Creating an Assessment Portfolio for Your Instruction Program Jennifer Nutefall Instruction Coordinator George Washington University Washington, DC

Presentation Outline Instruction at GW Assessing Instruction Assessment Templates Assessment Portfolio Future Plans

Instruction at GW Part of Reference and Instruction Department Education and Instruction Group (EIG) Currently 4 Librarians – in process of hiring 2 additional

Assessing Instruction Brief Background In 2002, conducted workshop Outlined assessment options Agreed to assess 3-5 classes during fall 2002 December progress report

Assessment Templates Formed a small group to come up with templates Looked online for examples Drafted templates One minute paper Faculty assessment Observation assessment

One Minute Paper Provide general information with possible questions to ask Each instruction librarian chooses the questions to ask the students Transcribing comments onto the worksheet

One Minute Paper Samples: “By far the most consistent question with this EFL class was about CLS service. They asked about fees for the service, turn around time, what to do when they had problems, etc.” “Students were asked for the 3 most important things they learned. All of the students had at least one response that spoke to a learning outcome, if only in spirit. Many listed a particular resource as one or more of the most important things learned.”

Faculty Assessment Ask faculty if okay to send them the form Send by after the students have turned in their assignment Give them a deadline

Faculty Assessment Sample comments: “Without the session my students would have been relying totally on internet sources and books that I had recommended to them. The ability to search for journal articles and books is essential to their being able to get a sense of what has been written in a certain field, which was a core part of the class.” “Yes, I personally learned an enormous amount about the different databases and how to narrow and limit the number of articles that come up after plugging in the key words.”

Observation Assessment Deliberate act of looking at individual actions or behavior to obtain assessment information Sample: “They seemed to be able to use the keyword to subject heading concept – it was demonstrated in both WRLC Catalog, EbscoHost and Periodical Abstracts.”

Instruction Program Assessment Portfolio Created three-ring binder Nine divided sections How material is collected

Future Plans Expand template offerings to include peer assessment Perform analysis of the contents of the portfolio What classes should we be assessing?