Information Literacy: Assessing Your Instruction

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Information Literacy Assessing Your Instruction

• Texas Library AssociationDistrict 10 Fall
  Workshop
• October 15, 2005
• Michelle Millet
• Information Literacy Coordinator
• Trinity University, San Antonio, TX

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Overview

• History of Assessment and Information Literacy
• Best Practices
• Assessment at Trinity
• Programmatic assessment
• Other opportunities

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Assessment of IL a brief history

• 1. Higher education assessment movement
• 2. Strategic planning and TQM adoption
• 3. Evolution of information literacy

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Activity 1

• What does assessment mean to you?

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Best practices documents

• ACRL Best Practices Initiative Characteristics
  of Programs of Information Literacy that
  Illustrate Best Practices, 2003
• Standards for Libraries in Higher Education

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9 Principles of Good Practice for Assessing
Student Learning

• From American Association of Higher Education
• Overarching principles to guide assessment
• 6. Assessment fosters wider improvement when
  representatives from across the educational
  community are involved.
• 8. Assessment is most likely to lead to
  improvement when it is part of a larger set of
  conditions that promote change.

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What to assess?

• Student learning outcomes
• Refers to the measurement of what a student
  actually learned in the course.
• Pre-tests and post-tests
• Annotated bibliographies
• Classroom assessment techniques (Angelo and
  Cross)
• Assignments!

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What to assess? continued

• Student perceptions
• Measures the perceptions that students have
  about the course content, the instructors
  knowledge and teaching ability, and what the
  students feel they learned from the course.
• Student evaluation forms
• Surveys
• Focus groups

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What to assess? continued

• Progress towards goals and objectives
• Refers to what some know as inputs and outputs.
• Statistics on number/duration of courses,
  instruction sessions
• Number of hits to a web site
• Student follow-up appointments, drop in visits,
  emails

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Small steps can take you far

• Consult your librarys mission/values/goals
  documents.
• Is IL articulated in library documents?
• Do you already keep basic statistics on students
  reached? Time spent preparing classes?
• This can be valuable evidence.
• What kind of in-class activities do you already
  do?
• Collecting student work can be assessment.

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Activity 2.

• Name one small step that you would like to take
  next.

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Research chart measuring student learning
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Student evaluation formsmeasuring student
perception
Question Category Strong Disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Strong Agree TOTAL Mean score
cat 1 Respect for students 11 8 24 106 512 661 4.66
cat 2 Facilitated learning 14 5 34 113 540 706 4.64
cat 3 Appropriate to Assignment/ class 13 5 26 75 560 679 4.71
cat 4 Affective/ attitudinal changes 12 11 65 167 402 657 4.42
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Assessment or Evaluation?

• What do we mean by assessment anyway?
• Assessment focuses on the end result
• Evaluation focuses on the overall process

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Student-centered Learning
Instruction/Pedagogy
Learning Outcomes
Assessment
Students
Instruction Program
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Assessment and Collaboration

• Teaching faculty want to know
• Assessment in the classroom
• Use it as outreach to the teaching faculty
• Share results and use as dialog for assignment
  design
• Build an integrated information literacy program
  within a distinct discipline
• Build tailored first-year experience programs

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Activity 3.

• Who are your allies? Name two prospective
  collaborators.

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Trinity University and IL

• Information Literacy is relatively new
• Challenges to change
• 2400 FTE, primarily liberal arts campus

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Trinitys Answer

• Build an IL program and assess along the way
• What is an IL program?
• Assessment was internally and externally focused
• The end result is a program, fully integrated
  into the curriculum

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Where do I begin?

• How do you know what you are doing/building is
  effective?
• What is most important to administrators?
• How can you help those who may be working against
  you?
• Example FYS and Lunches at Trinity

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First Step

• Where are you now?
• State of Information Literacy and Instruction
• What do you want to do next?
• Short term and long term goals. Know the
  difference.
• Go for the most impact!

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Activity 4.

• What is your goal? What do you want to achieve
  next?

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Low Effort/High Impact

• Creating programmatic assessment takes time and
  work
• Begin with low effort/high impact items
• Start tracking hours spent preparing for class
• Start tracking NEW classes coming in for
  instruction

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Best Practices as a Guideline for Assessment

• Great tool to use as a guideline
• Collaboration/Integration Goal of Document
• Check off what youve done
• Check what you can do now (short term)
• Which characteristics will be your guide for the
  future?

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Activity 5.

• Is your small step LE/HI?
• If not, do you have an alternative idea?

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Creating a Plan

• From your long term and short term goals
• Internal focus
• (teaching, hours, of classes)
• External focus
• (who are the active faculty, creating outcomes
  and standards, long-term studies)
• Focus on pieces It WILL come together!

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Activity 6.

• One short term goal
• One long term goal

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Outcomes for your Plan

• Example Assessing Program Effectiveness
  (External)
• Outcome Encourage broad faculty participation in
  instruction in order to ensure information
  literacy reaches across the curriculum.
• Assessment Collect data concerning overall
  number of classes and departments using
  instruction, looking for increases in numbers of
  classes or departmental participation.

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Outcomes Continued

• Assessing Program Effectiveness (Internal)
• Outcome Hold workshop for librarians about
  integrating outcomes assessment in classes in
  order to help them be more effective in their
  teaching.
• Assessment Have each librarian create three
  outcomes for every instruction sessionCollect
  data from their assessments.

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Activity 7.

• Write one outcome using either your long term or
  short term goal.
• What do you want to know? Why?
• Dont forget in order to

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Program Assessment Can

• Improve Teaching
• Improve Student Learning
• Provide Validation ?

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Five Questions

• What do you want the instruction program to be
  able to do?
• What factors does the program demonstrate or
  exhibit if they are meeting the outcomes?
• How will you gather your data or evidence?
• How will you determine if you have achieved your
  outcomes?
• How will the discussion or evaluation of the data
  occur? Who will be involved?

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Questions Translate Into

• Outcome
• What does an effective program do?
• Indicator
• What will be happening?
• Assessment
• How will the data be collected?
• Criteria
• How will you know?

Immersion 2004
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An Ongoing Culture of Assessment

• Assessment is an ongoing process aimed at
  understanding and improving student learning.

Tom Angelo, AAHE Bulletin, 1996 ACRL Immersion
2004
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Assessment Plans Individual or Group Work
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Questions?

• Thank You!