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Teaching with Data: CET Assignment Repository from USC

The resources included represent 12 data-driven assignments created by USC faculty recipients of the Provost's Data-Driven Assignment Grant Program in Spring 2015. The faculty grant recipients worked with instructional designers in the USC Center for Excellence in Teaching to design these assignments in accordance with advancing USC's strategic focus on data literacy for students including abilities to think critically about data, ask meaningful questions, make evidence-based observations, and communicate findings.

Primary and Secondary Sources Tutorial

This interactive learning module takes students through the process of identifying the differences between primary and secondary sources. The structure of the tutorial consists of four parts. First, students learn the definitions for both primary and secondary sources. Next, the students work through various examples of primary and secondary sources in different academic disciplines at their own pace. In the third part, common mistakes are addressed in “Mythbusters” style.

Simply Map: Visualizing Census and Survey Data

This instructional session coincided with a project comparing data from two cities for an Urban Studies 1000 level (Freshmen) course. The session provided a basic overview of Simply Map as a web-based application, described the data available within and its origins (Census, American Community Survey, etc.), two activities for creating and visualizing the data, and supporting materials for understanding the data including a libguide and deliverable handout.

Pass the Problem

This group activity can be used in a variety of disciplines and contexts. Pass the Problem aims to have students provide feedback to other students on database and keyword selection. By having students critique each other it works to build critical self-reflection during the research process (it's also pretty fun!).

ACRL IS Information Literacy in the Disciplines

The Information Literacy in the Disciplines site is published by the Instruction Section of the Association of College and Research Libraries. It is designed for instructors and librarians who are interested in incorporating information literacy skills into existing curriculum. Resources included on the site fall into two classes of materials:

1)  standards or guidelines from accrediting agencies and professional associations
2)  supplementary materials such as curricula, articles, and presentations

Business Plan Workshop -- Learning the Basics

Entering students all take MGT101 – Business Management Practice. Creation of a business plan for a unique product or service is the major project for this course. This Library assignment uses a workshop format to give student groups in Management 101 the task of exploring, evaluating, and reviewing a particular resource important in the business plan research process.

Annotated Bibliography / Introduction to Disciplines

This annotated bibliography assignment has five different versions for five different groups of disciplines: arts, humanities, social analysis (social sciences), life and physical sciences, and quantitative reasoning. Each is meant to give students a way to identify and explore the key types of scholarly sources in those disciplinary categories; for example, to understand what is meant by a primary source in each category.

Teaching Commons

The Teaching Commons brings together high-quality open educational resources from leading colleges and universities. Curated by librarians and their institutions, the Teaching Commons includes open access textbooks, course materials, lesson plans, multimedia, and more.

Interview a Scholar

Students interview their professor(s) and ask them to describe how they do research, how research gets disseminated in their discipline, etc. Each student can ask one question below. This assignment can be useful as a “first day of class” activity for a First Year Seminar. Novice researchers are introduced to scholarly discourse and discipline-specific approaches to producing knowledge by experts.