Community of Online Research Assignments

An open access resource for librarians and educators

Reading, Research, and Writing: Teaching Information Literacy with Process-Based Research Assignments

Explores how reading and the writing process are as important as and critically connected to the research process. Chapter five has the greatest emphasis on information literacy. Provides examples of instructional support to facilitate conversations between librarians and faculty, as well as ways librarians can work directly with students.

Gooru

Gooru is a free, educational search engine for online resources and lesson plans in science, math, social studies and language arts. Teachers and students can search for and curate collections of multimedia resources, digital textbooks, videos, handouts, games, and quizzes.

Taste Testing for Two: Using Formative and Summative Assessment

This activity was created to introduce first-year students to library resources they can use for their annotated bibliography assignment. In pairs, students are assigned a task card that requires them to find an information source. After finding a source meeting the criteria of their task card, the student teams input their answers into a Google Form.

MLA Play

MLA Play consists of four lessons that guide the student to a better understanding of the essential patterns and formatting standards used in MLA format.

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.

Rewired: Research-Writing Partnerships within the Frameworks

Rewired: Research-Writing Partnerships within the Frameworks highlights the clear connections between two important disciplinary documents—the Framework for Success in Postsecondary Writing (CWPA, NCTE, and NWP, 2011) and the Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education (ACRL, 2016)—and examines partnerships between librarians and their colleagues who are teaching information literacy in new and impactful ways.

Information Literacy Assignment Bank

The Information Literacy Assignment Bank is designed to support collaboration between librarians and faculty at College of the Holy Cross by providing a framework and a repository of concrete, but flexible, examples of the ways that information literacy and librarians can be integrated into the academic curriculum. The Assignment Bank project was initiated in Spring 2016 by the Libraries’ Teaching & Learning Team.

ETS Proficiency Profile

The ETS® Proficiency Profile assesses four core skill areas: critical thinking, reading, writing, and mathematics--with a little bit of information literacy-- in a single test that the Voluntary System of Accountability (VSA) has selected as a gauge of general education outcomes. Option to add an essay to the ETS Proficiency Profile assessment is available as well as up to 50 locally authored questions. Fixed-choice questions, with a 40-minute version or a 2-hour version available. Cost is $12.50-$16.50 per student. 

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!).

Curriki

Offers educators more than 80,000 free learning activities for students in grades K-12 in a wide variety of academic subjects.

Summarizing different perspectives on a controversial topic

Using ProQuest SIRS Issues Researcher or similar database, groups of students work together to find and read four informative magazine articles representing a variety of opinions on a topic. For each magazine article they write an MLA citation. In an oral presentation of less than three minutes per group, they summarize the controversy without giving their own opinions and explain why they chose the four articles. Students are told to be prepared to answer questions about their topic and why they selected each of the four articles.

Source Notes

Students write to communicate and their writing, when citing sources, must communicate what they understand of others’ writings. By asking students to write with the purpose of summarizing, paraphrasing, and quoting a selected article to their classmate, they will experience what you experience when you read their writing. They will understand the purpose and mechanics of using sources in their writing. Activity is highly adaptable and suitable for independent readers high school and above. Activity can be modified for lower level learners.

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