Librarians all know the importance of a reference interview -- it's to make sure you're addressing what the patron actually needs. Classes take longer, and involve more people, but the fact still holds: to give the best service, you need to assess what the needs actually are. An additional benefit of pre-assessment is that it can provide evidence of the impact of the teaching program, both to university administration and to accreditation organizations. Presented by Gwen Exner at "Assessment Beyond Statistics" NCLA College & Universities Section/Community & Junior Colleges Section 2012 conference.

1. What will they need?
Pre-assessment techniques for
instruction sessions
Assessment Beyond Statistics, Nov 2, 2012
by Gwen Exner
gwenexner@gmail.com

2. “They” are…
• Students in the current class…
..who need questions answered & new skills taught
• Teachers of future classes…
..who need information to make classes relevant
• Library administrators…
..who need to justify the library’s budget
• Accreditation organizations…
..who need evidence of strategic goals met

3. Options
There are three basic options for
pre-assessments in a instructional session
• Descriptions of planned classes
• Feedback from students about expectations
• Tests of pre-existing skills
Each is useful is different ways,
and has multiple ways it can be done.

4. Course Descriptions
Cost Effort
Low Low
Can help students pick the course that’s right for them.
• Should include examples of what will be taught.
This course will teach students how to find rows & columns, how to create simple
formulas, how to make a graph, and how to format a table using the templates
• Should include examples of what pre-knowledge is expected.
Students are expected to already know how to open the program, open files, save
files, and copy & paste within files.
• Should include examples of what is beyond the scope.
This course will not cover how to use functions, edit graphs, or modify formatting
templates.

5. Students need to know whether or not a class will answer their questions.
An “Online Research” class could be answering any of these:
How do I…?
…find things online? …find articles
…use PsycInfo? from local papers?
…download ebooks? …use the catalog?
…do a literature
…cite online
review?
sources?
…find an essay
…get this
to copy?
article?
Clear class descriptions allow students to
self-pre-assess where they want to be.

6. Registrant Feedback
Cost Effort
Low Medium
Can help the teacher know what to focus on.
Can be conducted during course registration, or at the beginning of class.
• Beginning of class limits the overall flexibility, but helps put students in the
right mindset and the results can be shared.
• During course registration allows the class to be planned around student
needs, but can be prone to misunderstandings.
Can be open-ended, selected from existing class goals, or a combination.
• Open-ended can let students express what they want in their own words,
but it won’t always make sense and may be outside the scope.
• Selecting from existing goals will produce results that make sense, but are
only as accurate as students’ understanding, and can’t introduce new ideas.
• Combination can be the best of both worlds, with a list to select from, plus
a brief field for “other”.

7. Examples
At registration At start of class
Please tell us what you want to Index cards: Hand them out as
get from this class: students filter in, & ask them
(type your answer here) to write their top 3 goals &
return them. Flip through the
answers before starting.
- or -
- or -
Which of the following aspects
are you most interested in? Survey: After everyone’s
arrived, ask what people are
 Boolean logic looking for from this class.
 Finding scholarly articles Answers can be verbal,
 Judging credibility clickers, or text/twitter/web
 Other .
via services such as
http://www.polleverywhere.com/

8. Pre-Tests
Pre-Tests
Can provide very detailed, accurate information.
Can serve a variety of purposes.
• Improve student understanding and confidence in course self-selection.
• Highlight problem areas so teachers can focus on them.
• Provide data to support library funding and university accreditation.
Can be varying degrees of specificity and quantifiable accuracy.
• Likert scale (How much do you agree or disagree with the following?)
• Multiple choice (Which would you use?)
• Specific tasks (Can you/How would you do this?)
Can be developed in-house, or purchased.
• In-house has low cost and moderate to high development effort, but can
be customized to exactly fit the library’s needs.
• Purchased has high cost, but low effort, and can be easily used for
accreditation documentation.

9. Developing Your Own
In-house development starts with three decisions
What sort of test will it be?
• An overall information literacy assessment?
• A diagnostic test to help students decide on a course?
• A general feeling of where students are at?
• A detailed assessment of existing skills?
How long will it be?
• Short tests are more likely to be voluntarily taken.
• Long tests give more detailed information.
What type of results will it give?
• Quantifiable evidence to show improvement?
• Raw data to for teacher planning?
• Analyzed data to advise students?

