Proceedings of the First National Joint Conference of Librarians of Color - 313

In both projects, faculty focus groups were held to discuss content and presentation. This addressed Kirkpatrick’s first level of assessment. The reflection assignments at the end of each learning module measured level two issues of improved knowledge, skills and attitudes. In this exercise faculty were asked to write and submit reflections on the module activities and readings. They were asked to relate their thoughts to how these exercises increased understanding and outlook. Faculty was quite blunt regarding what readings were most helpful and which were not. The Black Studies faculty did not care for the ACRL Information Literacy Standards published in 2001. However, the Chicano & Latino Studies faculty liked the revised 2005 format. Level three assessment was achieved by having professors actually revise an assignment after completing the corresponding modules which incorporated a specific learning outcome. Faculty was required to submit these assignments in writing and send the results to the librarians from a dialog box within the tutorial. The level four analysis attempts to measure the end product. In the Black Studies class faculty were not required to submit a before and after assignment. This would have provided data to measure effectiveness. Rather, as the librarian team received faculty “homework,” we jointly evaluated the quality of the assignment as a stand alone assessment. In retrospect, we realized that a more in-depth level four analysis was needed. Consequently, the Black Studies faculty participants were asked to complete a survey four years following the class to self-assess the higher quality of their final student assignments when information literacy skills were imbedded into the curriculum. The survey completed in spring 2006 revealed that in most cases faculty did see improved student learning outcomes. They mentioned improvements in the quality of scholarly resources used, the mechanics of conducting research and actually citing the sources used. However, concerns about critical thinking in the application of research materials and final synthesis were cited as still needing improvement. Learning from the Black Studies experience the class assignment requirements were changed in the Chicano & Latino Studies class. Faculty brought in current assignments that were critiqued in faculty/librarian focus groups and then revised to meet learning objectives. The revised assignments were reviewed again by the class that is other CHLS faculty and the discipline librarian. This before and after review format made level four assessment much easier and the evaluation more reliable. The assessment showed modest to great success in the assignment redrafts. Having experimented with the Kirkpatrick assessment format we are also interested in how this process might apply to student learning. Nash states that when librarians teach information literacy skills level one and two are easy for librarians to accomplish. For example, 1) What did the student think of the training/lecture? 2) What was the formative measurement of learning? Formative assessment provides immediate evidence of student learning usually after attending a library instruction session. Various methods are used by librarians to conduct this type of assessment including short surveys, having the student write down two or three things they learned in class after the one-shot or more recently the use of PRS (personal response system) clicker technology which actually allows testing and assessment after any segment of the class. However, Nash emphasizes that instructional faculty are best situated to evaluate the other two levels. This includes the evaluation of applied learning and measurement of the final product. These two stages of evaluation are best suited to the professor because they are teaching the class for an entire semester or quarter. This long term summative assessment allows them to fairly grade the research process and the final research assignment. Only the professors will see how the learned skills are actually applied and whether or not the final research project was enriched by the information literacy instruction. Shifting of Student Information Literacy Training to Instructional Faculty The collective experience of these two ethnic studies classes and the related outcomes have 313
Proceedings of the First National Joint Conference of Librarians of Color

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