Close Encounters of the Library Kind: Assessing First Year Students’ Introduction to the Alien World of an Academic Library Dianna E. Sachs, Megan E. Brown, Western Michigan University Benefits and Limitations of Assessment Methods Method Benefit Limitation Easy to gather and analyze Indirect; no explanation Quantitative feedback (students and instructors) Easy to gather; highly Indirect; time-intensive Qualitative feedback (students and detailed analysis instructors) Moderately easy; Indirect; dependent on Observation by library employees personalized individual situation Student scores, Direct measure of action; Assumes students follow easy to gather and analyze the rules completion rates Direct measure of what Dependent on Student choices students’ students value individual situation Student Direct measure of learning Time-intensive to analyze work/products Correlation w/ other Direct measure of action; Requires privacy policies, library use large-scale, generalizable coordination w/ analysis institutional data Direct measure of program Indirect measure of Feedback from FYS director relevance learning, instructor satisfaction Bibliography
Close Encounters of the Library Kind: Assessing First Year Students’ Introduction to the Alien World of an Academic Library Dianna E. Sachs, Megan E. Brown, Western Michigan University Benefits and Limitations of Assessment Methods Method Benefit Limitation Quantitative feedback (students and instructors) Easy to gather and analyze Indirect; no explanation Qualitative feedback (students and instructors) Easy to gather; highly detailed Indirect; time-intensive analysis Observation by library employees Moderately easy; personalized Indirect; dependent on individual situation Student scores, completion rates Direct measure of action; easy to gather and analyze Assumes students follow the rules Student choices Direct measure of what students value Dependent on students’ individual situation Student work/products Direct measure of learning Time-intensive to analyze Correlation w/ other library use Direct measure of action; large-scale, generalizable analysis Requires privacy policies, coordination w/ institutional data Feedback from FYS director Direct measure of program relevance Indirect measure of learning, instructor satisfaction Bibliography