Paper Abstract:

Information literacy, generally defined as the critical reception, evaluation, and use of information for professional and personal purposes, has been recognized as a critical skill at both the national and international level. Professional associations and regional accrediting bodies have likewise acknowledged the significance of the topic by identifying information literacy as a key student learning outcome. Consequently, institutions are increasingly integrating information literacy instruction into the academic curriculum, in turn creating the need to assess instructional impact. However, information literacy is a relatively new concept and credible assessment tools are only now forthcoming. Many institutions are relying on locally developed assessments to document instructional efficacy, but these instruments may not have been subjected to rigorous scrutiny during their development and therefore note be considered acceptable evidence for program reviews. This paper summarizes several information literacy assessment tools recent to the market, and includes instruments that measure cognitive knowledge of information literacy skills as well as performance-based tools.  Multiple methods of assessment are suggested to fully measure the range of student learning and the performance-based techniques can be used in conjunction with cognitive information literacy assessments.  A supporting wiki for this paper links to information about various commercial assessments or, for those freely available, directly to the instrument. The wiki is located at http://ilassessments.pbwiki.com. 

Links to the full paper and instruments reviewed or their descriptions are located in the sidebar.

For more information contact Dr. Penny Beile at pbeile@mail.ucf.edu