What in the Assessment Are We Doing? A Snapshot of Student Learning Assessment in Health Science Libraries

Objective: When it comes to education and instruction, there’s no clear answer to what health science librarians/information professionals are doing in student learning assessment and if the methodologies they use are helpful and successful in receiving responses. This project looks to answer two questions: do health science librarians assess student learning in the context of health-related information literacy, and what strategies do health science librarians employ to encourage students to complete learning assessments? Methods: A twelve-question survey was developed using the Springshare LibWizard tool. It was sent out to library listservs: MCMLA, ICON, MEDLIB-L, AAHSL (Deans/Directors), ACRL, Health Literacy, MLA Expert-Searching, and the MLA Dental caucus on December 5, 2023, and closed on December 22, 2023. Follow-up virtual interviews were completed between January and February 2024. Results: Forty-three individuals responded to the survey, and five health science librarians participated in follow-up virtual interviews. Five themes emerged from the results: Time, Outcomes (good and bad), Experience, and Resources (tools and individuals). Conclusions: The result from this survey provides a snapshot of student learning assessment practices used by health science librarians and how students are encouraged to complete their assessments. Librarians are delivering assessments in orientations and one-shots the most and have looked at various technologies to provide these assessments: QR codes, AI, specific online tools, and more. The authors recommend that more research in this area needs to be conducted.