International Computer and Information Literacy Study

ICILS was designed to respond to a question of critical interest today: how well are students prepared for study, work, and life in a digital world? The study measures international differences in students’ computer and information literacy (CIL) – an individual’s ability to use computers to investigate, create and communicate, in order to participate effectively at home, at school, in the workplace and in the community.

ICILS assesses CIL and computer use in students in Grade 8 (or its national equivalent), and participating countries have the option to also assess computational thinking. The study also collects rich contextual information at the student, school and system level in which CIL is developed, providing education systems and policymakers with valuable information about the efficacy of CIL education programs. Participating countries also have an option for their students to complete an assessment of computational thinking (CT) and approaches to writing software programs and applications.

The Australian Council for Educational Research designed and implemented the previous two cycles of the study (Main Survey data collection in 2013 and 2018) for the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA). Detailed planning for the next cycle of the study is underway. The Main Survey data collection for this cycle will take place in 2023. For detailed information about this cycle, please go to the IEA ICILS 2023 website.
 

Reports from the ICILS 2018 cycle can be found below

The ICILS 2018 International Report was released by the IEA on 5 November 2019

Education systems that took part in the 2018 cycle were Chile, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Kazakhstan, Korea, Luxembourg, Portugal, Russian Federation (Moscow), Uruguay and the United States. Australia did not participate. ICILS 2018 was directly linked with the previous cycle in 2013, allowing participants to assess their students' performance over time.