Liberal Studies

Submitted by Yvonne Mery on October 6th, 2020
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Short Description: 

Developed in order to move students away from an outdated checklist approach to evaluating online content, we developed this tutorial to teach students how to read laterally and think critically. This tutorial consists of several small chunks of microlearning activities including an assignment. Students can complete as much or as little as they feel they need.

Learning Outcomes: 
  • Students will explain why online information needs to be evaluated for trustworthiness
  • Students will describe the strategy of lateral reading that fact checkers employ to verify trustworthiness
  • Students will describe the criteria of process, expertise, and aim
  • Students will apply the skill of lateral reading related to societal and political issues 
  • Students will evaluate different online articles for trustworthiness using the three criteria of process, expertise, and aim

 

 

 

 

 

Information Literacy concepts:

Individual or Group:

Course Context (e.g. how it was implemented or integrated): 

This tutorial and optional assignment can serve as a stand alone tutorial or can be used in the flipped classroom. 

Suggested Citation: 
Mery, Yvonne . "How Do I Evaluate Online Information by Reading Laterally?." CORA (Community of Online Research Assignments), 2020. https://projectcora.org/assignment/how-do-i-evaluate-online-information-reading-laterally.
Submitted by Justin de la Cruz on December 15th, 2019
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Short Description: 

A primer on how to read academic articles by guiding the class through a series of questions. Give students 5-15 minutes per slide to answer the questions (individually or in groups) before talking about their answers to questions with the whole class.

Attachments: 
AttachmentSize
Reading Academic Articles.pdfdisplayed 1574 times67.6 KB
Learning Outcomes: 
  1. Students will learn how to quickly categorize academic articles based on content.
  2. Students will learn about three levels of engaging with an academic article — reading, analyzing, and contextualizing — and what to do during each step.
  3. Students will better understand how academic articles are written.
  4. Students will better understand how to read academic articles.

Individual or Group:

Tags:

Course Context (e.g. how it was implemented or integrated): 
Additional Instructor Resources (e.g. in-class activities, worksheets, scaffolding applications, supplemental modules, further readings, etc.): 
Potential Pitfalls and Teaching Tips: 
Suggested Citation: 
de la Cruz, Justin. "Reading Academic Articles." CORA (Community of Online Research Assignments), 2019. https://projectcora.org/assignment/reading-academic-articles.
Submitted by Pascal Martinolli on November 8th, 2019
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Short Description: 

An open access MOOC in French to bonify the information literacy skills of university students (with Moodle).

Learning Outcomes: 

Students will know how to identify references in a bibliography, how to define their research subjects (synonyms & thesaurus), how to combine their keywords, which service to use (catalog, database, Google,...), how to assess the credibility of their sources, how to cite and respect copyrights, how to produce a bibliography with Zotero, how to adopt good practices for publishing (publishing process, open access, predators), how to set up alerts on topics, and what are bibliometry and literature review.

Individual or Group:

Course Context (e.g. how it was implemented or integrated): 

Integrated completely or partially into undergraduate and graduate courses. Also used as support to upgrade a specific information literacy skill of a student after a reference interview.

Assessment or Criteria for Success
Assessment Short Description: 
Each module is assessed by a 10 questions test.
Suggested Citation: 
Martinolli, Pascal. "MOOC BoniCI ." CORA (Community of Online Research Assignments), 2019. https://projectcora.org/assignment/mooc-bonici.
Submitted by Jeffrey Dowdy on November 5th, 2019
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Short Description: 

Through the course of researching a topic, students will learn about differences in types of information and how to use research to gather relevant terms to narrow a topic. 

Attachments: 
AttachmentSize
Worksheet with research activities, featuring the BEAM method. displayed 872 times20.61 KB
Learning Outcomes: 

Students will be able to sort information by type. 

Students will possess the necessary skills to direct their search towards certain types of information. 

Students will understand how to alter and select terms to broaden or narrow their search. 

Individual or Group:

Course Context (e.g. how it was implemented or integrated): 
Additional Instructor Resources (e.g. in-class activities, worksheets, scaffolding applications, supplemental modules, further readings, etc.): 
Potential Pitfalls and Teaching Tips: 

Strike a balance of giving enough information for the students to complete the activities while allowing students to "learn as they do." Discussion should be included after each activity. 

Suggested Citation: 
Dowdy, Jeffrey. "Topic Types Terms." CORA (Community of Online Research Assignments), 2019. https://projectcora.org/assignment/topic-types-terms.
Submitted by Desirae Zingarelli-Sweet on October 17th, 2019
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Short Description: 

This essay assignment asks students to reflect on their research process, evaluate on their sources, and reflect on social justice implications in reference to Catholic social teaching.

Attachments: 
AttachmentSize
Research Narrative Assignment.docxdisplayed 1098 times26.12 KB
Learning Outcomes: 

Students will: 1) Articulate and reflect on their research strategies and make meaning out of their experiences, 2) Evaluate individual sources and their chosen collection of sources as a whole according to criteria like authority, date, relevance, accuracy, and rationale, 3) Connect research questions and preliminary conclusions to social justice concerns and the Catholic social tradition.

