Reference Librarians' Page

Here are the plans / goals we set for increasing our assessment of student learning outcomes achieved by the library at the December retreat. Much of this is in Heather’s notes - but there is a little more detail here.

REMINDER - What we want to assess is Student Learning - not our performance

First - here is the list of assessment that we were already doing.

1. Collected, and sometimes graded, Exercises from library instruction sessions for courses - eg. Education, Art, Biology, Psychology, and FP

2. Librarian observations during the hands on portions of workshops we give - also observations from reference desk inquiries we get from students who attended those workshops - we can often tell how much they did or did not retain from the session or which parts they did retain.

3. Informal feedback from professors after library instruction sessions for their courses - can be in person at the time, in person later, or via email

4. Usage statistics from databases and other online sources and tools
5. Circulation statistics - including in-house use - shows how much using resources, and can also see if using specific resources demonstrated at sessions.
6. Interlibrary loan statistics and data including both Illiad and I-Share

7. Informal feedback from students - verbal or email

8. Gate count

9. Acquisitions Data - can tell us about how well we are meeting goals of providing resources

10. Instruction Data - Data on how many sessions, what subjects, etc.

11. FYILLAA Data - We have 3 sets of data - 2 years of pre-test and 1 year of post test (after the 1st pre test)

Here is what we said we would try to start doing Winter Term

1. Continue to & increase where possible collecting exercises from instruction sessions - try to do this more deliberately, and record or summarize the data. So, even if not graded for professor, we could collect & assess & write up a summary for each and share/store this data. One issue - we often want students to keep the hands on exercises as they become their handout for future reference OR have actual results they need for their individual course projects. Possible solutions - a)we could just not collect these, but try to make observations during the session and make notes quickly afterwards so that we don’t forget b) we could collect while they were doing the one minute assessment and then copy and hand back c) we could collect, assess and then quickly return the next day.

2. Continue and increase making observations during hands on portions of workshops - We would try to do this more consciously, to make notes quickly after the session, and record/share the info.

3. Continue to receive & augment collection of feedback from professors, and try to record/store this data so that it can be added into other data and/or shared. Institute a more formal/semi formal survey or inquiry to professors who have had instruction sessions at the end of the term - did they find the session helpful, did their students have good bibliographies or whatever would be appropriate for that class.
4. Start doing a Quick immediate student survey after sessions

5. Review and collate ILL Data to ascertain connections to instruction - eg could look at things like % of requests for things we own - is it going up or down - is it different for courses with instruction and those without. Can look at # of requests for courses with or without instruction. Could look at if using SFX with/without.

6. Augment collecting info form Reference desk inquiries - do we want to count different things or keep any kind of notes. Could keep a notebook at the reference desk (or page on blog) and make notes when encounter students when it becomes clear they have been at instruction sessions. Or we could add a column to stats for if Question from student who had been at an instruction session - idea that if asking at desk learned at least something from the session & now learning more.

7. Continue to collect database and online tool usage stats, including libguides - We could figure out a more systematic way to do this and what we want to report, how often, and maybe figure out a way to divide up the task or who to assign it to.

8. Get some feedback on Moodle use - Can we get info from Vicky or a survey of professors who are linking to resources via Moodle.

9. Continue to collect and collate Instruction Data - Do this on a term by term basis rather than annually. Do we want to add anything to what we are collecting?

10 Review student papers with bibliographies - target specific classes or ask all professors in hopes of getting some? Look at both those with sessions and without or just those with sessions?
11. Create our own student exit survey - It is not clear from my notes if we meant when they graduate or at the end of each year or at the end of the term when they’ve had an instruction session

12. Pre Test / Post Test - again neither my or Heather’s notes are clear if this is per session or per entry / graduation. Could do either or both.

I also have something in my memory, but not in my notes or Heather’s, about doing something where we got names of students who had attended instruction sessions and then used that to create groups of those who had attended and those who had not and then use that to compare to other data - GPA, other surveys, ILL data etc.

So - Decisions we need to make / Action we need to take :

1. A lot of these things are adding to recording observations and informal feedback, etc. and doing it on a class by class / term by term basis.  Do we want to set a “due date” and format for reporting these things?

2. For #1 on task list - Do we want to collect hands on exercises from more sessions? Do we just want to encourage those who are doing and/or willing to do this to write up a summary for each class they do this in at the end of each term?  For #1 & #2 Do we want to establish some specific questions to address in a summary that folks would record at the end of each term.
3.  For #3 Professor Feeback - do we want to

a) Have everyone agree to ask for some feedback from professors, in whatever mode they want at the end of the term for professors they did sessions with

b) Create a survey for professors that we would each send to those we’d done sessions with at the end of each term

c) Do either a) or b) above, but just with some of our sessions instead of all

4. For #5 - do we want to set up a project for dumping and analyzing ILL data - if so when, and who and when would goal to complete be.

5. For #6   - do we want to add categories to our stats sheet and/or keep a notebook - one notebook or individually - or do we just want each person to be more conscious of these things and to write up a summary of reflections/observations as part of their instruction report at the end of each term?

6.  For #7 - do we want to define specific points of usage data that we want to collate/record regularly and if so when/who/when report

7.  For #8 - Should we ask Vicky about Moodle info - or do a survey of faculty - just sent to those using moodle (list from Vicky)

8.  For #9 - Do we want to add to what we report/record about instruction on a term by term basis

9. For #10 - how do we want to try to get access to student papers with bibliographies

10.  For #11 - do we want to do an exit survey - if so how/when/who

11.  For #12 - do we want to do pre/post tests - for sessions, for years for matriculation/graduation? or both - if so how/when/who