I am pleased to announce that the Augustana Campus Library of the University of Alberta is releasing its Information Literacy assessment and survey software called WASSAIL as an open source application.

WASSAIL is a database-driven, Web-based application employing PHP, MySQL, and Javascript/AJAX technologies. It was created to manage question and response data from the Augustana Campus Library's Information Literacy (IL) sessions, pre-/post-tests from credit-bearing IL courses, and user surveys. Its most powerful feature is the ability to create sophisticated reports very easily.

 A robust assessment tool, WASSAIL enables individuals/institutions to:

• Track assessment data by course and by instructor
• Collect and manage institution-specific questions (including: Likert-style; open-ended, subjective or qualitative questions; and/or pre-defined multiple-choice-style questions)
• Categorize questions in folksonomic and traditional manners or by ACRL IL standards
• Group the questions into institution-specific templates
• Apply the templates to individual courses to gather data through tests or surveys administered on paper or via the Web
• Generate queries/reports on the resulting data including:
  • Statistical analysis for each question (exempting qualitative)
  • Graphical display of statistical analysis for each question (exempting qualitative)
  • Listing of responses by question for open-ended, subjective or qualitative questions
  • Accommodate the use of pre-tests and post-tests, comparing the two related data sets to display the net learning by students
    WASSAIL is available for download as open source software to individual/institutional users at http://www.augustana.ualberta.ca/library/infolit/wassail/
    

Guest access to try WASSAIL before downloading and installing is available at: https://wassail.augustana.ualberta.ca/ (username: "guest" and password: "tryWASSAIL" ) .. note that data in this login is not backed up or managed in any way.

WASSAIL is a server application and cannot be installed to a local computer.

Enjoy!

Nancy

Nancy Goebel
Head Librarian/Human Rights Advisor
Augustana Campus, University of Alberta
4901-46 Ave
Camrose, AB, Canada
T4V 2R3
ph: 780-679-1189
fax: 780-679-1597
ngoebel@augustana.ca