Assessment of information literacy by using the rubric

Assessment of Information Literacy by using the Rubric Scale

S.Kamatchi,Librarian & Information Officer, ACL, Chennai

andJ.Arumugam,

Officer, Information Resource Center, TCS, Chennai

Information Literacy Skill

• The ability to know when there is a need for information, to be able to identify, locate, evaluate, and effectively and responsibly use and share that information for the problem at hand. - Adopted from the National Forum on Information Literacy

Rubric Matrix Scale:

• Descriptive scoring schemes

• An assessment tool

• An important source of information for program improvement.

Rubrics are a great tool for teaching and learning. Why?

• support authentic assessment

• communicate expectations

• improve performance

• provide informative feedback

• promote thinking and learning

• inspire fairness

Benefits of Rubrics

• Rubrics make the learning target more clear

• Rubrics guide instructional design and delivery

• Rubrics make the assessment process more accurate and fair

• Rubrics provide students with a tool for self-assessment and peer feedback

Objectives of the study

• To develop the information literacy scale using rubric assessment method

• To find the information literacy among the students in colleges of education

Hypotheses

• Information Literacy scale will be developed using rubric assessment method

• There will be a significant level of information literacy among the students in colleges of Education

• There will be a significant difference in information literacy with respect to gender and course

Sample

• For the present, simple random sampling was used. The Sample comprised 200 students in colleges of education in Chennai district. Of which 100 were boys and 100 were girls.

Table 1: Mean and percentage of Information Literacy and its component skills

Dimensions of Information LiteracyMean

Percentage(%)Level

Knowledge Seeking Skill 100.91 46.72 Proficiency

Quality Producing Skill 39.75 36.81 Lacking

Self Directed Learning Skill 43.255 53.40 Proficiency

Group Contribution Skill 61.77 40.37 Proficiency

Information Usage Skill 42.41 31.42 Lacking

Information Literacy 288.12 41.58 Proficiency

Table 2: Mean and percentage of Information Literacy and its component skills with respect

to course

Dimensions of Information Literacy

MeanPercentage (%)

Level

UG PG UG PG UG PG

Knowledge Seeking Skill

83.65 118.16 38.73 54.70 Lacking Proficiency

Quality Producing Skill

31.83 47.73 29.47 44.19 Lacking Lacking

Self Directed Learning Skill

44.22 42.29 54.59 52.20 Proficiency Proficiency

Group Contribution Skill


Information Usage Skill

40.48 44.34 29.99 32.84 Lacking Lacking

Information Literacy 259.64 316.6 37.47 45.69 Lacking Proficiency

Table 3: Mean and percentage of Information Literacy and its component skills with respect to

gender

Dimensions of Information Literacy

MeanPercentage (%)

Level

Female Male Female Male Female Male

Knowledge Seeking Skill


Quality Producing Skill

42.82 36.74 39.65 34.02 Proficiency Lacking

Self Directed Learning Skill


Group Contribution Skill


Information Usage Skill

42.3 42.52 31.33 31.5 Lacking Lacking

Information Literacy 255.13 321.11 36.82 46.34 Lacking Proficiency

Findings

• Students lacks in Quality Producing Skill and Information Usage Skill when compared to other component of Information Literacy.

• Students are rich in Self Directed Learning Skill(53.4 %) and poor in (31.42 %) in Information Usage Skill.

Course wise UG and PG students are differed in Knowledge Seeking Skill and Group Contribution Skill. In those skills, PG students are proficient than UG students.

There is no difference in Quality Producing Skill, Self Directed Learning Skill and Information Usage Skill

• In Gender wise, Male and Female students are differed in information Literacy. In Quality Producing Skill, Female students are proficient than male students. In Group Contribution Skill male students are more proficient than Female students.

Conclusion

• Rubric matrix scale is an effective tool to assess information literacy. It allows students to identify what they know already and what they need to learn.

• Educators need not expect that students will achieve proficiency in each and every area. Rubrics are helpful in that they assess their strength and weakness and identify goals for improvement.

THANK YOU