The portfolio: an instruction program assessment tool

Abstract

Although Odum Library has had a strong instruction program for many years, it has lacked any form of evaluation other than statistics. The Odum Library Instruction Team made creation of such an evaluation system a high priority last year and devised tools that could assess many aspects of instruction. The tools created included end‐of‐class surveys for measuring student satisfaction, self‐evaluation forms, peer‐evaluation forms for constructive feedback, and class‐specific evaluation forms. Once these tools were in place, the Instruction Team needed a way to organize and analyze the information; after a review of literature and materials from the ACRL Institute for Information Literacy, a program portfolio was devised. The purpose of the portfolio, items included in the portfolio, selling the portfolio to the entire Reference Team, and tips for creating a portfolio are discussed.