Using Portfolio Items to Assess Information Literacy

In 1998, the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) developed nine standards for information literacy skills. Students with these skills are equipped to recognize their learning objectives, identify their information needs, acquire information, evaluate information, and share the results of their effort. These skills are keys to lifelong learning. Standard assessment tools, such as select response, closed-constructed response, and even open-ended-constructed response questions are sufficiently dynamic to align with the real-world experiences of learners exercising information literacy skills. In this study, an information structure was designed for students to use to describe learning activities. These written, student-generated items become part of a student’s portfolio. It is proposed that this information structure can serve as an alternative, authentic tool to assess students’ information literacy skills. Two student portfolio items are presented in this report along with a description of the process used to create assessments.