CCLI 2020: Deconstructing and Reconstructing Assessment
May 29, 2020 | Online Release Day!
On this day, the California Conference on Library Instruction sought to explore the intersection of information literacy and assessment. At its best, assessment provides us with data to make informed decisions. Assessment can be aimed at an individual level, across library services, or for institutional learning outcomes. However, valid questions have been raised about the value and inherent bias of emerging and established assessment methods. For example, technological solutions have been playing an increasing role to aid in retention efforts and track student success, but these methods raise concerns around patron privacy. Our honored keynote speaker was Nicole Branch.
Welcome
Chair & Vice-Chair Remarks
CCLI 2020 Chair: Matthew Collins – Reference, Instruction, and Zine Librarian, University of San Francisco
CCLI 2020 Vice-Chair: Karen Tercho – Public Services Librarian, Sacramento City College
Keynote Address
Transformation is a Homonym: Critical Assessment in a Time of Crisis
Nicole Branch, Associate University Librarian for Learning & Engagement
Santa Clara University
Presentations
Deconstructing the Self: Reconstructing Assessment Through Reflection and Action
Kelli Kauffroath, Research and Instruction Librarian
Rachel Keiko Stark, Health Sciences Librarian
Sacramento State University, Sacramento, CA
Slides in PDF
Slide Notes in PDF
This active learning session will incorporate reflective practice pedagogy and unconscious bias trainings to provide attendees with opportunities to gain and develop skills that will allow them to understand how their own beliefs, perspectives, and biases impact assessment in the library setting and how to use reflective practice to combat unconscious bias and cultivate self-care for the librarian. Assessment is a growing expectation in library settings, with many librarians finding is as an unexpected and sometimes daunting requirement for their jobs. This class will provide a working definition of assessment as well as examples, both good and bad, of assessment in various types of libraries to serve as a starting point for a conversation of how current assessment practices operates within a system that ignores the needs and desires of library user and historically underrepresented groups.
Great Reasonable Expectations: Identifying Appropriate Learning Outcomes for First-Year Students through Metacognitive Assessment
Emily Merrifield, Undergraduate Experience Librarian
Samantha McClellan, Instruction Coordinator
Sacramento State University, Sacramento, CA
Infographic in PDF | Infographic in PNG
First-year rhetoric and composition studies serve as wonderful collaborators for information literacy librarians. However, the sheer quantity of these classes requesting library instruction to which librarians tailor a lesson plan for an introductory research assignment can pose a sustainability problem. To address this issue, we developed a standard curriculum along with a searching exercise worksheet designed to promote metacognitive thinking. We will discuss the value and creation of questions that promote metacognitive thinking for information literacy instruction, and share themes we identified from the metacognitive search strategies worksheet and how those informed our student learning outcomes for first-year students. During the presentation, attendees will work in groups to analyze students’ responses to questions on the metacognitive searching exercise, and discuss how those responses impact their thinking about how they work with first-year students on research assignments.
Using Formative Assessment Techniques to Customize a Standard Lesson Plan to an Individual Section
Mary-Michelle Moore, Teaching & Learning Librarian
University of California, Santa Barbara
You are supporting a new department with an enthusiastic instructor who has asked you to work with their students in the discussion sessions rather than in the lecture, so the students will have more hands-on time in the databases. As you make plans, you recall that this upper-division class does have a prerequisite, but you do not know what your predecessor did with the students in previous (if any) library sessions. How do you balance the desire to help students engage in advanced research activities with the possibility that some students may want some review or may have not heard some of the basics of library research (or not recently)? By using a modular approach in creating the lesson plan, I could incorporate smaller formative assessment pieces throughout to fit the pace for the group of students with me. The modules also allowed the students to customize our time together and gave them some buy-in for what we would be covering. I utilized an electronic poll to allow students to vote for their top choice in what we would go over to provide some anonymity in the voting.
Empathetic Assessment: Strategies and Techniques for Creating a User-Centered Assessment Culture
Sarah Morris, Head, Instruction & Engagement Librarian
Emory University
Assessment can inspire a lot of reactions, thoughts, and emotions in people. Whether it is conceived of as a necessary evil, a set of inscrutable numbers, or a challenging conundrum, assessment can feel anywhere from detached and remote to burdensome. At the Emory University Libraries, we’re exploring different ways to empower librarians in their assessment work, to bring empathy into the assessment process, and to create a culture of assessment that is collaborative, user-centered, and opportunity-driven. In this interactive presentation, attendees will learn about two different assessment initiatives that are helping the libraries not only grow a user-centered instruction program but are also cultivating a strong and holistic culture of assessment.
