Information Literacy Assessment Research Articles

Toward large scale assessment of information and communication technology literacy

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to provide guidance to those contemplating or preparing to administer a large scale information literacy assessment such as the ETS ICT assessment instrument. The case studies and literature review provide real life examples of how to consider implementing the ETS ICT instrument with special attention to issues such as collaboration, timing, marketing, budgeting, and developing a strategy that includes a discussion of how testing results will inform campus information literacy curriculum development and programming.Design/methodology/approachThe planning and implementation by two California State University campuses that administrated beta test versions of the ETS ICT assessment instrument are documented. Background about ICT and guidance for future administrations of large scale assessments on university and college campuses are discussed.FindingsThe paper provides background information, techniques and guidance for academic librarians contemplating future administrations and usages of large scale assessments of student information and communication technology skills, like the ETS ICT assessment. Examples of necessary planning stages and collaboration are provided as well as a discussion of the value of large scale assessments for students, campuses and information literacy programs.Practical implicationsThis paper offers guidance for academic librarians and libraries interested in assessing their information literacy programs and/or working within their university to conduct a large scale assessment of student ICT literacy skills using the ETS ICT assessment instrument.Originality/valueThe strategies and ideas presented in this paper will help inform other academic libraries and librarians faced with administrating and implementing a large scale assessment instrument such as the ETS ICT instrument.

Developing an Integrated Strategy for Information Literacy Assessment in General Education

ABSTRACT We examine an institutional assessment model for general education that effectively incorporates instructor-driven strategies. We argue that course-specific tools for assessing information literacy are integral to the process and must be used to enhance institutional efforts. This integrated strategy is applicable to a range of other courses and programs.

Developing an Integrated Strategy for Information Literacy Assessment in General Education

We examine an institutional assessment model for general education that effectively incorporates instructor-driven strategies. We argue that course-specific tools for assessing information literacy are integral to the process and must be used to enhance institutional efforts. This integrated strategy is applicable to a range of other courses and programs.

From Chaos to Clarity: Using the Research Portfolio to Teach and Assess Information Literacy Skills

This case study reports on the use of Web-based research portfolios in an information literacy course. It offers a model for teaching research skills in a structured and incremental way that can promote student centered learning and facilitate authentic assessment.

Information Literacy and Integrative Learning

ABSTRACT Excellent opportunities for promoting information literacy are available when librarians become collaborators in integrative learning initiatives, such as Writing Across the Curriculum, the Freshman Year Experience, and Learning Communities. Examples of successful collaborations are given. It is noted that the most significant challenge that remains involves assessment of information literacy in these programs.

Assessing Proficiencies in Higher Education

Abstract Colleges and universities seeking to assess proficiencies in information and communications technology may wish to learn more about new assessment tools developed by the Educational Testing Service (ETS), in collaboration with higher education partners. This article describes the administration of the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Literacy Assessment at the Bronx Community College (BCC) of the City University of New York (CUNY) in spring 2005, and interprets the data in the context of profiles of the test populations. Data collected in the 2005 Large Scale ICT Literacy Assessment at 31 campuses is viewed as contributing in meaningful ways to the emerging portrait of BCC students' proficiencies. Viewed in conjunction with data from surveys, portfolios, course requirements, and reports from faculty and staff based on day-to-day interactions with students, BCC students show evidence of impressive momentum in developing ICT skills. The snapshot of proficiencies of students has developed a picture with an increasingly sharp focus, detailing distinctive characteristics of students at an urban community college, and the skills and knowledge they bring as they enter BCC. A multifaceted approach to assessing proficiencies, fluency, and competencies in use of information technologies is recommended based on the BCC experience. The resolution of the image that emerged using the ICT Literacy Assessment was enhanced by the comparative data it provided, and the picture is becoming increasingly recognizable as matching the profile of the students with whom we interact with every day at BCC.

