University of Guelph Library
Karen James, winner of the $100 Bookshelf gift certificate
Student Winners of Project SAILS Assessment
Congratulation goes out to students:
- Karen James — $100 to the Bookshelf
- Jordan Nussbaum — $50 hospitality card
- Victoria Fidler — $50 hospitality card
who won the Project SAILS Assessment drawing being held in conjunction with students who participated in the Project SAILS (Student Assessment of Information Literacy Skills) test in the fall 2008. To better understand students' research skills, the Library conducted this 30 minute, multiple-choice test to volunteer undergraduate students. The aggregate data obtained from this assessment will help the University and the Library determine future directions in embedding information literacy skills into the classroom.
A thank you goes out to all the students took the test.
Congratulations winners!
SAILS is a knowledge test designed as a standardized test of information literacy skills:
- allows libraries to document skills levels for groups of students
- identifies areas for improvement in information literacy programs
- acts as a benchmarking tool
Begun in 2001 as a pilot by Kent State University and endorsed by the Association of College and Research Libraries the three-year research and development phase involved more than 80 higher education institutions in the United States and Canada.
Based on the ACRL Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education the SAILS test is based on item response theory (IRT), specifically the one-parameter Rasch model. IRT calculates scores based on a combination of item difficulty and student performance. The process begins with merging data from all institutions into a benchmark file. Student responses to the items on the test are then used to determine the difficulty level of each item. Once that determination is made, student responses are analyzed to determine an average score for each group (or cohort). Scores in the report are placed on a scale that ranges from 0 to 1000.
Responses are sent to a central database where data are analyzed and reports are generated and made available for download in PDF.
The University of Guelph Library initiated a pilot testing project in 2007. The report found that University of Guelph students perform better than their peers on several key Information Literacy skills.
An analysis of the Fall 2008 results from the testing will be available shortly. For more information contact:
Contact
The Research Team:
K. Jane Burpee, Head researcher
Judy Wanner
Jocelyn Phillips
Ron Ward
Reports & Presentations
Project Sails Results: What do they mean? January 2009 (PDF – 430kb)
Project Sails Results: Guelph/McMaster? January 2008 (PDF – 178kb)
University of Guelph Project SAILS 2008 Report (PDF – 924kb)
University of Guelph Project SAILS 2007 Report (PDF – 633kb)
Additional Resources
O'Connor, Lisa G., Carolyn J. Radcliff, and Julie A. Gedeon. Applying Systems Design and Item Response Theory to the Problem of Measuring Information Literacy Skills. College and Research Libraries. 63, no. 6 (2002): 528-543. (PDF – 505kb)
O'Connor, Lisa G., Carolyn J. Radcliff, and Julie A. Gedeon. Assessing Information Literacy Skills: Developing a Standardized Instrument for Institutional and Longitudinal Measurement. In H. A. Thompson (Ed.), Crossing the Divide: Proceedings of the Tenth National Conference of the Association of College and Research Libraries (Chicago: 2001), 163-174. (PDF – 57kb)
Salem, Jospeh A. and Carolyn J. Radcliff. Using the SAILS Test to Assess Information Literacy. Building Effective, Sustainable, Practical Assessment: Proceedings of the Second Library Assessment Conference (Charlottesville: 2006), 131-137. (PPT – 1.1mb)
What is SAILS brochure (PDF – 12kb)
