Instruction, Outreach and Assessment

Joshua Finnell

Email: finnellj@denison.edu

Twitter: @joshuafinnell

Webinar Overview

• Overview of Denison University’s Instruction Program & Assessment

• An Intellectual History of Information Literacy

• New Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education & Assessment

• Steps Forward

Approaches

• One-shot instruction sessions• Multiple instruction sessions over a

semester• Library lab sessions• Library scavenger hunt• LibGuides• Blackboard integration• Tutorials

Assessment

• Questionnaire

• 1-minute presentations

• 1-minute papers

• Bibliography sampling

How Did We Get Here?

The Bibliographic Instruction Movement (1969)

1970s

• Library Orientation Exchange (LOEX)

• Instruction Section (IS) - Association of College & Research Libraries

• Library Instruction Round Table (LIRT) – American Library Association

1980s

1990s

2000s

• Determine the extent of information needed

• Access the needed information effectively and efficiently

• Evaluate information and its sources critically

• Incorporate selected information into one’s knowledge base

• Use information effectively to accomplish a specific purpose

• Understand the economic, legal, and social issues surrounding the use of information

• Authority is constructed and contextual• Information creation as a process• Information has value• Research as inquiry• Scholarship as conversation• Searching as strategic exploration

Biggest Challenge? Assessment

1. ACRL Task Force made a conscious decision to shift away from the hundred learning outcomes associated with the old standards

2. The Task Force hoped to make outcomes the purview of the librarians working in a local, campus context rather than provide a national standard.

3. Meyer and Land, originators of threshold concepts have provided little guidance on ways to transform threshold concepts into outcomes.

OU

TREACH

OU

TREACH

1. Get Inspired

2. Bite The Bullet

3. Draw The Map

4. Get Real

5. Roll It Up & Report It Out

Readings

• A Roadmap for Assessing Student Learning Using the New Framework for Information Literacy (Oakleaf)

• USC Libraries Information Literacy Outcomes for Undergraduates

• Using IL Threshold Concepts for Biology (Bryan and Karshmer)

• Scholarship is a Conversation (Carroll)