Individual or Group:

Suggested Citation: 
Zingarelli-Sweet, Desirae. "Research Narrative Assignment: Integrating Reflection on Catholic Social Teaching." CORA (Community of Online Research Assignments), 2019. https://projectcora.org/assignment/research-narrative-assignment-integrating-reflection-catholic-social-teaching.
Submitted by Chelsea Heinbach on May 16th, 2019
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Short Description: 

This low-stakes, in-class assignment is designed to help first-year seminar students learn about important library resources and present their findings to their fellow students. In teams, students complete a series of authentic research tasks (called challenges) such as selecting and citing images from our digital collection and using our discovery tool to find books on the library shelves. Each team is also assigned a unique challenge to learn more about the library. Students spend the last twenty-five minutes of class designing a quick presentation in Canva and using it to teach each other about what they learned through their unique challenges.

Attachments: 
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Lesson Plandisplayed 928 times17.1 KB
Activity Challengesdisplayed 891 times109.77 KB
Learning Outcomes: 

Students will identify uses for library technologies and resources in order to teach their classmates. Students will examine metadata from an image found via the UNLV digital collections in order to write an accurate image citation. Students will design a slide in Canva that showcases library resources and technologies.

Individual or Group:

Course Context (e.g. how it was implemented or integrated): 

We used this lesson plan to provide library instruction for a first-year seminar for liberal arts students. The course was loosely themed around the idea of “a domain of one’s own,” i.e., equipping students to become thoughtful creators of digital content. The session was not tied to a particular research assignment, but the course instructor thought it was important to provide students with a general introduction to the library. The course instructor gave Mark few parameters for developing the lesson, instead asking Mark “to just tell them about the library.” Mark decided to collaborate with Brittany and Chelsea to transform the generic “welcome to the library” session that the instructor had asked for into something more vibrant.

Assessment or Criteria for Success
Assessment Short Description: 
Student groups checked in with us as they completed the succession of challenges in order to move on to the next stage. We also reviewed students’ presentations and Canva slides for evidence that students fulfilled our learning outcomes.
Potential Pitfalls and Teaching Tips: 

Although the goal of this lesson plan is to provide a casual, low-stakes learning experience for the students, the constraints of time and logistics require the instructors to undertake careful planning in advance. The clearer you can make your directions for each challenge, the more time students can devote to discovering library resources and sharing what they learned. You will probably want a second instructor to help students with logistical questions. If you cannot get an additional librarian colleague, an experienced student worker or even the course instructor could fill this role, but make sure that they understand the plan in advance. Try to avoid extending the lesson plan by shifting the presentation to an additional class session, as it will likely cause students to overthink what is meant to be a low-stakes and engaging activity.

Suggested Citation: 
Heinbach, Chelsea. "A Peer-to-Peer Introduction to the University Library." CORA (Community of Online Research Assignments), 2019. https://projectcora.org/assignment/peer-peer-introduction-university-library.
Submitted by Tessa Withorn on April 15th, 2019
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Short Description: 

The goal of this activity is to explore spaces, services, and information literacy (IL) concepts through problem-based scenarios, guided discovery, and peer teaching. Ideal for orientations for K-12, undergraduate, transfer, or graduate students, but can also be used for instruction requests with no clear research assignment or at the start of a research project. Students work in groups to find solutions to a scenario using guided directions and tools, and then teach the rest of the class based on their findings. The activity takes approximately 30-45 minutes, including student presentations, depending on class size and complexity of scenarios.

Attachments: 
AttachmentSize
Problem-based Scenarios for Library Instruction Lesson Plan.docxdisplayed 1794 times23.76 KB
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Problem Based Scenario Worksheet Template.docxdisplayed 1021 times26.62 KB
Learning Outcomes: 

After this activity, students will be able to:
● Describe study spaces and services within the library
● Navigate the library’s website
● Describe how the library provides resources necessary for academic success

Individual or Group:

Course Context (e.g. how it was implemented or integrated): 

Scenarios in the lesson plan have been used for a first-year English Composition course with about 15 students and no research assignment, but the instructor wanted a broad overview of the library, and a new student orientation for 30 transfer students.

Assessment or Criteria for Success
Assessment Short Description: 
Ask students to write down 1 thing they learned and 1 question or thing they are still unsure about. Answer any remaining questions.
Potential Pitfalls and Teaching Tips: 

Timing: Works best when scenarios take approximately the same amount of time for each group to explore and answer the So What? question. Or, have a back-up activity or task for students to work on if their group finishes early.

Complexity and discovery: In crafting your scenario and guided instructions, think about what students might already know and how they can use that knowledge to think about libraries and information literacy in new ways. The goal of the scenario should be more than just completing a simple information retrieval task or learning how an information system works. Focus on getting students started by suggesting tools and strategies they may be unfamiliar with, but encourage students to explore, discover, and reflect on the scenarios in relationship to their own processes and experiences.

