Pre & Post Assessments in Library Instruction Classes

Colleagues:

I found this great June 2009 report from Texas college librarians who did a study of pre- and post-assessments in library instruction at their institution. They analyzed results from eleven sections of library instruction courses held in fall 2008. These courses were Introduction to Library Research, their one hour credit course, which is taken by freshmen through seniors and some graduate students as well.

Their introductory class covers:

Campus Libraries & Intro to the Research Process
Writing a Thesis Statement
Search Strategies
Controlled Vocabulary
Proper Citing
Ethical Use of Information
Introduction to the Information Cycle (databases)
Newspaper Articles
Popular Magazines and Scholarly Journals
Documents and Books
Encyclopedias
Critical Evaluation of Sources.

They had 310 students enrolled in the courses, but only 176 of them took both the pre- and post-assessments. They used the exact same questions in both assessments with each question having only one correct answer. The average score on the pre-assessment was 43% and on the posts-assessment was 56%. They attributed these low scores to high turnover in librarians and their relative inexperience as instructors.

They recommended a book: Tools for Teaching by Barbara Davis.

Their final evaluation of their study discussed revising the course content and designing a more accurate post assessment, which might include a final exam, portfolio assignment, or standard test.

To read the entire survey, please see this link:

http://www.acrl.ala.org/acrlinsider/2009/06/09/crl-preprint-what-are-they-learning-pre-and-post-assessment-surveys-for-libr-1100/

Jeanne S
JSerra HS