WEIGHTING PROCEDURES AND THE CLUSTER FORMING ALGORITHM FOR DELETE‐K JACKKNIFE VARIANCE ESTIMATION FOR INSTITUTIONAL SURVEYS

ABSTRACTWeighting and variance estimation are two statistical issues involved in survey data analysis for large‐scale assessment programs such as the Higher Education Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Literacy Assessment. Because survey data are always acquired by probability sampling, to draw unbiased or almost unbiased inferences for the populations, weights are required in making use of estimators such as a Horvitz‐Thompson type. Variance estimation provides the basis for reporting errors. The weighting procedure generates weights based on statistical principles that are consistent with the sampling design. The estimation of the variance from survey data uses the delete‐k jackknife resampling replicate (JRR) approach, which can be adapted for variant institutional sampling designs and for dissimilarity in institute conditions. To form clusters of k cases, a merge‐dilute algorithm is proposed. The algorithm merges the cases of different groups into a queue and then allocates the cases of the queue to form homogeneous clusters of required sizes. The new algorithm is applied to the ICT sample from an institute taking the 2004 fall trial assessment.

But I Am Computer Literate: I Passed The Test

Generic terms such as “computer literacy,” “computer competency” and “technology literacy” have been used for decades as measures of one’s aptitude with computer and information technology. Many disregarded the ambiguity of these terms while erratic exposure to ever-changing computer technology rendered itself as computer literacy. With an increasing focus on organizations now administering technology literacy tests, educators need to be more cognizant of the computer and information literacy assessments and the implications of these assessments for the core information systems course in business schools.

Qualitative Assessment of Student Attitudes Toward Information Literacy

Many distance degree students at Washington State University enroll in General Education 300, a one-credit information literacy course taught online by librarians that exposes students to activities and materials that support the ACRL information literacy standards. In a final assignment, students write about the origins, applicability, and future use of information literacy and their newly minted skills in this area. We used ATLAS/ti, http://www.atlasti.de/, to analyze the text of these assignments and explore student attitudes toward information literacy. The majority of students articulated a broad view of information literacy not tied to a specific course project or to the library as a place.

“Getting Psyched” About Information Literacy: A Successful Faculty-Librarian Collaboration for Educational Psychology and Counseling

SUMMARY Librarians and Educational Psychology and Counseling faculty in the Michael D. Eisner College of Education at California State University Northridge are collaborating to design instructional sessions with assessment components to support newly adopted department information competence goals and curricula. This current collaboration between librarians, faculty, and departmental administrators offers a model for incorporating information literacy instruction into pre-service programs for future educators, counselors, and administrators. Through funding from a California State University Information Competence grant, faculty have identified three information literacy competency skill sets (Basic, Research, and Professional/Field competencies) that now comprise a part of the department's new learning outcomes for graduate students in Educational Psychology and Counseling, making information competence a required learning outcome for the degree program. A description of the dynamic faculty-librarian collaborative process that integrated information literacy instruction and assessment into Educational Psychology 602 (Research Principles) is provided, along with information about the grant and interactions that fostered the development and implementation of this successful graduate student information literacy program.

Teaching and Assessing Information Literacy in a Geography Program

In the technological world of the Twenty-first Century, students must be information literate. They must have the skills to access, evaluate, and utilize information needed in their undergraduate experience and in their future endeavors. It is important for Geography majors to acquire these skills as part of their undergraduate education. At one institution of higher learning, information literacy learning is embedded in the Geography curriculum. An online instrument to assess information literacy skills is used to evaluate seniors. In this article, goals for information literacy, the creation of the information literacy assessment instrument and the results of assessment testing are discussed.

Collaboration and Information Literacy

The National University Library Information Literacy Plan has been in place since 1999. Following a slow start, information literacy has begun to be accepted throughout the University. Faculty collaboration, dogged determination of librarians, and impressive assessment results have helped pave the way for this program. In this paper, a program overview will be briefly discussed followed by the National University LIC Librarians (virtual librarians at the regional learning centers) discussing faculty collaboration efforts, a University core curriculum class on information literacy, and information literacy assessment.

