|
Examples of Assessment by Institution |
|
St. Olaf College has used the Research Practices Survey to assess the information literacy of first-year students. The survey examines attitudes, beliefs and knowledge regarding academic research. Two cohorts of St. Olaf students ('09, '10) have completed the survey at the beginning of their first year of college; the second of these cohorts completed the survey again at the end of their first year. By examining the differences in responses on the pre- and post-test, faculty and staff can see areas in which students need more instruction and evaluate the effectiveness of teaching practices. The results are shared broadly, but librarians and faculty teaching in the first-year writing program are especially interested. Proficiency in using research to support critical inquiry, including the ability to identify, evaluate, analyze, synthesize, and document appropriate sources, is an intended learning outcome of our first-year writing program.
From our efforts to date, we learned that even after a year of college experience, our first-year students struggle with distinguishing scholarly from non-scholarly sources, constructing search strategies and launching their research process with sufficient lead time. Each of these results has led to programmatic changes in the library. Instruction has included a greater emphasis on characterizing sources and search strategies and smaller, focused library research sessions are offered in lieu of an all-inclusive session at the beginning of the term. Research Practices Survey results are also incorporated in our faculty development program for instructors of first-year writing.
This instrument is an online 15-minute questionnaire designed in an inter-institutional project led by librarians, classroom faculty, assessment professionals and information technology staff at Carleton and St. Olaf Colleges. In 2008 administration of the survey was transferred to the Higher Education Data Sharing (HEDS) Consortium and about forty institutions nationwide are now making use of the survey. Participating institutions are provided with data for their own students and data for all schools administering the survey.
|
|
St. Olaf College |
