Type of Presentation
Poster Session
Conference Strand
Assessment
Target Audience
Higher Education
Second Target Audience
Higher Education
Proposal
It is very common for academic libraries to offer information literacy programs for first-year writing students. These programs have several goals and aim to equip students with information literacy skills, including evaluating and reflecting, interpreting, seeking, inquiring, and managing information. The primary goal of program evaluation is to drive improvement. (Fitzpatrick et al., 2011). Fitzpatrick et al. (2011) also noted that evaluation serves many purposes, including determining a program's merit or worth, supporting decision-making, organizing a program, and improving a program.
As an instruction librarian, I taught information literacy sessions for first-year writing students in the English department at both a community college and a university for many years. Assessment was conducted through student feedback surveys. However, a gap was identified in determining how these sessions impacted overall writing course objectives. To address this gap, I created a plan for evaluating information literacy sessions in first-year writing courses as part of a project for my doctoral evaluation class. The evaluation plan utilizes a comprehensive, mixed-methods design that would involve multiple stakeholders, such as students in the first-year writing courses, instructors of first-year writing courses, library assessment coordinators, instruction librarians, and library administrators. This poster presentation clearly explains the complete proposal for evaluation design, outlining all potential data sources such as student and faculty feedback surveys, focus group interviews, suggestions for collection methods, participant involvement strategies, and the specific analyses one could use for guided questions. While the evaluation has not yet been implemented, this fully developed plan is a valuable, scalable assessment tool for future use in demonstrating the comprehensive impact of library instruction in first-year writing programs.
References
Fitzpatrick, J. L., Sanders, J. R. & Worthen, B. R. (2011). Program evaluation: Alternative approaches and practical guidelines (4th ed.). Boston: Pearson.
Short Description
This poster session presents a plan for assessment developed in a doctoral program evaluation course. The proposal outlines a strategy for systematically evaluating an information literacy program for the first-year writing (FYW) classes. This evaluation plan shows how a foundational course in program evaluation can equip librarians with the skills to create actionable and meaningful assessments.
Keywords
First-year writing (FYW), Information literacy, Program evaluation, Evaluation approaches, Formative approaches, Summative approaches, FYW instructors, Single-shot information literacy session, Scholarly peer-reviewed articles, Subject-specific database skills, Library classification system
Publication Type and Release Option
Presentation (Open Access)
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Reza, Mohammed Z., "A Proposal for an Information Literacy Evaluation Plan for First-Year Writing (FYW) Courses" (2026). Georgia International Conference on Information Literacy. 3.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/gaintlit/2026/2026/3
Included in
A Proposal for an Information Literacy Evaluation Plan for First-Year Writing (FYW) Courses
It is very common for academic libraries to offer information literacy programs for first-year writing students. These programs have several goals and aim to equip students with information literacy skills, including evaluating and reflecting, interpreting, seeking, inquiring, and managing information. The primary goal of program evaluation is to drive improvement. (Fitzpatrick et al., 2011). Fitzpatrick et al. (2011) also noted that evaluation serves many purposes, including determining a program's merit or worth, supporting decision-making, organizing a program, and improving a program.
As an instruction librarian, I taught information literacy sessions for first-year writing students in the English department at both a community college and a university for many years. Assessment was conducted through student feedback surveys. However, a gap was identified in determining how these sessions impacted overall writing course objectives. To address this gap, I created a plan for evaluating information literacy sessions in first-year writing courses as part of a project for my doctoral evaluation class. The evaluation plan utilizes a comprehensive, mixed-methods design that would involve multiple stakeholders, such as students in the first-year writing courses, instructors of first-year writing courses, library assessment coordinators, instruction librarians, and library administrators. This poster presentation clearly explains the complete proposal for evaluation design, outlining all potential data sources such as student and faculty feedback surveys, focus group interviews, suggestions for collection methods, participant involvement strategies, and the specific analyses one could use for guided questions. While the evaluation has not yet been implemented, this fully developed plan is a valuable, scalable assessment tool for future use in demonstrating the comprehensive impact of library instruction in first-year writing programs.
References
Fitzpatrick, J. L., Sanders, J. R. & Worthen, B. R. (2011). Program evaluation: Alternative approaches and practical guidelines (4th ed.). Boston: Pearson.