Innovation on a Shoestring

This article describes VOILA! (Virtual ORSEM Information Literacy Assessment), a Web-based virtual library orientation package targeted at students enrolled in the Hunter College first-year orientation program. The tutorial's self-paced library instruction, two bibliographic instruction modules, virtual tour and quiz are described and evaluated. The entire program can be viewed at http://www.library.hunter.cuny.edu/orsem/voila.htm

Assessment of Information Literacy and Computer Literacy among Post Graduate Students: a Case Study of Kuvempu University Library Users

A study was conducted in Kuvempu University to know the entry-level computer literacy and information literacy of the post-graduate students. Questionnaire was used as a data collection tool. The study found that the majority of the respondents lack awareness regarding directories, encyclopedias, subject journals, yearbooks, etc. As many as 66% of the students do not possess the ability to identify the key concepts in the given information environment. More than 44% of the respondents are not able to use the computers and many of them do not possess the knowledge of software, hardware, storage devices, etc. Nearly two-thirds of the total respondents are not able to use the Internet. The majority (75.03%) of the students opine that the computer literacy and information literacy programmes are very important for them. The authors suggest the University to take steps to impart computer literacy and information literacy programmes to the students studying in the Constituent Colleges for the bachelor’s degrees. And, such training should be continued at the post-graduate level also to attain the advanced level skills and expertise. Stresses the role of Librarians working in Colleges and Universities to impart such education to students.

Paper Trail: One method of information literacy assessment

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.

Assessment City

ABSTRACT This literature review traces the history of information literacy assessment in academic libraries. Three movements within acade-mia and academic libraries are identified as contributors to the current state of assessment: the higher education assessment movement, the rise of strategic planning practices in higher education, and the development of information literacy. Examples of common types of assessment are provided along with a concluding discussion of how the history of information literacy assessment can provide a conceptual framework of the future of this increasingly vital practice.

Reflections on collaboration: learning outcomes and information literacy assessment in the business curriculum

Develops a model whereby information literacy competencies are formally adopted as learning outcomes for an undergraduate business curriculum. The information competencies are some of the mission driven competencies developed by a College of Business Administration at a regional university in keeping with the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business standards. In one class, develops an assessment instrument to measure student learning of information literacy competencies tied to the course objectives. The performance measures and learning outcomes in the Association of College and Research Libraries’ Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education were used to plan an information literacy curriculum within an upper division discipline program. Provides an example of how the learning outcomes can offer guidance to course instructors when designing activities and assignments that seek to measure information competence in business courses.

Assessing information literacy skills in the California state university: a progress report

What do students know about finding, evaluating, and using information? What can we learn about how to evaluate complex constructs presented as information literacy standards or competencies? This article is a progress report on an ongoing, innovative assessment project that aims to discover answers to those questions and many more.

Assessing Information Literacy among Undergraduates: A Discussion of the Literature and the University of California-Berkeley Assessment Experience

Although national standards for information literacy have been developed and approved by the Association of College and Research Libraries, little is known about the extent to which undergraduates meet these or earlier sets of standards. Since 1994, the Teaching Library at the University of California-Berkeley has conducted an ongoing Survey of Information Literacy Competencies in selected academic departments to measure the “lower-order” information literacy skills of graduating seniors. The most fundamental conclusion that can be drawn from this survey is that students think they know more about accessing information and conducting library research than they are able to demonstrate when put to the test. The University of California-Berkeley library experience is consistent with earlier study findings that students continue to be confused by the elementary conventions for organizing and accessing information.

Bibliographic Instruction:

In April, 1994 Mercy College completed an extended self-study in preparation for a team visit from The Commission on Higher Education, Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools. This article examines the impact of institutional evaluation on the library's bibliographic instruction program, and its evolution into an information literacy program responsive to changes in student demographics, curriculum content, assessment methods, and communication technologies. Three initiatives are described: (1) an effort to increase course-integrated information literacy instruction in the general education requirement; (2) development of an information literacy assessment plan; and (3) recruitment and training of information literacy peer tutors to assist public services librarians. Although still in a formative stage, eight future directions are recommended for successful implementation.