One Library’s ApproachPresented by Bruce Kocour

Carson-Newman Collegebkocour@cn.edu

http://library.cn.edu/ACA/kocour.html

Information Literacy AssessmentWhy bother?

Assessment tips

ACRL Information Literacy Standards

Assessment of freshmen and seniors at C-N

Information Literacy AssessmentWhy Bother?

Because you have to!It really does allow you to identify areas that

need more attention.Led to a complete redesign of our library

instruction program after we assessed some of our seniors.

As our new gen ed was being developed we were able to present convincing evidence that information literacy instruction was needed throughout the curriculum.

Assessment – Pay attention to…Validity

How wellthe assessmentactually measures what it was intendedto measure…

Synonyms -accuracysoundnesstrustworthiness

ReliabilityHow well the

assessmentis able to produceconsistent scores…

Synonyms -dependabilitystability

Assessment = discovering what your students have learnedMake instructions and questions as clear as

possibleDon’t try to trick themWhen using multiple choice questions, don’t offer

A&B, B&D, A&D as answers – those kinds of answers assess critical thinking skills not content knowledge.

Make all possible answers plausibleAvoid giving cluesAvoid giving answers elsewhere in the testDon’t give extra credit for being able to answer a

question about your family or some other non course-related content!

ACRL Information Literacy Standardshttp://www.ala.org/ala/acrl/acrlstandards/standards.pdfAn information literate individual is able to:

Determine the extent of information needed Access the needed information effectively and efficiently* Evaluate information and its sources critically* Incorporate selected information into one’s knowledge

base Use information effectively to accomplish a specific

purpose Understand the economic, legal, and social issues

surrounding the use of information, and access and use information ethically and legally *

* We librarians concentrate on assessing these at C-N.

ACRL - continued

Examples from C-NFreshmen

Pre and post-test as first and last modules in WebCT “course”

Quizzes at end of each moduleSeniors

Test is in WebCT

Results plugged into “SLOAPs” and used to guide instruction the following year.

Learning Outcomes1. The student understands and can use Boolean

logic to construct search statements .2. The student can identify key concepts to use

in a keyword search.3. The student can conduct an effective subject

heading search. (Senior only assessment)4. The student can use the online catalog

effectively.5. The student can find information in a book

using internal organizers (TOC, index).

Learning Outcomes - Continued6. The student can identify the appropriate

finding aid(s) for the information sought.7. The student can identify the elements of a

bibliographic citation.8. The student can identify purpose and

audience of potential resources (popular vs. scholarly, types of web sites).

9. The student can apply criteria for evaluating both the information and its sources.

10.The student can differentiate between primary and secondary literature. (Senior only assessment)

Learning Outcomes - Continued11.The student understands the meaning of

plagiarism and how to avoid it.12.The student understands the concept of

intellectual property.

Learning Outcomes Evaluation Methods Assessment Results Resulting Improvements

1. The student can construct search statements using appropriate Boolean logic.

1a. Improved scores from pre to post-test for questions pertaining to Boolean searching on EH 101 post-tests

1b. 70% of questions pertaining to Boolean searching on Senior Seminar/Capstone quiz answered correctly

1a.

1b.42%

1a. Additional time will be spent on Boolean searching in fall 2007 classes. The following comments apply to English 101 in general: We are also redesigning the pre and post-tests to make them more parallel to (hopefully) more accurately assess slo’s. We met with the English faculty in August 2007 and asked them to weigh the information literacy tutorials and post-test at a high enough level to ensure students take it seriously.1b. The following comments apply to all senior assessment results: results were disappointing and indicate that material introduced during the freshman year is not often retained. Those seniors who had been in more library instruction sessions generally performed better on the senior quiz. The library is attempting to reach an agreement with all departments offering a major that would ensure their students receive library instruction in a required course early in that major. It was also suggested by some faculty teaching senior seminar courses that the quiz was too difficult. The librarians will redesign the quiz in the fall of 2007 to (hopefully) more accurately assess senior student learning outcomes.

Pretest

Post-test

% Change

65.1 68.1 3

Information Literacy Assessment

SACSNCA No Worries!