Suggested Citation: 
Withorn, Tessa. "Problem-based Scenarios for Library Instruction." CORA (Community of Online Research Assignments), 2019. https://projectcora.org/assignment/problem-based-scenarios-library-instruction.
Submitted by Anaya Jones on March 19th, 2019
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Short Description: 

This is a participatory, variable lesson frame ready for you to modify to suit your instruction needs. This lesson and it's variations focuses on encouraging students to see themselves as information creators and part of the scholarly conversation and can also variously include conversations about about the scholarly information cycle and/or authority depending on instruction constraints and configuration.

Attachments: 
AttachmentSize
StudentScholarLessonPlanTermCourse.pdfdisplayed 1573 times745.53 KB
StudentScholarLessonPlanTermCourse.docxdisplayed 974 times22.84 KB
StudentScholarLessonPlanSingleSessionScholarlyProcessFocus.pdfdisplayed 1270 times440.62 KB
StudentScholarLessonPlanSingleSessionScholarlyProcessFocus.docxdisplayed 987 times20.46 KB
StudentScholarLessonPlanSingleSessionAuthorityFocus.pdfdisplayed 1096 times437.39 KB
StudentScholarLessonPlanSingleSessionAuthorityFocus.docxdisplayed 971 times20.03 KB
Student Scholar Lesson Plan Start Heredisplayed 1246 times572.13 KB
AttachmentSize
Sample Artifact.pdfdisplayed 1292 times149.96 KB
StudentScholarAssignmentInstructions.pdfdisplayed 2209 times782.72 KB
Learning Outcomes: 

Students will consider the value and authority of various sources and analyze the strengths of different types of information on their topic.
Students will be able to summarize the scholarly information process and see themselves as actual and potential information creators.
-More possible, see documentation.

Individual or Group:

Suggested Citation: 
Jones, Anaya. "Cast Your Students as Scholars." CORA (Community of Online Research Assignments), 2019. https://projectcora.org/assignment/cast-your-students-scholars.
Submitted by Pascal Martinolli on July 24th, 2018
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Short Description: 

Comment envoyer une minorité d'étudiants surmotivés sur des objectifs pédagogiques intégrés et connexes dont le parcours est structuré ?
1) Faire une courte introduction engageante (15min.)
2) Identifier la minorité surmotivée et leur distribuer un parcours.
3) Assurer une supervision mininal avec un suivi distant et ponctuel au besoin.
Avec 2 exemples de parcours: une auto-initiation en 5 niveaux pour contribuer à Wikipédia; et un programme de 12 semaines pour démarrer un blogue sur un sujet de recherche.

How to get the few really motivated students involved? By asking them to fulfil « side-quests » learning activities in a structured itinerary :
1) Present a short but engaging initiation [sur quoi?] (15 min.) ;
2) After identifying the motivated students, give them a formal checklist [pour quoi?];
3) If needed, provide minimum mentoring and follow-up
Here are two examples : 5-steps self-initiation on how to contribute to Wikipedia and 12-weeks program to start a blog on research topic.

Learning Outcomes: 

Contributing to Wikipédia and starting a research blog.

Individual or Group:

Course Context (e.g. how it was implemented or integrated): 
Additional Instructor Resources (e.g. in-class activities, worksheets, scaffolding applications, supplemental modules, further readings, etc.): 
Potential Pitfalls and Teaching Tips: 
Suggested Citation: 
Martinolli, Pascal. "Missionner les étudiants surmotivés sur des objectifs connexes / Self-driven side-quests with minimum mentoring." CORA (Community of Online Research Assignments), 2018. https://projectcora.org/assignment/missionner-les-%C3%A9tudiants-surmotiv%C3%A9s-sur-des-objectifs-connexes-self-driven-side-quests.
Submitted by Pascal Martinolli on July 24th, 2018
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Short Description: 

Synthèse ludique des ateliers d'évaluation des sources. Peut être utilisé comme récompense : un exemplaire plastifié est offert à l'étudiant qui trouve l'erreur volontairement insérée dans la formation (les autres n'ont que la feuille en papier). Autre utilisation : trouver le document le plus faible parmi vos références, ou parmi les références du syllabus de tel cours.

Gamified summary for the evaluation of sources activity. A laminated copy could be used as award for the first student who discovers the mistake deliberately put in the learning activity; the other participants only get a paper copy of the sheet. Another use : in a list of bibliographic references, find the weakest one.

Attachments: 
AttachmentSize
foutaisometre-french.pdfdisplayed 1761 times278.34 KB
Learning Outcomes: 

Summary of the evaluation of sources activity. Wrap-up.

Individual or Group:

Course Context (e.g. how it was implemented or integrated): 
Additional Instructor Resources (e.g. in-class activities, worksheets, scaffolding applications, supplemental modules, further readings, etc.): 
Potential Pitfalls and Teaching Tips: 
Suggested Citation: 
Martinolli, Pascal. "Foutaisomètre / Bullshit-o-meter." CORA (Community of Online Research Assignments), 2018. https://projectcora.org/assignment/foutaisom%C3%A8tre-bullshit-o-meter.

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