Building a Seamless Environment for Assessment of Information Literacy: Libraries, Student Affairs, and Learning Outside the Classroom

Abstract

Assessment has been a topic of interest in higher education for decades, with its recent growth rooted in a number of scholarly traditions, as well as the broader interest in "accountability" that has been characteristic of American education since the 1980s. Many previous studies have demonstrated that the literature of assessment in higher education is a rich resource for those wishing to identify effective approaches to the assessment of information literacy. This piece invites readers to pay attention to the lessons taught by faculty development experts as well as by scholars of the science of teaching and learning, but also to remember that student learning takes place both inside the classroom and outside the classroom.