The relationship of teachers' Information literacy with the attitude to e-learning in the period of Covid-19 pandemic

Covid-19 pandemic in late 2019, countries took measures to control the pandemic, such as full quarantine or the implementation of social distance. One of the action measures taken in the field of education by many countries including our country, Iran, was the closure of schools and higher education centers. As a result, the concern to develop and implement curricula for continuing education at home and under the quarantine became the biggest challenge for education systems, and the issue of e-learning became very important. Among  the numerous factors that can affect virtual learning, in this study, only two factors of information literacy and the teachers’ attitudes toward virtual learning are discussed. Therefore, this study was conducted to investigate teachers' information literacy and its relationship with their attitude toward e-learning.

The research method was descriptive-correlation. The statistical population of the study included 152 teachers in Nikshahr [Sistan and Baluchestan province] in the academic year 2020-2021. 109 teachers were selected through random-stratified sampling in terms of gender and teaching level and based on Cochran sampling formula. The data collection was based on questionnaires of information literacy (in the areas of ability to determine the scope and nature of information, ability to effectively access information, ability to critically evaluate information, ability to use the information purposefully  and ability to understand the legal and economic aspects of using information) and attitudes toward e-learning (with components of feeling of self-sufficiency, feeling of desire, feeling useful, intention to use e-learning, feeling satisfied  and the tendency to multimedia education). One-sample t-test, Pearson correlation coefficient and stepwise regression were used to analyze the data by using SPSS software.

The results showed that that teachers' information literacy in the areas of ability to determine the scope and nature of information, ability to effectively access information, ability to critically evaluate information critically, ability to use information purposefully  and ability to understand the legal and economic aspects of using information is lower than the average level; there was no significant difference in comparing the level of information literacy of teachers in terms of demographic characteristics other than gender [superiority of female teachers' information literacy]; teachers' attitudes toward e-learning and its components (feeling of self-sufficiency, feeling  of desire, feeling useful, intention to use e-learning, feeling satisfied with the e-learning system and tendency to use multimedia education) were positive; There was a significant positive relationship between teachers' information  literacy and their attitudes toward e-learning and information literacy had the ability to predict 73.4% of variance of attitudes toward e-learning.

According to the low level of teachers' information literacy in the areas of ability to determine the scope and nature of information, ability to effectively access information, ability to critically evaluate information, ability to use information purposefully  and ability to understand the legal and economic aspects of using information and its positive relationship with the attitude to e-learning, holding in-service training courses on information literacy based on the required standards for holding such courses is recommended. It is also recommended to policy makers and curriculum designers of the Ministry of Education to design and implement information literacy courses for teacher training courses.