Information Literacy Assessment for Spring 2014

In spring 2014 EMCC/SAAC conducted its semester assessment in Information Literacy, one of seven general education abilities at EMCC. Data was collected from 20 courses with 488 students in 2014, representing a 41% increase. Library Faculty Terry Meyer graded the assessments both years, providing a high level of inter-rater reliability. The areas assessed were Framing the Research Question, Accessing Resources, Evaluation of Information Resources, and Creating an Original Work. Five instructors assessed in both 2011 and 2014, which provided a higher level of comparable reliability. The results in these five were positive, and growth in 2014 is attributed to: increased emphasis on instructor and student engagement, increased access to Library staff, and better equipped classrooms (Level 3 Learning Studios). Results in general were positive with 2014 Sophomores outperforming 2014 Freshmen in every category, and 2014 students outperforming 2011 students in three out of four categories (they did score higher in the fourth category, but not at a statistically significant level). The lowest overall scores were in Accessing Resources and Evaluation of Information Resources.