SAILS, Take 2: An Exploration of the "Build Your Own Test" Standardized IL Testing Option for Canadian Institutions.

Abstract

Several standardized and validated information literacy (IL) tests have been developed for use in U.S. post-secondary contexts, but fewer choices exist for schools outside of the U.S. In an earlier study (Cowan, Graham, & Eva, 2016) the authors explored IL testing at a Canadian university using the international version of the SAILS Cohort test. This article describes a second study that used the Build Your Own Test (BYOT)—a customizable version of the SAILS Individual Scores test—to evaluate undergraduate students’ IL learning. Pros and cons of using the Cohort and BYOT versions of SAILS are discussed, with the aim of providing guidance for other schools interested in pursuing such testing. The authors found the BYOT allowed them to better gauge the extent to which individual students’ IL ability levels changed over the course of one term.