Information Literacy Assessment
Current
1. Periodically, faculty members are emailed follow-up surveys at the end of the semester:
· Generally, how did your students do on their research assignments this semester?
· What overall concepts did they still seem to struggle with, even by the end of the semester?
· Do you have any suggestions for additional emphasis during library instruction or perhaps a separate dedicated workshop on a particular concepts?
Responses are reviewed by library staff members and appropriate action taken.
2. As a quantifiable measure, the library tracks the number of instruction sessions and workshops provided and the number of students in attendance on a monthly basis.
3. Informally, staff members keep track of individual student questions and challenges as they work in the library. For example, if students within a class are struggling with topic selection, this information is communicated to the appropriate faculty member along with suggestions for ways we can work together to clear confusion. We record our reference questions using Gimlet.
4. On occasion, instructional librarians may ask students for the one new thing they learned but did not know before" at the end of an information literacy session. During subsequent classes (in the case of multiple sessions), these muddy points can be made clear. If instruction is one-shot, additional online or print resources can be recommended to faculty members to pass on to their students.
Other
We are always experimenting with different assessment tools. In the past, we have used pre- and post- surveys in LIBR 1101 classes to gauge skill levels before and after instruction. We have also distributed faculty assessment forms to gather feedback on how we're doing and other ideas on how instruction might be enhanced.