More than Reporting: Using Qualitative Data for Change
Kaitlin Springmier, Instruction and Learning Assessment Librarian
Catherine Fonseca, Outreach and Inclusion Librarian
Rita Premo, Scholarly Communications Librarian
Sonoma State University, Rohnert Park, CA
View on YouTube
Activity: Reflections on Affordable Learning
So you collected and analyzed the data, you made and shared the report. Now what? While many librarians do assessment, we sometimes have difficulty ‘closing the loop’—implementing outcomes or actions informed by the assessment. Many factors can play a role here: time, energy, consensus, stakeholder interest, or available support. In the proposed active workshop, attendees will analyze qualitative data from student surveys and brainstorm actions we might take while learning how to present research data to stakeholders to inspire action. During the session, attendees will experience a workshop originally designed for teaching faculty at our institution in which CCLI participants review, reflect upon, and interpret student testimonials about their experiences in the classroom as collected through institutional surveys.
Back to Basics: Designing and Assessing Library Instruction
Dr. Jennifer Sweeney, MSLS, PhD, Lecturer
San Jose State University
View on YouTube
Slides & Handouts in PDF
Many of us come to library instructional work with plenty of knowledge about information resources but less skill in designing or evaluating our instruction. This workshop is designed to introduce participants to foundational theories underlying instructional program design and assessment. Attendees will learn about and then practice with essential concepts on learning styles and instructional principles to create robust instructional designs. Next, attendees will use the program logic model and the Kirkpatrick model of instructional evaluation for evaluating instruction. Logic modeling allows designers to develop deliberate instructional strategies to achieve specific results across short-term outcomes and longer-term impact on learners. The Kirkpatrick model sets up a framework for measuring levels of training impact, from reaction to learning to behavior change and long term impact. Using these models simplifies design challenges and actually drives effective assessment! A combination of lecture, demonstration, hands-on activities, and discussion will ensure a fast-paced, fun learning experience.
Critical Pedagogy & Assessment: Teachable Moments
Holiday Vega, Health and Social Services Librarian
University of Chicago
Laila Brown, Reference Librarian
Hawaiʻi Pacific University Libraries
This presentation focuses on alternative modes of assessment, namely feminist assessment, and explores techniques employed both within traditional learning environments and wider spheres of learning, such as reference desk interactions and research consultations. By incorporating the philosophies of feminist and critical pedagogy into instruction, discussion, active learning, and learner participation are requisite. This presentation will offer tips and techniques on implementing feminist assessment within the bound of one-shot sessions, and also during reference desk interactions, research consultations, and impromptu conversations with our learner communities. Rather than evaluating student knowledge based on what we assume to be their areas of need, we evaluate students based on their own knowledge goals. Assessment becomes a collaborative process instead of a rote, quantitative measure we impose on students.
Lightning Talks
Psyched About Assessment!!!: a simple assessment to determine undergraduate psychology students’ abilities to use PsycINFO®
Christina Cicchetti, UC Riverside
Active Ingredients: Using Active Learning as a means of Assessment
Michelle M. DeMars, California State University, Long Beach
Supplementing Standardized Tests: Using Capstone Artifacts to Assess Information Literacy for Accreditation
Britt Foster, Fresno State
You Can’t Spell “Analysis” Without a “Why”: Borrowing from Lesson Study to Focus Assessment
Michael Nicoloff, Saint Mary’s College
One Shot at a Time: Using the Topic of Vaccine Hesitancy to Introduce the Importance of Critical Evaluation to Undergraduate Students in an Introductory Biology Course
Michael Yonezawa, UC Riverside
Other Accepted Presenters:
- Richard M. Cho, UC Irvine
- “Going Full-Circle in Two Years: From Planning to ‘Closing the Loop’”
- Felicia Kalker, Grossmont College
- “Easy SLO Tracking Using Canvas LMS”
- Marisa Méndez-Brady, CalArts & Annie Pho, University of San Francisco
- “Leaning on Your Research Community: Assessing Through Processed Based Learning”
2019-2020 Steering Committee
- Chair: Matthew Collins, University of San Francisco
- Vice Chair: Karen Tercho, Sacramento City College
- Past Chair: Irene Korber, California State University, Chico
- Treasurer/Registrar: Quincy McCrary, Notre Dame de Namur University
- Member at Large: William Cuthbertson, California State University, Chico
- Member at Large: Amber Janssen, California State University, Maritime Academy
- Member at Large: Megan Kinney, City College of San Francisco
- Member at Large: Anna Levia, Stanford University
- Member at Large: Annette Marines, University of California, Santa Cruz
- Member at Large: Stephanie Miller, San Francisco Theological Seminary (Graduate Theological Union)
- Member at Large: Daniel Ransom, California College of the Arts
- Member at Large: Penny Scott, University of San Francisco
- Member at Large: Jenny Yap, Berkeley City College