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Aiming for Assessment: Notes from the Start of an Information Literacy Course Assessment
Abstract
Full text available at https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/comminfolit/vol4/iss1/6/
To provide systematic assessment of a 3-credit, full-semester information literacy course at the University of Rhode Island, the library instruction faculty adapted the Bay Area Community College Information Competency Proficiency Exam to determine how well the students learned the material taught in the course and how well that material reflected the ACRL Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education.
... Assessment of information literacy efforts has contributed to the improvement and evolution of the teaching component of librarianship. To show value and effectiveness of library instruction sessions, it has become necessary to gather data on existing efforts and to develop insights and strategies for the growth and future planning of these types of programs (Larsen, 2010). Assessment has become useful in measuring learning outcomes established in information literacy instruction classes, whether these outcomes are established by the instructing librarian or visiting faculty member. ...
Student Feedback has become increasingly important as libraries tailor their services to the customer. A team from Texas A&M University Libraries analyzed student feedback forms to determine impressions from library information literacy classes. This paper analyzes student feedback forms through both traditional assessment and a coded-analysis using ATLAS.ti. These analyses determined student participation by number of attendees, student classification, and departmental majors. Overall themes emerged from students’ comments that provided insight into the information literacy sessions. The study found that reaching undergraduate students in their first–year and seeing graduate students more than once, makes a greater impact on their perception of the library.
... Variants of pre-tests and post-tests Studies of students' term papers, portfolios and bibliographies Interviews with (and observations of) students Different variants of pre-tests and post-tests represent a valuable method in order to improve teaching, and reflect the students' IL skills at the time the tests were taken (Portmann and Roush 2004;Gilstrap and Dupree 2008;Ivanitskaya et al. 2008;Hufford 2010;Larsen 2010;Fain 2011), but do not say much about the students' information-searching behaviour in general. The use of pre-tests makes the students aware of what they do not know in advance and, as a consequence, they are better learners during the library's IL sessions. ...
The aim of this study was to investigate whether or not the library courses in information literacy (IL) taught at Østfold University College had an impact on the students’ search behaviour. To find out, 19 students were interviewed and observed about this topic. The results showed that there were only slight differences in search behaviour between those who had attended the IL sessions and those who had not. Many students used Google as their starting point for searching for information. In this paper, we discuss how these findings can be implemented when developing future library courses on information searching.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to analyze the literature on information literacy and library instruction from 2001‐2010 published in the annual, comprehensive topical bibliography published in Reference Services Review .
Design/methodology/approach
The authors examined 3,527 articles contained in the annual bibliography from 2001‐2010 and identified 2,052 which appeared in peer‐reviewed journals. Using the 2,052 articles identified as peer reviewed, the authors then determined the location of the primary author, the journal that published the article, whether the journal was from the discipline of library science, what type of research the article contained, and the key themes present.
Findings
The number of articles in peer‐reviewed journals has grown substantially over the ten‐year period. Most articles (70 percent) were published by authors residing in the USA, but articles from Asia and Africa are now being seen on a more consistent basis. Reference Services Review has published the most articles on this topic during the period, but information literacy has also branched out into other non‐library‐specific disciplines. Empirical or theoretical research articles make up less than 50 percent of the total articles published, while case‐study type descriptions of programmatic or teaching initiatives continue to be the most published article type. Key themes continue to be collaboration, assessment, and the application of technology to instruction efforts.
Research limitations/implications
The findings are limited to peer‐reviewed articles published in English‐language journals.
Originality/value
While other articles have examined aspects of the body of information literacy literature, this study encompasses a more comprehensive and thorough data set.
Determining the best methods of assessment for a library instruction program in a large research university can be a challenging task. Albert R. Mann Library at Cornell University Library has pilot-tested three methods of formative and summative assessment for its library instruction program-attitudinal, outcomes-based, and gap-measure-and determined not only key areas of improvement for the program, but also the benefits and drawbacks of each method of assessment. Attitudinal assessment has guided program improvement in areas of marketing and user satisfaction but does not provide the measurement of learning that outcomes-based assessment covers. The latter can be difficult to achieve in single-session, short-term instruction, while gap-measure assessment can provide a more nuanced view of both patron and instructor attitudes toward learning outcomes, if not actual data on achievement of the objectives themselves. The authors have determined that a combination of these three different types of assessment can address the shortcomings of a single method alone and provide a better measure of the program as a whole.
Using a pre-test and post-test, all students enrolled in LIS 1600, Information Resources were evaluated on their library research skills. The purpose was to determine the improvement in test score on completion of the course. A newly revised university studies course was taught the first time in fall of 1996 and spring of 1997. Library Services faculty aimed to assess the effort to impart information literacy skills to freshmen students. Results of the study are reported.
Managing a library instruction program at a small liberal-arts college has many challenges. Programs at such institutions often have limited financial resources and are maintained under difficult staffing conditions. This study examines the effectiveness of an instruction program offered at a four-year liberal-arts college with fewer than 3,000 students. The research was designed to assess the effectiveness of the current program and measure it against a pilot group of students exposed to enhanced information literacy opportunities based on the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education. Working with five faculty members, information literacy goals were clearly articulated and implemented into nine sections of first-year writing and speaking courses. Bibliographic analysis, an information literacy questionnaire, and an in-class writing exercise were used to determine whether students in the pilot groups performed better than students receiving the program’s customary library training.
Assessing students' information literacy skills can be difficult depending on the involvement of the librarian in a course. To overcome this, librarians created an assignment called the Paper Trail, where students wrote a short essay about their research process and reflected on what they would do differently. Through reviewing and grading these papers, librarians determined whether students understood the difference between the library catalog and article databases, evaluated the students' search terms to see if they used effective topic keywords and Boolean operators, and learned more on how the students reflected on their research process.
This article, which examines variables affecting scores on a test of library skills, finds that the frequency with which students receive assignments requiring library research is the best predictor of a score. The unevenness is students' research skills has implications for bibliographic instruction.
This article investigates the potential value of bibliometric analysis of student research paper bibliographies to assess student behavior in terms of skills and resources addressed in instruction sessions. References from 109 freshman English papers were analyzed to determine the type of work cited, the origin of the citation, and the characteristics of cited journal titles. It is suggested that student paper bibliographies provide a flexible, non-invasive, time-efficient assessment forum for the documentation of student library use.