1. Belmont's Information Literacy
Assessment LibGuide
Belmont’s Third Year
Writing LibGuide
Dominican’s ENG 102 LibGuide , Data
Reliability Prezi Video & Quiz
#ACRLcloseloop
[Rubric assessment of information literacy skills has]
“changed the way I teach…the session
has more structure, and the students
seem much more engaged.”
[Rubric assessment of information literacy student learning]
“will strengthen my teaching...because I now
understand what the students really are not getting.
This rubric creation and rating experience has
facilitated valuable reflection on my teaching
practice and I hope to weave what I now
understand into my teaching the next time around.”
“Participants are gathering regularly
to discuss/plan how to incorporate
the use of a rubric into assessment of at least
one specific course…on a larger scale.”
“A session on rubric-based assessment will
be added to the library-sponsored faculty
development workshops focused
on the [University] Seminar.”
Claire Holmes, MLS
Towson University
Megan Oakleaf, MLS, PhD
Syracuse University
Ning Zou, MIS, MLS
Dominican University
Jenny Mills, MSIS, MA
Belmont University
Enact decisions
to increase learning Identify
learning outcomes
Create
and enact
learning activities
Gather data
to check for
learning
Interpret
data
Information Literacy
Instruction Assessment
Cycle (ILIAC)
Build Partnerships
• Start small. Begin with existing relationships to build
and strengthen assessment efforts.
• Think strategically. Once existing relationships are mobilized in
support of rubric development and use, reach out beyond cur-
rent partnerships to build broad support for rubric-based infor-
mation literacy assessment both within and outside the library.
• Engage in discussion of results and recommendations
with colleagues within and outside the library.
• Evaluate learning outcomes relevant to many campus partners.
• Cultivate campus partners who can help disseminate
results and promote information literacy assessment
efforts across campus.
Institutional Examples
• Belmont University has a General Education Information
Literacy Team consisting of librarians, the Director of General
Education, and faculty advisors from First Year Writing, First Year
Seminar, and Third Year Writing. An assessment report is shared
with the Team, and they meet to discuss changes.
• University of Washington Bothell librarians assessed a learning
outcome relevant to many campus partners, using information
legally and ethically, in order to build partnerships outside
the library.
• Librarians at each institution worked with faculty members
and other campus partners to rate student work.
Sustain the Assessment Program
• Engage with colleagues across campus to use assessment data
for planning and decision making (close the loop) in order to
evolve towards a culture of assessment.
• Maintain a team approach to sustain ongoing cycles of
assessment for a range of information literacy instruction
scenarios while accommodating shifting assessment priorities.
• Allow plenty of time for planning and coordination.
• Promote ongoing dialogue to sustain buy-in from
campus partners.
• Share results to build credibility in the assessment program.
• Create assignments and assessments that can be used by
multiple instructors from semester to semester. Planning for
instruction and assessment will be much more efficient.
Institutional Examples
• Assessment results prompted Belmont University Nursing faculty
to review points where information literacy skills were integrated
in their curriculum.
• Towson University instruction librarians conduct regular internal
professional development activities to share previous cycle’s
assessment results and to continue to build capacity in both
assessment techniques and instruction strategies
• Towson University librarians participate regularly in University
level assessment reporting and initiatives
• At Belmont, Dominican and Towson, librarians meet regularly in
order to review assessment results, rubrics, and assignments.
• Belmont has created LibGuides for several General Education
classes that include the learning objects for students and activi-
ties that will be assessed. These guides can easily be used by
multiple library instructors and faculty to deliver instruction
and gather artifacts of student learning.
Improve Teaching & Learning
• Align instruction to student learning outcomes via rubrics.
• Identify troublesome skills and concepts for students in order
to refocus instruction efforts in those areas.
• Improve and clarify potentially confusing prompts
or assignments.
• Engage students in learning activities that generate
formative assessment artifacts.
Institutional Examples
• For a required first year seminar course, Towson University
instruction librarians customize a shared student information
literacy formative assessment assignment, all versions of which
are mapped to a common rubric.
• Dominican University instruction librarians enhance students’
ability to evaluate methods collection and reliability of a source
via a graded homework including an online tutorial & quizzes.
• Using rubric assessment data, librarians at Dominican identified
an area of weakness, evaluating a source’s methodology and
the reliability of data, and created a new graded homework
assignment using a Prezi and online quiz.
Manage Results
• Conduct informal, ongoing reviews of results with a few key
partners to make significant improvements to student learning.
• Communicate results and improvements, and continuously
document changes to instruction, assignments, and the
assessment process.
• Write an assessment report. Include information such
as rubric data, feedback from students and faculty and
reflections from library instructors.
• Share assessment reports with library and
campus-wide stakeholders.
• Keep assessment results visible and accessible to stakeholders.
• Document changes to instruction, assignments, and rubrics.
Institutional Example
Belmont University’s library has an Information Literacy Assessment
LibGuide where reports are posted and shared with faculty
and administrators.
References
Megan Oakleaf, “The Information Literacy Instruction Assessment Cycle: A Guide for Increasing Student Learning and
Improving Librarian Instructional Skills,” Journal of Documentation 65, no. 4 (July 24, 2009): 539–560.
Under Review
Belanger, J., Zou, N., Mills, J., Holmes, C., Oakleaf, M. 2015. “Project RAILS: Lessons learned about collaborative rubric
assessment and the impact on library instruction and assessment practices.”