Navigating the Assessment Current
Developing an Information Literacy Assessment Program at Your Library
Kimberley Wilcox, MLIS
Association of Christian Librarians Conference
June 12, 2007
- Overview of assessment concepts
- Assessment in action
- APU's assessment program
- Q & A
- Proving that your students are learning what you say you are teaching
- Measuring what students know/do that they did not know/do before instruction (Dugan, 377)
- Based on student learning outcomes, not inputs or outputs
- Shift in accreditation priorities
- Genuine desire for program improvement
- Advocacy for support of information literacy
![[assessment cycle]](cycle.gif)
The "assessment cycle"
- Direct vs. indirect
- Direct assessment
- Measurement of student performance
- Tests what students can do, rather than what they think
- Indirect assessment
- Based on observation
- Tests students' opinions and feelings about their learning
- Summative, diagnostic, formative
- Summative assessment
- Measures achievement, usually for qualifying purposes
- Diagnostic assessment
- Provides information about the current level of students' knowledge and competence (McGuinness, 22)
- Formative assessment
- Gives students feedback to help them improve their abilities
- Qualitative vs. quantitative
- Qualitative assessment
- Narrative-based, often subjective
- Can encourage self-reflection among students and teachers
- Example: student research journals
- Quantitative assessment
- Numbers-based, objective
- Often more convincing to administration
- Example: standardized testing
- Ideally, we should do both
- Qualitative vs. quantitative
- Program-wide assessment
- Large-scale testing
- Portfolio/bibliography review with rubrics
- Pre-tests/post-tests
- Web-based assessments
- Classroom assessment
- Student self-assessment of learning (one-minute papers)
- Subject-specific worksheets
- "Authentic assessment"
- "Engages students in worthwhile and meaningful intellectual tasks that require high order thinking skills." (Sharma, 129)
- Requires students to use their skills to solve real-world problems (ibid.)
- Uses rubrics to assess information literacy skills in students' work (essays, bibliographies, research journals)
- Qualitative
- Requires collaboration with academic departments
- Examples:
- California State University
- University of the Pacific
- Uses normed standardized testing instruments
- Quantitative; may have some qualitative elements
- Examples:
- ETS iSkills Assessment
- Project SAILS
- JMU Information Literacy Test
- Measures students' abilities before and after library instruction to determine effectiveness of instruction
- Can be quantitative or qualitative, direct or indirect, program-wide or classroom-based
- Examples:
- The Citadel
- Arizona State University West
- Often locally-developed (may be adapted by others but are generally not nationally-normed)
- May combine teaching and assessment in one instrument
- Examples:
- TILT
- Azusa Pacific University
- Assesses learning of students in an individual class
- Usually qualitative and informal
- Examples:
- One-minute papers
- Muddiest point cards
- Focused listing
- Memory matrixes
- Guided worksheets
- History
- Current activities and future plans
- Recommendations for others
- Consider institutional culture, library/administration relationship
- Partner with others outside the library
- Use multiple approaches
- Link everything to your SLOs
- Assessment is necessary
- It can take many forms, but none are perfect
- Use multiple approaches
- Start small and build up gradually
- Don't re-invent the wheel!
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