Implementing A First-Year Research Assessment

Authors

Savanna L. Nolan, University of Baltimore School of LawFollow

Document Type

Conference Proceeding

Publication Date

2017

Abstract

University of Baltimore Law librarians do not have a formal role in teaching legal research, but are frequent guest lecturers and recognized research experts. As such, we volunteered to administer UB's first summative assessment in accordance with the recent implementation of ABA Standard 314. This poster shows the steps taken to design, execute, and grade this legal research assessment, as well as how we reported the results to stakeholders.

The assessment had an objective true/false and multiple-choice section, and a subjective essay question. The librarians selected objective questions considering the core legal research competencies identified by RIPS-SIS following the MacCrate Report. The objective questions were loaded into TWEN as a "quiz," and the subjective question was uploaded as an "assignment." We used TWEN to automate grading the objective section. Using a rubric, two librarians graded each subjective essay.

Finally, the library compiled a 55-page report detailing the qualitative and quantitative results. The data showed that classes with regular lectures from librarians did better on the assessment. Consequently, the librarians will teach at least four standardized 75-minute classes to each 1L section in the fall.

Comments

This poster was presented at the 2017 Annual Conference for the American Association of Law Libraries in Austin, Texas.

Recommended Citation

Savanna L. Nolan, Implementing a First-Year Research Assessment (July 2017)(poster presentation, American Association of Law Libraries Annual Meeting 2017).