Instruction Librarians' Toolkit

A commonly used classroom assessment technique, the one-minute paper is used at the end of class and consists of three questions:

1. What is the most significant thing you learned today?
2. What question is uppermost in your mind at the end of today's session? Or, list one thing that you still don't understand.
3. If you could change something about today's session, what would it be?

The main advantage to using the one-minute paper technique is that it provides rapid assessment of whether the instructor's main idea for the lesson matches what the students perceive was the main idea. It also gives students a change to reflect on what they've learned and construct knowledge before running out the door, and helps build atmosphere of trust between instructor and student (Whittard, 2015).

The worksheets you use for class activities are artifacts of student learning. Collect them at the end of class to reflect on whether or not your lesson achieved the intended outcomes.

Some things to consider:

• Think about what the students need to do to demonstrate learning and design your activity and worksheet with that in mind.
• Your worksheet only needs to address 1-2 learning outcomes. If it addresses more, just choose 1-2 to assess.
• What is/are the criterion/a you will use to judge whether or not the students are "getting it?"
• As you review the worksheets, reflect on the work.
  • If students provided only correct answers, was it because you excelled as a teacher, or was it because they already knew the material? Was the exercise too easy? What adjustments could you make to find out if that's true?
  • If the work was poor for some, why might that be? What adjustments could you make to improve the quality of the students' work next time?
• Close the loop! Record observations in your lesson plan and use them to make adjustments for future classes.

Polling can be used not only as a way of engaging students, but as a means of rapid assessment as well. For example, you can:

• Poll students before or at the beginning of a class to determine existing knowledge or skill level.
• Use polls during a class or at the end to check comprehension.
• Use responses to look for common misunderstandings and modify future instruction accordingly.

Make sure you have a good handle on the technology before attempting to use it in the classroom. Also, choose a response type that is appropriate for the amount of time you have for the lesson (e.g. multiple choice vs. open response). Finally, for assessment purposes, your poll questions should relate to the learning outcomes of the lesson.

Poll Everywhere is a good option that allows students to respond with their own devices.

Pre- and post-quizzes can be administered to measure success in achieving desired learning outcomes. This method is one of the more direct ways of assessing learning, but it requires some extra work and buy-in from faculty partners. Also, drafting good multiple choice quiz questions and creating quizzes in Moodle can be challenging, so refer to the Creating Your Own Assessments page from ETS for guidance.

Evaluating student coursework for evidence of learning is perhaps the most authentic way of assessing information literacy. Of course, this requires collaboration with a faculty member. Two recommended ways of approaching this are to:

1. Create your own rubric to evaluate student work. Ask your faculty partner to share student coursework from assignments that require demonstration of skills or knowledge of concepts taught in your instruction session(s). Requesting anonymous versions of the work may encourage buy-in. Use your rubric to assess evidence of information literacy. Refer to the RAILS site for guidance on developing IL rubrics. In the future, ACRL will also be adding Framework-based rubrics to the new Framework Sandbox.
2. Ask your faculty partner to consider information literacy when they grading student coursework, and to share the results with you. If it is your first time providing instruction for a course, ask the faculty to consider whether or not they saw an improvement in the quality of work over previous semesters.