Skip to Main Content

Course & Subject Guides

Information Literacy Fundamentals @ Pitt: Evaluation

This guide defines information literacy and discusses strategies to incorporate information literacy into sessions for students.

Evaluation vs. Assessment

The difference between evaluation and assessment:

1. Evaluation

  • How well did you teach the class?

2. Assessment

  • What did the students learn?
  • How effective is an instruction program?
  • Student must demonstrate new knowledge
  • Tied to class learning objectives

Methods of Teaching Evaluation

  1. Teaching cycle
  2. Videotaping
  3. Colleague observation
  4. Instructor observation
  5. Lesson review
  6. Student satisfaction survey
  7. Assessment measures as indicators
  8. Use a rubric
  9. Use a checklist
  10. Watch/study experts
  11. Reflect/journal

Gain a Greater Understanding

Evaluating your teaching can help you to figure out what happened in a class session. Included below are techniques for dealing with issues that may arise.

If you need to: Use this technique:
  • Focus on the relevant
  • Mis/Preconception check
  • Draw inference from observation
  • One sentence summary
  • Determine the atypical
  • Muddiest point
  • Develop a critical eye
  • Student-generated test questions
  • Allow self-reflection
  • Minute paper

A Rubric For Yourself

Be aware of how your own knowledge can effect your teaching:

Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4
Unconscious Incompetence Conscious Incompetence Conscious Competence Unconscious Competence
You don't have any idea what it means to be a great instructor or why you should care about improving your skills in this area. You are aware enough to know that other people are great instructors and that you are not. You've learned some skills and put them into practice. However. you must still pay lots of attention to your delivery, and you only have spotty application of instruction skills. Most people will fall into this category. You have made a habit of practicing a wide range of instruction skills and do so without having to think about them.

From Anne Grodzins Lipow article, "Why Training Doesn't Stick: Who is to Blame?," in Library Trends 38.1 (Summer 1989): 62-72.

PowerPoints and Documents

The information in this guide is based on information in a series of presentations and documents associated with an Information Literacy Workshop presented by the ULS Information Literacy and Assessment Working Group.