Creating an Assessment Portfolio for Your Instruction Program

Jennifer Nutefall

Instruction Coordinator

George Washington University

Washington, DC

Jennifer.Nutefall@gwu.edu

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 email 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?