclusion. The study contributes to the discussion about what kind of contextualisation is needed in Web-based tutorials on information seeking.