Latest version of WASSAIL free infolit assessment tool available

WASSAIL version 3.1 is now available for free download. This application enables you to manage question and response data from information literacy sessions, pre- and post-tests from credit-bearing information literacy (IL) courses, and user surveys. Its producer Nancy Goebel (Head Librarian / Human Rights Advisor at Augustana Campus, University of Alberta) says that "This update's most significant change is the ability to alter the properties of online questionnaires after they have been saved (e.g. add additional responses, change the "respond by date," and other questionnaire parameters). In addition, other smaller bugs have been fixed and interface consistency has been worked on throughout the software." Additional information and download at http://www.library.ualberta.ca/augustana/infolit/wassail/
Photo by Sheila Webber: Rudbeckia, September 2012

An Essential Partner: The Librarian’s Role in Student Learning Assessment

Published in April, a 24-page booklet from the USA: Gilchrist, D. and Oakleaf, M. (2012) An Essential Partner: The Librarian’s Role in Student Learning Assessment. Champaign: National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment. http://www.msche.org/publications/LibraryLO_000%5B1%5D.pdf

New articles in Nordic Journal of Information Literacy in Higher Education

The Nordic Journal of Information Literacy in Higher Education 4 (1), 2012 includes:
Changing anatomies of Information Literacy at the postgraduate level: refinements of models and shifts in assessment by Sonja Spiranec, Mihaela Banek Zorica
Information Literacy from the Policy and Strategy Perspective by Sirje Virkus
The reflective information literacy educator by Andrew Whitworth
Go to: https://noril.uib.no/index.php/noril
Photo by Sheila Webber: Lilac, May 2012

Powerpoint on "Contract Cheating"

Interesting ppt from a recent conference, The New Challenges Of Contract Cheating by Thomas Lancaster and Robert Clarke (Birmingham City University). Contract cheating is putting up details about the assignment you want written for you, and people bid to do the work. The ppt explains the process and ways in which it might be detected. http://www.bcu.ac.uk/_media/docs/ContractCheatingSIG_220612_LancasterClarkeKeynote.pdf
Photo by Sheila Webber: Millennium sculpture and pontoon outside 02 dome on the Thames, from cable car, June 2012

Adult Students using a Scoring Rubric to develop Information Literacy Skills.

An "in press" article online at the Journal of Academic Librarianship (likely to be published in vol. 38 no. 3, 2012) is:
van Helvoort, A.A.J. How Adult Students in Information Studies Use a Scoring Rubric for the Development of Their Information Literacy Skills. "The purpose of this article is to expand on a previous study on the development of a scoring rubric for information literacy. The present paper examines how students at the Department of Information Services and Information Management, The Hague University, use the scoring rubric for their school work and/or in their regular jobs and social life."
JAL is also implementing Article Based Publishing so that "individual articles [are] to be published in their final form, including volume, issue and page number, before the volume itself [is] completed." Recent articles are at http://www.journals.elsevier.com/the-journal-of-academic-librarianship/recent-articles/
Photo by Sheila Webber: free art, seen on my way to work last week.