Assessing the assessment: how institutions administered, interpreted, and used SAILS

Abstract

Purpose -This paper seeks to address the administration of Standardized Assessment of Information Literacy Skills (SAILS), the use of SAILS report data, and respondent perceptions of the utility of SAILS at institutions that comprise the "All Institutions Benchmark" -the institutions which participated in the SAILS testing through the Spring 2007 testing period. Design/methodology/approach -An online survey was used to collect qualitative and quantitative data for the study. Overall response rate for the survey was 63.9 percent. Disregarding unusable responses, the response rate for the data analysis was 57.8 percent. Findings -The large majority of institutions used convenience sampling in administering SAILS. With regard to the SAILS report data, there are indications that those institutions that received support for data analysis were more likely to find the results useful; the utility of the SAILS report data can also be correlated with institutional type. Practical implications -Results from this study suggest that SAILS can be most effective if there is statistical/institutional research support for data analysis, if the sampling method for selecting test takers is more rigorous, if SAILS is used in conjunction with other instruments, and if the SAILS data is correlated with other institutional data. Originality/value -There have been few published studies on the large-scale administration of standardized information literacy assessments. Moreover, there has been no other published research study assessing multiple institutions' experience of administering SAILS and using SAILS results. Institutions interested in the use of SAILS and other well-known standardized information literacy tests will find this paper especially relevant.

Information literacy proficiency: Assessing the gap in high school students' readiness for undergraduate academic work

“…Although other IL assessments exist, the JMU ILT is growing in prominence. According to Lym, Grossman, Yannotta, and Talih (2010), widespread use of the ILT will establish this test as a standard benchmark in the future.…”

Best methods for evaluating educational impact: a comparison of the efficacy of commonly used measures of library instruction

“…At the same time, the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) called for an increased emphasis on IL through its Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education [5]. The associated literature described the adoption and practical implications of the ACRL Standards and other IL criteria, as well as subsequent IL tests such as Project SAILS or institution-specific IL tests [6][7][8][9][10][11][12]. The library literature has also deliberated the educational viability of stand-alone IL tests, IL courses, and IL workshops; curriculum-integrated instruction; the pros and cons of online training; and the like [13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32].…”

Institutional Assessment of Student Information Literacy Ability: A Case Study

“…Project SAILS is one of the best-known; created in 2000 at Kent State University, its creators also recognized the limitations of fixed-choice tests as described above, but decided that this format was most suitable to their goal of large-scale testing (Salem & Radcliff, 2006). The SAILS test proved to be popular, and by 2007 it was in use at 83 institutions (Lym, Grossman, Yannotta, & Talih, 2010). Other tests that have emerged include the Research Readiness Self-Assessment (RRSA) developed by Central Michigan University (Ivanitskaya, Laus, & Casey, 2004), the Information Literacy Test prepared at James Madison University (Cameron et al, 2007), and an unnamed assessment tool created at the University of Maryland (Mulherrin & Abdul-hamid, 2009).…”