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Multi-Method Assessment

to Improve Library

Instruction Zsuzsa Koltay, Kornelia Tancheva

Cornell University Library

LAC, 2016

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• Introduction

• Faculty perception (survey)

• Student perception (2 surveys + focus group)

• Pilot video project

• Evaluation of pilot

• Next steps

Outline

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• Resource Investment

• ACRL Standards and Framework

• Assessment

– Input measures

– Outcomes-based assessment

– Perception of helpfulness

– Improving student experience

Introduction: library instruction assessment

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• Library survey of faculty - 2014

• Locally designed

• Census survey

• Response rate: 46%

Faculty perception

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Is there a need?

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

…evaluate information sources critically

…develop and refine research topics

…find appropriate scholarly information on their

research topic

…cite information sources

What percent of your students meet your

expectations in their ability to...

0-24% 25-49% 50-74% 75-100%

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Is it helpful?

56% 35% 9%

How helpful did you find the library's custom

instruction sessions?

great deal of help fair amount of help little help

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Why don’t you use it?

[VALUE]

[VALUE]

[VALUE]

[VALUE]

[VALUE]

[VALUE]

[VALUE]

0 50 100 150 200 250

not aware of service

not applicable to my class

other

don't look to library for help in this area

student skills sufficient

gain doesn't justify giving up class time

used in past, wasn't helpful

Reasons for not using library instruction

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• Leverage institutional survey

• Consortium on Financing Higher Education

(COFHE)

• 2015 Enrolled Student Survey - undergrads

• First ever library module

• 27 institutions asked the same library questions

Student perception - part one

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Barnard | Brown | Caltech | Carleton | Chicago |

Columbia | Cornell | Dartmouth | Duke | Emory |

Georgetown | Harvard | Johns Hopkins | MIT |

Mt. Holyoke | Northwestern | Penn | Princeton |

Rice | Rochester | Smith | Trinity | Vanderbilt |

Washington | Wellesley | Wesleyan | Williams

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Use of library instruction

[VALUE] [VALUE] [VALUE]

[VALUE] [VALUE] [VALUE]

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Cornell Other Ivies Non-Ivies

Used Not used

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Perception of helpfulness

38.5% 38.4% 40.1%

[VALUE] 41.1% 38.9%

20.8% 20.4% 21.0%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Cornell Other Ivies Non-Ivies

% Not very helpful % Somewhat helpful % Very helpful

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• Possible reasons

• 2015 post-instruction survey

• Volunteer instructors

• All classes had research components

• Immediately after instruction session

Student perception – part two

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Was it helpful?

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Student Library Advisory Council insights:

• Forced

• Repeated

• “Effectively the same presentation” multiple times

• Quality varies (instructors just “throw tools at you”)

• Centered on fairly intuitive search engines; or it is

too general

Student perception – part three

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• Replace instruction sessions with one-on-one

sessions

• Turn instruction into a Q&A session

• Divide classes into smaller groups so that

individual questions can be addressed

Student council recommendations

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Video project: prefer videos to lecture

[CATEGORY

NAME]

[PERCENTAG

E]

[CATEGORY

NAME]

[PERCENTAG

E]

[CATEGORY

NAME]

[PERCENTAG

E]

[CATEGORY

NAME]

[PERCENTAG

E]

[CATEGORY

NAME]

[PERCENTAG

E]

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Video project: helpfulness

Alreadyknew

16%

No

5%

Yes

79%

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• Quality over Quantity

• Research Assignment Classes

• Upper-Level vs. FWS

• Critical Thinking Skills vs. Tools

• Flipped Classroom

Next steps

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Acknowledgements Jill Powell and Jeremy Cusker, Engineering Librarians at Cornell Kathryn Conway Dimiduk, Director of James McCormick Family Teaching Excellence Institute at the College of Engineering, Cornell University For the COFHE survey: Steve Minicucci, Director of Research for the Consortium on Financing Higher Education

Nisa Bakkalbasi, Assessment Coordinator, Columbia University Libraries

Lisa R. Horowitz, Assessment Librarian/Linguistics Librarian, MIT Libraries

Mary Ann Mavrinac, Vice Provost and Andrew H. and Janet Dayton Neilly Dean, River Campus Libraries, University of Rochester Sarah Tudesco, Assessment Librarian, Yale University Library

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Thank you!