10. Question Types
Different purposes need different types
Likert scales
• Best to give a general feeling about student needs.
• Details improve result accuracy, but I “strongly agree”
poor phrasing/details can lead to that I’m a big fish!
lower post-class ratings.
Fixed Choice (Multiple choice, true/false, matching)
• Best for detailed, quantifiable info about current knowledge.
• Helps teachers identify specific knowledge holes.
• Makes it easy to demonstrate post-class improvements.
Scenario/Task Completion
• Best possible proof of skills.
• Difficult to develop in-house.

11. Example Tests
These sites contain samples of multiple-choice information
literacy tests which can be used to help design your own.
Appalachian State University http://bit.ly/XGzTvX
Bellevue College http://bit.ly/OTZhNy
Cabrini College http://bit.ly/WBiVkv
Carl Albert State College http://bit.ly/T5BF4u
CREPUQ http://bit.ly/WBlPWn (see p79-86)
CSU-Dominguez Hills http://bit.ly/Scc91k
DeSales University http://bit.ly/TB7Jhg
La Verne University http://svy.mk/WBlrHn
Madonna University http://bit.ly/T92sBA
Millikin University http://bit.ly/Sc4HRI (see Appendix A)
San Jose State University http://bit.ly/RbLuSe (see Appendix A)
Stockton College http://bit.ly/Sc4WMH (see Appendix B)
West Chester University http://bit.ly/T913e7 (Sports Med & Psychology)

12. Free Information Literacy Tests
Beile Test of I. L. Test&discussion: • Assesses impact of instruction.
for Education http://bit.ly/VhTAXH
• Multiple-choice questions.
(B-TILED) Validation:
http://bit.ly/RNCwIo • Library implements & scores.
NILRC I.L. Toolkit, http://bit.ly/VhUfsa • Lickert, multiple choice, T/F,
Needs and open-ended questions.
Assessment • Provides assessment summary
Instrument & composite results.
SKIL - Stanford’s http://bit.ly/RNEd8L • Primarily a training module.
Key to I.L. • Feedback after each question.
TRAILS-ToolsforReal- http://bit.ly/PKIAFw • Gives class scores, individual
Time Assessment of scores & data, and each
I.L. Skills) student's own answers.

13. Commercial I.L. Testing Services
iSkills TM
https://www.projectsails.org/ http://www.ets.org/iskills/about
Covers Research strategy, tools, proper Developing search terms,
use of sources, and economic, accessing database articles, and
legal, & social issues. website reliability.
Questions Multiple choice Scenario/Task completion
Notes Based on ACRL objectves Designed in co-operation with 2-
and 4-year colleges.
Results Scores by individual, cohort, Raw data, and aggregated &
major, and class level detailed test scores by individual
& school
Length 45 minutes 60 minutes + demographics
Costs $4/student up to 1000, $18-$20 per student.
$4000 for 1000-5000 students

14. Free Computer Skills Self-Tests
These self-tests all show the score & missed items to the student at the end.
Very Basic: “Click on the picture of the monitor” and “Which of these is a valid email address?”
Stevens-Henager Comp. http://bit.ly/TLsyqH Computer, word processing,
Literacy Assessment internet, email & netiquette
Northstar Basic Comp. http://bit.ly/Rc7koC Computer use, web, Windows/
DIFFICULTY
Skills Mac OS, email & MS Word
Miami U. Basic Comp. http://bit.ly/SeKpHs Internet, email, MS Word, and
Skills Self-Assessment operating systems
Collin College Microsoft http://bit.ly/ViOj26 Multiple skill levels of
Office Skills Assessment complete MS Office suite
SkillsAssessment: Online http://bit.ly/Rczz6P Multiple skill levels of MS
Training Needs Analysis office & general computing,
gives detailed results analysis
Advanced: “What would you need to do to the table below in order to use it for a mail merge?”

15. Commercial Computer Certifications
Why consider certification programs?
• Initial part of the process can be used as pre-evaluations
• Produces quantifiable results
• Students can get widely recognized certifications
• Libraries may become approved testing centers to reduce costs
http://www.icdlus.org/ http://www.certiport.com/
Name International Computer Driving Internet & Computing Core
License Certification
Questions Multiple choice Various
Evaluates End-user computer skills Hardware, software, networks,
internet skills
Costs $120 - $250 per student $99 - $420 per student.