EVALUATIONS

This practicum will eventually feature three unique evaluations – a self-evaluation upon my entrance to the Duke AUX department, a second self-evaluation upon my exit, and an evaluation of my site supervisor.

Self-Evaluation I

Completed 22 January, before the start of my practicum.

You can view my completed self-evaluation form here. Below you can see a breakdown of all the elements of that evaluation.

Professional Behavior and Attributes

Superior Good Weak/Needs Improvement Comments
Quality of Work X I enjoy putting forth the best end-product that I possibly can.
Quantity of Work X I put quality over quantity, but I still produce adequate final projects.
Dependability X I'm a reliable employee and project partner.
Initiative X I can have a hard time taking initiative, for fear of seeming over-assertive or rude.
Interpersonal Relationships with Constituents X I enjoy helping clients/thepublic/students.
Interpersonal Relationships with Peers X I tend to wait for others to make the first move with office relationships.
Demonstrates Professional Attitude X I take work very seriously – I enjoy having something to show up for every day and to put my mind to.
Work Ethic X I see what I do as an important role in libraries and for student communities; my effort makes a difference and I take that seriously.

Management Skills

Superior Good Weak/Needs Improvement Comments
Planning and Organizing X I enjoy taking time to organize the ins and outs of project planning.
Completion of Projects X I can be a perfectionist, making getting projects completed on-time an occasional hassle.
Effective Use of Time X I sometimes have a difficult time knowing how to prioritize elements of a project, and therefore devoting the right amount of time to certain areas.
Evaluating Work Effectiveness X I do a good job in taking a hard look at my own skills and reflecting on what needs improving before taking the steps needed to fix problems.
Judgment X I can set aside personal emotions in order to determine what the next best course of action is.
Innovativeness X I am good at coming up with unique ideas as well as helping foster the creativity of my teammates.

Final Comments

Strengths: Self-driven; takes direction well; has a good sense of organization and focus.

Weaknesses: Learning how to best orchestrate projects; how to better mange project time; and how to promote myself in the workplace.

Self-Evaluation II

Completed 27 April, the final week of my practicum.

Professional Behavior and Attributes

Superior Good Weak/Needs Improvement Comments
Quality of Work X I have surprised myself with a lot of the work I’ve put out. The reports I’ve finished for AUX are ones that I’m proud to have my name on, and would love to see published.
Quantity of Work X While I didn’t accomplish every task assigned to me while at AUX (with department limitations eventually in play), I am very satisfied with how much work I was able to accomplish.
Dependability X With the exception of one week, I was always on time and always stayed for my full shift.
Initiative X I took initiative on a number of projects, steering the department towards things I thought would help the library as a whole.
Interpersonal Relationships with Constituents X The few interactions I had with students were fun but professional.
Interpersonal Relationships with Peers X This is still something I’d like to see improvement on, as I still wait for others to make the first move.
Demonstrates Professional Attitude X I make work place a serious place of work, and like to keep the tone professional but light – this hasn’t changed.
Work Ethic X I worked hard every hour that I spent with AUX – it helped that I had genuinely interesting projects to work on, and felt that I was bettering a great community of library-goers.

Management Skills

Superior Good Weak/Needs Improvement Comments
Planning and Organizing X The few projects that I overtook as my own were ones that ran smoothly and without any notable problems.
Completion of Projects X My timing on projects can still get a bit messy; overall, I did a great job of setting up goals and seeing them accomplished.
Effective Use of Time X This is an area where I am an okay worker. I tended to work through lunch, which isn’t a horrible thing – but taking breaks are good for mental health, and that’s something I need to keep in mind in the future.
Evaluating Work Effectiveness X For the most part, I was familiar and capable with all tasks assigned to me. When I was unfamiliar with a task at hand, I had no problem reaching out to other team members for assistance in training.
Judgment X I continuously showed good judgment in choosing projects, planning my work schedules, and presenting my work during departmental meetings.
Innovativeness X A number of projects required certain levels of innovation and tweaking – these were projects that I had a lot of fun with, as I got to be a bit more creative and also had some extra pressure applied (a scenario that I apparently work well under).

Final Comments

Strengths: I was proud of the work I did with sticking to things that I felt were truly important, and pushing forward with them. I also feel that I did a good job in handling more sensitive situations with ease and professionalism – even though some of the projects I worked on faced pushback in the department, I didn’t take it personally or get emotional. Instead, I simply re-evaluated where I was coming from, and formed new ways of thinking about what I was trying to do.

Weaknesses: I still have a lot to learn about usability testing. If I really were to enter a job and try and create more room for UX work, that is somewhere that I would need more experience. I also think I have more to learn about inter-office relationships, and creating the most of working with my coworkers.

Supervisor Evaluation

Professional Behavior and Attributes

Superior Good Does not Apply or Not Observed Comments
Quality of Work X
Quantity of Work X
Dependability X
Initiative X See comments below – Hannah took the initiative on a number of occasions to improve effectiveness of current workflows in AUX and went beyond the minimum requirements of a number of tasks and projects in Duke Libraries.
Interpersonal Relationships with Constituents X
Interpersonal Relationships with Peers X
Demonstrates Professional Attitude X
Work Ethic X

Management Skills

Superior Good Does not Apply or Not Observed Comments
Planning and Organizing X Hannah is exceptionally organized, taking advantage of online tools like Basecamp and My Hours, to track her time and work with Duke Libraries.
Completion of Projects X
Effective Use of Time X Hannah achieved a great deal during her weeks with us; I feel this is due to her highly effective management of time.
Evaluating Work Effectiveness X
Judgment X
Innovativeness X Hannah is not afraid to suggest new approaches to solving problems, and her comfort with various technologies and creativity made her an ideal fit for the AUX dept.

Final Comments

Strengths: Hannah is extremely talented in a number of areas, and she applied many of her talents (tech expertise, graphic design talents, aptitude for systems thinking, to name just a few!). She is very organized and has a great deal of energy and interest in a variety of topics and aspects of UX and librarianship, which made her a very good fit for the AUX department. She took her role in AUX very seriously and made valuable contributions and improvements to departmental workflows (e.g. developing a process for archiving and sharing departmental works, a template for documenting user studies and resulting findings). I very much appreciated Hannah’s ability to apply her “fresh eyes” to our work and her interest and investment in making things work more effectively and efficiently – Hannah is leaving her mark on AUX, which is always my highest hope for a practicum student.

Weaknesses: Hannah is not shy about voicing her opinion or sharing her perspective about an issue, which I very much valued this spring. She worked well in the AUX department and, as noted above, contributed at the level of a fully engaged staff member. While this worked fine for AUX (I saw it as an asset, in fact!), I can imagine some instances in which Hannah’s strong personality and presence might cause others pause or slight discomfort. I have no doubt that Hannah has the maturity and sound judgement to handle situations like these with grace.

HRHILES