Student learning assessment in library instruction has taken many as many forms as teaching itself in academic libraries. Library instructional services staff and faculty at one public four-year university had experienced top-down assessment approaches, including evaluations based on peer observations, summative quizzes testing students’ skills, and mandated universal tools for measuring student learning. When a new-to-academia librarian joined this team, tasked with a new position coordinating instructional assessment, they jumped at the opportunity to revamp colleagues’ perceptions of assessment and integrate evidence-based decision-making into their instruction. This presentation will outline the two-year project during which the reference department took a deep dive into assessment and instructional techniques to refresh and renew each instructor’s approaches to their teaching. Content will include updated findings from the project, including assessment results from instruction sessions, assessment techniques shared during mini-workshops, and insights shared by library faculty and staff about the process. Asking instructors to shift from an output to outcomes-focused approach to their instruction was a challenge, and the project included a mix of successes and failures. The presenter will highlight meaningful aha moments shared by library instructors as well as those efforts that were most definitely duds. Attendees will learn techniques and strategies for coaching colleagues, encouraging growth, and fostering an atmosphere of experimentation—all from a position without organizational authority. Along the way, attendees will gain insight into their own instructional assessment approaches and take away new ideas for how to integrate those efforts intentionally and meaningfully into their lesson plans.
