“Working with the committee has been terrific,” said Norbert Elliot, PhD, professor, department of English at NJIT, who spearheaded the collaboration. “We’ve learned that our portfolio assessment of information literacy http://www.library.njit.edu/infolit/ complements the information management tasks developed at ETS.   Now using both tests, we can assess better how students use information, as well as how to strengthen information literacy skills.”

The literacy assessment measures a student’s ability to use critical thinking to define, access, manage, integrate, evaluate, create and communicate information in a technological environment. Test takers must perform 15 information management tasks—such as extracting information from a database, developing a spreadsheet, or composing an e-mail summary of research findings—in a simulated online testing environment.

Other universities on the panel are University of Wisconsin, University of Texas, Purdue University and the University of California, Los Angeles.

ETS offers two versions of the ICT Literacy Assessment, which have been administered to more than 10,000 students at 65 institutions since January 2005. The core level is designed for high school seniors and first-year students at community colleges and four-year institutions. The advanced level is designed for rising juniors at four-year institutions and students transitioning from community colleges to four-year institutions.

The 75-minute assessments will be available for continuous testing beginning August 15, 2006 and scores will be available online within two weeks. The internet-delivered tests can be administered at any time in a proctored computer lab or computer-equipped classroom.