Self-Assessment Skills
for Lifelong Learning

Margy MacMillan
Instructional Librarian, Mount Royal College,
Calgary, AB, Canada
http://www2.mtroyal.ab.ca/~mmacmillan/conf/lw2006.p

Why is Self-Assessment Important?
• Prompts reflection
• Can build self-efficacy
• Key life skill for students

Why is Reflection Important?
• Students don’t always know what they
know.

A Tool for Self-Assessment
• The I-SKILLS Résumé
– Easily understood, simple format
– Low cost
– Provides insight on what students think is
important
– Provides information to the student they can
actually use

I-SKILLS Résumé (see handout)
(Information Skills and Knowledge for Lifelong Learning Success)
Personal: (Name)
Special Expertise: (What kinds of info or topics are you especially adept at
finding/evaluating/using)

Education: (What classes, training, reading, self teaching etc. have you done
in the area of information skills)

Experience: (what types of information can you find and what tools can you
use – e.g. article databases, library catalogues, deep web sites, laws,
addresses, etc)

Other: (Anything else pertaining to your information finding/evaluating/usage
skills you'd like an employer to know, e.g. citing/analysing/bias checking)

I-SKILLS Research Project
• Long-term project – 2002-2008
• Assessing information skills of journalism
students
Key Research Questions
• Does it prompt reflection on information
literacy?
• Is the résumé and/or the reflection it
prompts useful in seeking employment?

Does It Prompt Reflection?
“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
Jeff Harris
internet last year. I feel that I have grown so much
I do not even remember that person anymore.”

“I would really like a refresher course on
research now that I think about it.”

Brad Linn

How Does the I-SKILLS Résumé
Prompt Reflection?
• Encourages recall of skills
• Encourages articulation of skills
• Shows development of skills over time
• Provides a tangible record of skills for
other purposes

How else can we prompt reflection?

Other Resources
• Research Page

– Links to ongoing literature review,
other presentations, articles, etc.
– http://www2.mtroyal.ca/~mmacmillan/research.htm

• I-Skills Résumé Wiki

– Ideas for using the résumé tool
– http://www.seedwiki.com/wiki/i-skills_resume/