Lifelong Learning Study (January 5, 2016)

Table of contents

• Full report: Staying smart: How today’s graduates continue to learn once they complete college
• Additional assets from the report:
  • Infographic 1 (methodology)
  • Infographic 2 (findings)
  • Preliminary interview script
  • Survey instrument
  • Follow-up interview script
  • Public survey dataset (includes codebook and user guide)
• Major findings video (2:58)
• What is lifelong learning video (2:39)
• Phase one: Trends from the lifelong learning interviews
• Press release

Abstract

This report presents findings about the information-seeking behavior of relatively recent college graduates used for lifelong learning in personal life, the workplace, and the local communities where they lived. Included are results from online surveys of 1,651 respondents and telephone interviews with 126 study participants who graduated from one of 10 US colleges and universities between 2007 and 2012. Findings indicated that most graduates needed to learn a combination of basic and complex life skills during the past year, such as money-management, how to make household repairs, and how to advance in their careers and communicate better on the job. They consulted friends, family, and coworkers almost as much as the Web. Graduates preferred information sources that had currency, utility, and interactivity. They also placed a high premium on curated information systems that were organized and kept up-to-date, such as libraries, museums, and bookstores. A model of shared utility is introduced for explaining graduates’ use of contemporary social media technologies as well as personal connections they had established with trusted allies. Graduates reported four barriers to their continued learning efforts: lack of time, finding affordable learning sources, staying on top of everything they needed to know, and staying motivated to keep learning after college. As a whole, graduates prided themselves on their ability to search, evaluate, and present information, skills they honed during college. Yet, far fewer said that their college experience had helped them develop the critical thinking skill of framing and asking questions of their own, which is a skill they inevitably needed in their post-college lives. Ten recommendations are presented for improving educational strategies, resources, and services that foster lifelong learning.

Preferred citation format: Alison J. Head (January 5, 2016), Staying smart: How today’s graduates continue to learn once they complete college, Project Information Literacy Research Institute, https://projectinfolit.org/publications/lifelong-learning-study/

Media coverage

• “Staying smart after graduating,” Interviewee: Alison Head on The Matt Townsend Show on SiriusXM channel 143, iTunes Radio, and a live web stream from BYU Radio, February 23, 2016 (1:27 hour).
• “Information literacy and recent graduates: New from PIL,” Barbara Fister, Inside Higher Education, January 7, 2016.
• “For tech careers, It’s not about what you studied, it’s about what you learned,” John Mello, Monster.com Tech Section, June 11, 2015.
• “A new report from Project Information Literacy,” Barbara Fister, Inside Higher Education, February 25, 2015.
• “What PIL teaches us about lifelong learning,” Barbara Fister, Library Journal, August 7, 2014.

Related PIL resources

• “Why blogs endure: A study of recent college graduates and motivations for blog readership,” Alison J. Head, Michele Van Hoeck, Kirsten Hostetler, First Monday, October 2, 2017, Vol. 22, No. 10.
• “Posing the million-dollar question: What happens after graduation?” Alison J. Head, Journal of Information Literacy, June 5, 2017, Vol. 11, No. 1: 80-90.
• “Mary-Ann Winkelmes: Transparency in teaching and learning,” email interview, by Alison Head and Kirsten Hostetler, Project Information Literacy, Smart Talk Interview, no. 25, September 2, 2015.
• “Dan Rothstein: The necessity of asking questions,” email interview by Alison Head, Project Information Literacy, Smart Talk Interview, no. 24, April 21, 2015.
• “S. Craig Watkins: The promise of connected learning,” email interview by Kirsten Hostetler, Project Information Literacy, Smart Talk Interview, no. 23, March 5, 2015.
• “Lifelong learning in the digital age: A content analysis of recent research on participation,” Alison J. Head, Michele Van Hoeck, and Deborah S. Garson, First Monday, Vol. 20, no. 2, February 2, 2015. 
• “Zach Sims: “Learning real life skills that matter,” email interview by Sarah Evans, Kristine Lu and Alison Head, Project Information Literacy, Smart Talk Interview, no. 22, January 12, 2015.
• “Why blogs still matter to the young,” Alison J. Head, Internet Monitor 2014: Reflections on the digital world, Berkman Center for Internet and Society, Harvard University, December 2014.
• Sari Feldman: “Making public libraries more relevant than ever,” email interview by Sarah Evans and Alison J. Head, Project Information Literacy, Smart Talk Interview, no. 21, September 3, 2014.
• “Katie Davis: Who is the learner of tomorrow?,” email interview by Sarah Evans and Alison J. Head, Project Information Literacy, Smart Talk Interview, no. 20, June 10, 2014. 
• “Eric Gordon: “How games promote lifelong learning and civic engagement,” email interview by Sarah Evans and Alison J. Head, Project Information Literacy, Smart Talk Interview, no. 19, May 1, 2014.