Evaluation and Assessment in Information Literacy: WASSAIL as a tool to support diverse methods

Abstract

In the higher education Information Literacy context, there is growing interest and requirements for evaluation of librarian teaching and assessment of student learning. This session will explore these issues and use WASSAIL as a sample tool to consider for these purposes. WASSAIL is open source software developed at the Augustana Campus Library of the University of Alberta to support the evaluation and assessment requirements of Augustana's Information Literacy program. WASSAIL was the 2010 ACRL Instruction Section Innovation Award winner.

Session participants are requested to bring laptops to interact with WASSAIL in the hands-on part of the workshop. Participants can bring questions they would like to enter into evaluation or assessment tools, or sample questions will be provided. A diversity of methods will be discussed: evaluation tools such as end of "one-shot" questionnaires and general surveys, as well as assessment methods such as in-class quizzes, pre-/post-tests, and more.