Library and Information Science Commons^™

Assessing Synthesis Of Information From Sources, Sarah P.C. Dahlen

Library Faculty Publications and Presentations

Synthesis of information from sources is an important component of information literacy, and one that is perhaps less straightforward to teach and to assess than other information literacy skills. At the author’s institution, synthesis was identified as an area in which students were not demonstrating proficiency at the desired level. This led to an iterative, multi-year process of working with faculty from across disciplines to develop, employ, and revise a rubric that measures synthesis and its component parts. The author found that using a multidimensional rubric such as the one developed is a viable method for assessing students’ ability to …