Focused Group Discussion – One On AI and Health Information Literacy
A one-and-a-half-hour Focus Group Discussion (FGD) session on AI and Health Information Literacy was held on 30 June at the Seminar Library of the Department of Information Science and Library Management, University of Dhaka. The session was attended by ten participants, including six faculty members from the University of Dhaka, one representative from a private university library, one from a public library, one school teacher, and one undergraduate student.
This FGD was part of an international project funded by the Institute of Information Literacy (IIL), Purdue University, USA. The two-year project (2024–2026), titled "AI and Health Information Literacy: A Study Exploring the Perceived Usefulness and Readiness among Women in South Asia", is being carried out in collaboration with the University of Dhaka (Bangladesh), Central University of Gujarat (India), The Maldives National University (Maldives), University of Delhi (India), and Lahore School of Economics (Pakistan). Each partner institution will conduct two FGDs to explore how women in the participating countries use AI tools for accessing health-related information. The discussion aimed to gather deeper insights into participants’ awareness, perceptions, and readiness to adopt AI-driven health information technologies, as well as to identify barriers to using such tools.
The session was moderated by a facilitator and recorded for documentation purposes. The project is led by Professor Dr. Md. Anwarul Islam from the University of Dhaka (Bangladesh), with co-investigators Dr. Bhakti Gala (India), Dr. Aminath Riyaz (Maldives), Dr. Raj Kumar Bhardwaj (India), and Ms. Tabassum Aslam (Pakistan).