2011 Kathleen A. Zar Symposium

This talk was presented as part of the 2nd Biennial Kathleen A Zar Symposium at the University of Chicago. For more about the symposium visit: Librarians hope to affect student achievement by meeting students in the classroom. At University of Wyoming, the number of instruction sessions offered by librarians has increased from 127 sessions in 2001 to 357 sessions in 2009, and our institution is part of a national trend. But does all the time and effort expended on library instruction help students succeed academically? This study will attempt to establish a connection between library instruction and student achievement via a focus group with graduating seniors and a transcript analysis correlating students' library instruction experience to GPA. I hypothesize that seniors who have had library instruction in their sophomore, junior, or senior year (in addition to the expected instruction in their freshman year) will be more successful than students who did not have library instruction a

This talk was presented as part of the 2nd Biennial Kathleen A Zar Symposium at the University of Chicago. For more about the symposium visit: Utilizing worksheet and rubric templates to create assessment tools to measure student learning outcomes in library instruction is both effective and efficient. Librarians need not reinvent the wheel in designing assessment instruments when common student learning outcomes are the goal. A template for a worksheet or a rubric can be created and then modified for the specific needs of the librarian. At the University of North Carolina Wilmington, a template for a "research strategy worksheet" was developed to use as an assessment instrument for multiple library instruction sessions. This worksheet has been used for several semesters to assess students' abilities to identify appropriate databases and keywords and to locate books and articles after library instruction has been delivered. Worksheets provide a means for direct assessment and require s

These talk was presented as part of the 2nd Biennial Kathleen A Zar Symposium at the University of Chicago. For more about the symposium visit: Information Management Competencies: Partnering with Faculty to Assess Information Literacy Skills An inside perspective: Leveraging peer assessment to improve instructional approaches and class design Assessment on the Fly: Using Clickers to Assess Learner Comprehension in Real-Time ➡ Subscribe: About #UChicago: Since its founding in 1890, the University of Chicago has been a destination for rigorous inquiry and field-defining research. This transformative academic experience empowers students and scholars to challenge conventional thinking in pursuit of original ideas. #UChicago on the Web: Home: News: Facebook: Twitter: Instagram: University of Chicago on YouTube: /uchicago *** ACCESSIBILITY: If you experience any technical difficulties with this video or would like to make an accessibility-related request, please email digicomm@uchicago.edu

This talk was presented as part of the 2nd Biennial Kathleen A Zar Symposium at the University of Chicago. For more about the symposium visit: The purpose of this presentation is to explore the use of authentic assessment to evaluate learning within the 50 - 90 minute library instruction one-shot classroom. Authentic assessment informs both the learner and the instructor whether learning actually takes place using concrete and observable demonstrations. Authentic assessment shapes all aspects of the teaching and learning experience by requiring instructors to define learning outcomes and to develop clear expectations for the learners' performance and proficiency in advance of instruction. Authentic assessment provides instructors with a reliable feedback loop for assessing the quality of the instruction. Additionally, authentic instruction provides the learner the opportunity to self-assess performance, synthesize, apply new knowledge, and reflect on what they have learned. In the time

This talk was presented as part of the 2nd Biennial Kathleen A Zar Symposium at the University of Chicago. For more about the symposium visit: The purpose of this presentation is to explore the use of authentic assessment to evaluate learning within the 50 - 90 minute library instruction one-shot classroom. Authentic assessment informs both the learner and the instructor whether learning actually takes place using concrete and observable demonstrations. Authentic assessment shapes all aspects of the teaching and learning experience by requiring instructors to define learning outcomes and to develop clear expectations for the learners' performance and proficiency in advance of instruction. Authentic assessment provides instructors with a reliable feedback loop for assessing the quality of the instruction. Additionally, authentic instruction provides the learner the opportunity to self-assess performance, synthesize, apply new knowledge, and reflect on what they have learned. In the time

This talk was presented as part of the 2nd Biennial Kathleen A Zar Symposium at the University of Chicago. For more about the symposium visit: When it comes to assessment, librarians largely fall back on traditional value-added or quantitative assessment measures. However, these assessments frequently fail to demonstrate a marked impact on student learning based on specific course, programmatic, or institutional outcomes. Reflective writing prompts offer a perfect answer to this conundrum. When embedded in student coursework, reflection offers a unique opportunity for students to express, in their own words, their learning and search processes. Through reflective writing students will better internalize their own work flow and think more critically about their work. However, real learning cannot be assessed without a representative product. Journaling provides such a product and a golden opportunity for librarians to explore real student learning through coding journal responses. Addit

This talk was presented as part of the 2nd Biennial Kathleen A Zar Symposium at the University of Chicago. For more about the symposium visit: As accreditation bodies have shifted their focus of evaluating the success of institutions of higher learning from input (e.g. volume and pedigree of faculty publications) to outcomes (e.g. measuring levels of student learning), so have academic libraries evolved from institutions tethered to the comfortable familiarity of their physical holdings to steadfast facilitators of an often overwhelming amount of information bombarding users from myriad external sources, with availability often trumping authority for the novice researcher. Central to the success of the academic library's standing in this ever-expanding information landscape vis-à-vis its pedagogical mission is the effectiveness of the design and delivery of information literacy skills through library instruction. By evaluating the pre- and post-outcomes assessment data of more than 200

This talk was presented as part of the 2nd Biennial Kathllen A Zar Symposium at the University of Chicago. For more about the symposium visit: In 2009, the University of Chicago Library embarked on a pilot program to integrate library instruction into the Department of History's thesis seminar. As part of the pilot, the Library developed a brief assessment consisting of a pre- and post test of student library research skills. Over the next several months, we tested different versions of the assessment to develop a quick and easy form that could be used in most of our library instruction programs (especially for BA and MA seminars). By encouraging our librarians to use a common assessment tool, we hope to gain a broader picture of library research skills at the University. ➡ Subscribe: About #UChicago: Since its founding in 1890, the University of Chicago has been a destination for rigorous inquiry and field-defining research. This transformative academic experience empowers students an