Presentation NELINET Session - December 13, 2005 I can't believe it worked!!! The I-SKILLS Résumé: Prompting reflection and self assessment Margy MacMillan Instructional Librarian, Mount Royal University http://www2.mtroyal.ca/~mmacmillan/conf/nelinet.htm Updated Dec 16, 2005 (new material in dark blue) First - thanks everyone, for your contributions and ideas during the session - it was great to hear what's being done at other institutions and to receive your feedback about the I-SKILLS Résumé. I mentioned a couple of links/resources I would post to this page: The FAST survey tool - http://www.getfast.ca - this is a free survey tool that allows you to quickly create web-based evaluation forms for as many purposes as you can think of, including as Classroom Assessment Techniques, pretests/posttests or evaluations of instruction sessions. The College-Wide Outcomes resources The main outcomes page is here - http://www.mtroyal.ca/cr/ • • • Click on the Outcomes button at the top Click on Learning Outcomes at MRU on the side Click on The Blue Sheet. (You'll note for our outcome we actually - at the great suggestion of one of the civilian faculty wrote the outcomes from the student perspective in words they might understand.) A separate page about the information retrieval and evaluation outcome created by Todd Nickle, one of our team members - http://www2.mtroyal.ca/~tnickle/info-ret/ includes a section on rubrics. Some participants expressed concern that there was no concurrent direct, objective testing of students' abilities. This is something I'd like to do more of, and the other presenters have given me some great ideas and useful tools I hope to employ to that end. I am particularly intrigued by the table on page two of Annie's Research Methods/Library Survey, and by the questions she asks about students' confidence in their abilities. Information Retrieval and Evaluation Skills Mount Royal Library has an active, course-integrated instruction program. We believe students should learn how to identify, locate, retrieve, evaluate and use information. For more information, please visit http://library.mtroyal.ca/services/instruction/index.ht m Over 650 class/year. We teach in most disciplines taught at the College. Typical classes are focused on a specific assignment, course-integrated and include hands-on practice. Content depends on the course, assignment, level, etc. Good partnerships with faculty allow us to develop good classes. The information environment is much more complex for today's students than it was for me. Assessment of Information Retrieval and Evaluation Skills Difficult to assess in isolation. Difficult to assess when we aren't marking. Climate - both on campus and in the literature - encourages assessment. Assessment efforts at other institutions don't suit our needs. • • • • • • Bibliography analysis - too many confounding factors Pre-tests - "so they'll discover their ignorance and pay attention" Multiple choice tests - test what librarians think is important. Literature favours self-efficacy, which isn't helped by 'failing' tests. Some assessments require too much effort from students for too little payoff - e.g. research portfolio. Most assessment is out of context and doesn't provide useful feedback to students. How the idea began My interest in finding a better way to assess information skills. + My interest in prompting reflection as a learning strategy. + A Group résumé icebreaker I encountered at a conference. Developing the I-SKILLS Résumé Tool Literature review - I was astonished to find there wasn't much there. This could mean: a) It had never been done b) The people doing it didn't have time to write about it c) It was too simple to work The ongoing literature review focuses on information fluency, assessment, self-efficacy, self-assessment, and reflection, with side trips into portfolios and other assessment instruments. What I was curious about: • • • what would students articulate as information skills how would they describe their skills would their résumés demonstrate a development in skills over time What might be useful to students: • • résumés would encourage students to reflect on skills résumés could become part of portfolios What might be useful in assessing the program: • résumés might demonstrate the effects of a planned, incremental instruction program How is the tool being used? PR student groups fill out a group information skills résumé before meeting with me. Senior chemistry students use it in advance of a library class so I can focus on what they didn't know. Longitudinal research project with Journalism students - students update résumés each year. Is it working? Initial results 1) Students seem to understand the format easily enough. Even students not present when I introduce the I-SKILLS Résumé seem to have no difficulty filling it out. “What I am most pleased with is the increase in my knowledge base. I found it amusing that I used the word “muddled” in regards to working on the internet last year. I feel that I have grown so much I do not even remember that person anymore.” Jeff Harris “I would really like a refresher course on research now that i think about it.” Brad Linn Changes in curriculum seem to have an impact on the résumés, e.g. blogs Lessons Learned, Changes made • • Changed the categories a little Samples proved unnecessary How else could it be used? One participant suggested it could be used with a first-year orientation on the first day of a writing class to make students aware of what they already know. Another suggested it would be useful to make business students more aware that information skills are key competitive skills. I look forward to staying in touch with any of you who use the I-SKILLS Résumé, to hear how it goes - either directly or through the wiki linked below. Resources • • • • Documentation, updates and literature review on my website http://www2.mtroyal.ca/~mmacmillan/research.htm Wiki to discuss other uses - http://www.seedwiki.com/wiki/iskills_resume/ Email me - I'd be happy to exchange ideas! mmacmillan@mtroyal.ca Visit our Library's website and check the Worksheets and Handouts section http://library.mtroyal.ca NELINET Professional Development Workshop Presentation Page Address: http://www2.mtroyal.ca/~mmacmillan/conf/nelinet.htm Maintained by Margy MacMillan - mmacmillan@mtroyal.ca - Last Updated 2005-12-16 Handout NELINET Session - December 13, 2005 The I-SKILLS Résumé: Prompting reflection and self assessment Margy MacMillan Instructional Librarian, Mount Royal University Presentation: http://www2.mtroyal.ca/~mmacmillan/conf/nelinet.htm Information Retrieval and Evaluation Skills at Mount Royal Mount Royal Library has an active, course-integrated instruction program. We believe students should learn how to identify, locate, retrieve, evaluate and use information. Assessment of Information Retrieval and Evaluation Skills Developing the I-SKILLS Résumé Tool What I was curious about: • • • what would students articulate as information skills how would they describe their skills would their résumés demonstrate a development in skills over time What might be useful to students: • • résumés would encourage students to reflect on skills résumés could become part of portfolios What might be useful in assessing the program: • résumés might demonstrate the effects of a planned incremental instruction program How is the tool being used? PR student groups fill out a group information skills résumé before meeting with me. Senior chemistry students used it in advance of a library class so I could focus on what they didn't know. Longitudinal research project with Journalism students - students update résumés each year. Is it working? How else could it be used? Resources • • • • Documentation, updates and literature review on my website http://www2.mtroyal.ca/~mmacmilan/research.htm Wiki to discuss other uses - http://www.seedwiki.com/wiki/i-skills_resume/ Email me - I'd be happy to exchange ideas! mmacmillan@mtroyal.ca Visit our Library's website and check the Worksheets and Handouts section http://library.mtroyal.ca NELINET Professional Development Workshop Handout Page Address: http://www2.mtroyal.ca/~mmacmillan/conf/nelinet.htm Maintained by Margy MacMillan - mmacmillan@mtroyal.ca - Last Updated 2005-11-13