iSkills™ Assessment
[ NOTE: If the iSkills Assessment has been assigned to you, please register here: Students Register Here ]
What is iSkills and what does it assess?
The iSkills assessment is designed to measure the information and communication technology skills required of today’s students.
To see example questions and gather more information about the iSkills assessment, please see this demonstration of the iSkills Assessment.
The iSkills assessment:
- measures your students’ ability to navigate, critically evaluate and make sense of the wealth of information available through digital technology
- is the only ICT literacy test that assesses critical thinking in the digital environment
- tests the range of ICT literacy skills aligned with nationally recognized Association of Colleges and Research Libraries (ACRL) standards
- helps you identify where further curriculum development is needed so students have the ICT literacy skills they need to succeed
iSkills Areas (from ETS):
- Define: Understand and articulate the scope of an information problem in order to facilitate the electronic search for information
- Access: Collect and/or retrieve information in digital environments. Information sources might be web pages, databases, discussion groups, e-mail or online descriptions of print media.
- Evaluate: Judge whether information satisfies an information problem by determining authority, bias, timeliness, relevance and other aspects of materials.
- Manage: Organize information to help you or others find it later.
- Integrate: Interpret and represent information (e.g. using digital tools to synthesize) summarize, compare and contrast information from multiple sources.
- Create: Adapt, apply, design or construct information in digital environments.
- Communicate: Disseminate information tailored to a particular audience in an effective digital format.
CSU Students will take the iSkills Advanced Assessment
- Appropriate for students transitioning to upper-level coursework or the workplace
- Designed with more challenging tasks to help rising juniors and institutions determine student readiness for advanced-level study
- Evaluates mastery of skills necessary for workplace success
For more information, please see the ETS iSkills Assessment web site: http://www.ets.org
- Senior students from all eight colleges on campus
Students will receive individual score reports providing overall scaled scores and performance feedback organized by proficiency.
- Spring semester 2008
- If the assessment will not work during your scheduled class meeting time, students should register to take it during one of the scheduled times. See the iSkills Student Registration page for dates, times, and locations.
- Two computer classrooms in the library (EIL1 & EIL2) will be scheduled to take the assessment because a special secure browser is needed for the iSkills test
How do I schedule a time to have my students take the assessment?
- Please contact
(491-1906) to schedule your class for the library computer classrooms. The classrooms fill up with library instruction classes, so please schedule as soon as you can to avoid conflicts.
- Drop-in sessions can be scheduled as well. Please contact Cathy to arrange the most convenient times for your students.
- Library staff can proctor the exam
When will the results be in?
- Students receive their individual score reports two weeks after the assessments have been taken
- Faculty will receive a composite score report for their classes in the form of an excel file, as well as a copy of the skill area report and an aggregate task performance feedback report in pdf format.
What will students get out of participating?
- An individual report showing the results of their assessment
What will faculty hope to gain/learn by use of class time for this test?
“The results of the iSkills™ assessment help administrators and faculty determine the strengths and weaknesses of either individual students, the entire student body, or subgroups defined by language, ethnic background, class year, major, or other characteristics.
The iSkills assessment provides individual student and aggregate institutional data which can be used to analyze the performance of various groups. Score results may be used to:
- Assess individual student proficiency in Information and Communication Technology (ICT)
- Plan curricula to address ICT literacy gaps
- Inform resource allocation decisions"
What will we do with this information once we have it?
- Share scores and aggregate data with participating faculty
- Share information with the individual students and provide score reports and aggregate data to participating faculty
- Provide feedback to Vice Provost for Undergraduate Affairs, Deans and Assistant Deans of Colleges
Why is this important?
- Used to define the FITness/Information Literacy program for CSU
Who will be in charge of this?
Who can I contact for more information?