Last week I was privileged to conduct an assessment workshop with two gurus in the field: Danuta Nitecki, Dean of Libraries and Professor, College of Computing and Informatics at Drexel University and Robert E. Dugan, Dean of Libraries at the University of West Florida. They are authors, along with Peter Hernon, of one of my favorite guides, Viewing Library Metrics from Different Perspectives: Inputs, Outputs and Outcomes and have collaborated in other venues related to assessment in libraries and higher education.
We conducted a pre-conference workshop as part of Drexel’s 2015 Annual Conference on Teaching & Learning: Building Academic Innovation & Renewal.
Librarians and their Value to the Student Learning Experience was designed to bring together librarians and higher education professionals to experience planning an assessment project, identifying partnerships and resources across the campus for doing effective assessments of learning. The stated outcomes were to assist participants to be able to:
- Identify what librarians are typically doing
- Apply a method to gather data
- Build stronger campus collaborations and assessment strategies
Our participants came from a variety of institutions and roles: directors, institutional research, assessment librarians; from both public and private schools in the region (four states!).
The workshop started out with an introduction from Bob, who addressed the question of why we conduct assessments. He looks at this from his roles as a library dean who also serves as head of institutional research and assessment. We focus on assessment to be accountable to stakeholders (e.g. parents who ask, “Is my child getting a good education?”); compliance (accreditation), and assessment towards the continuous improvement of programs, activities and services.
Danuta provided participants with a framework for approaching assessment within the university/college context. The “logical structure” exercise had us break down an assessment need to three elements: articulation of assessment purpose, the evidence sought for making judgements, and selection of an appropriate method of gathering that evidence.
We brainstormed together about the myriads kinds of contributions librarians can make to the institutional assessment effort in the form of collections, services and facilities. For instance, we may have:
- learning outcomes data from our instruction program
- expenditures and other quantitative usage data on our collections
- guidance on copyright, academic integrity, research data management
- valuable, neutral space and technology for student and faculty work
The challenge for us as librarians is to think about how these data can be used in ways that connect up with the stated mission and values of the institution. How does our work contribute to student success? Their engagement with the school? How do we help faculty in their teaching and research? What contributions does the library make towards institutional reputation through programs and publication?
In the final segment of the workshop we talked about the practical considerations of planning for assessment. Our question has been defined, our data needs and sources identified. We’ve designed a appropriate method for gathering the evidence. In order to carry this out, we need to create a budget, identify staff and skills required, allocate staff time and a time frame for conducting the assessment. Whether our research is exempt from review or not, we’ll want to insure that we’ve connected with the Institutional Review Board.
Perhaps most importantly, our plan for presenting assessment results with stakeholders needs consideration. The communication may take a multiple forms, depending on its purpose and audience — a paragraph embedded in an accreditation report; a set of slides for a meeting with the provost; a 10-page report for library staff.
Based on evaluations, the workshop was a useful and thought-provoking one for participants. Thanks again to Danuta and Bob for their huge efforts on this project – I know that it’s got me thinking more broadly about our assessment work here at Temple.