Meeting Students Where They Are - Using Rubric-based Assessment to Modify an Information Literacy Curriculum

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by kopisore

The study conducted performance-based assessment of information literacy to evaluate whether first-year experience students found relevant sources, used evidence effectively, and attributed sources correctly. A modified AAC&U VALUE rubric was applied to 154 student research papers collected in fall 2015 and fall 2016. Results showed students could identify appropriate sources, yet they struggled to use evidence to support arguments and to attribute sources accurately. Library instruction curriculum changes were proposed based on these assessment findings.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages23

Reading Time58 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Keywords

Background and Context

UNIV 101 course and library sessions

Prior lesson plan and formative assessment

Performance-based Assessment

Communications in Information Literacy | Volume 12 | Issue 2 | Article 5 | | --- | --- | | 2018
Meeting Students Where They Are: Using Rubric-based Assessment to Modify an Information Literacy Curriculum Brianne Markowski
University of Northern Colorado, [brianne.markowski@unco.edu](brianne.markowski@unco.edu)[ ](brianne.markowski@unco.edu)LydaMc Cartin
University of Northern Colorado, [lyda.mccartin@unco.edu](lyda.mccartin@unco.edu)[ ](lyda.mccartin@unco.edu)Stephanie Evers
University of Northern Colorado, [stephanie.evers@unco.edu](stephanie.evers@unco.edu)
Let us knowhow access to this document benefits you. Follow this and additional works at: [https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/comminfolit](https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/comminfolit) | | Recommended Citation Markowski, B., McCartin, L., & Evers, S. (2018). Meeting Students Where They Are: Using Rubric-based Assessment to Modify an Information Literacy Curriculum. Communications in Information Literacy, 12 (2), 128-149. [https://doi.org/10.15760/](https://doi.org/10.15760/)[ ](https://doi.org/10.15760/)[comminfolit.2018.12.2.5](comminfolit.2018.12.2.5) This Research Article is brought to you for free and open access. It has been accepted for inclusion in Communications in Information Literacy by an authorized administrator of PDXScholar. For more information, [please contact](please contact pdxscholar@pdx.edu)[ pdxscholar@pdx.edu](please contact pdxscholar@pdx.edu). Markowski et al.: Meeting Students Where They Are 128 COMMUNICATIONS IN INFORMATION LITERACY | VOL. 12, NO. 2, 2018 Meeting Students Where They Are: Using Rubric-based Assessment to Modify an Information Literacy Curriculum Brianne Markowski, University of Northern Colorado Lyda Fontes McCartin, University of Northern Colorado Stephanie Evers, University of Northern Colorado Abstract The authors conducted a performance-based assessment of information literacy to determine if students in a first-year experience course were finding relevant sources, using evidence from sources effectively, and attributing sources correctly. A modified AAC&U VALUE rubric was applied to 154 student research papers collected in fall 2015 and fall 2016. Study results indicate that students in the sample were able to find relevant and appropriate sources for their research papers; however, they were not using evidence to effectively support an argument or attributing sources correctly. The authors discuss changes to the library instruction curriculum informed by the assessment results. Keywords: information literacy, first-year students, rubric assessment, library instruction, one-shot Markowski, B., McCartin, L.F., & Evers, S. (2018). Meeting students where they are: Using rubric-based assessment to modify an information literacy curriculum. Communications in Information Literacy, 12(2), 128-149. Copyright for articles published in Communications in Information Literacy is retained by the author(s). Author(s) also extend to Communications in Information Literacy the right to redistribute this article via other scholarly resources and bibliographic databases. This extension allows the authors'copyrighted content to be included in some databases that are distributed and maintained by for-profit companies. All other rights of redistribution are licensed by Communications in Information Literacy under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BYNC-SA 4 .0) . Markowski, McCartin, & Evers Meeting Students Where They Are Published by PDXScholar, 2018 [ ARTICLE ] Communications in Information Literacy, Vol. 12, Iss. 2 [2018], Art. 5 COMMUNICATIONS IN INFORMATION LITERACY | VOL. 12, NO. 2, 2018 129 Meeting Students Where They Are: Using Rubric-based Assessment to Modify an Information Literacy Curriculum The Information Literacy & Undergraduate Support Department at the University of Northern Colorado’s James A. Michener Library helps dev

FAQs

What did the authors assess in students’ information literacy performance?

They evaluated whether students found relevant sources, used evidence effectively, and attributed sources correctly in their research work.

How was the rubric applied and to what sample?

A modified AAC&U VALUE rubric was applied to 154 student research papers collected in fall 2015 and fall 2016.

What did the results reveal about students’ strengths and weaknesses?

Students could find relevant and appropriate sources, but they did not use evidence effectively to support arguments or attribute sources correctly.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by kopisore