Multidisciplinary

Submitted by Faith Rusk on August 9th, 2019
Share this on: 
Short Description: 

In this activity, students review correct in-text citations for a particular format, then practice writing their own examples. These examples are submitted anonymously via a google form, allowing for the collective and collaborative review.

Attachments: 
AttachmentSize
Active In-Text Citation Instruction & Practice.docxdisplayed 1293 times19.31 KB
Learning Outcomes: 

Students will be able to identify multiple ways to correctly cite in text
Students will be able to effectively integrate a source through summarizing, paraphrasing, or quoting
Students will be able to comment upon correct elements of a citation and critique incorrect elements and provide corrections

Discipline: 
Multidisciplinary

Individual or Group:

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

Used in one-shot library instruction classes

Additional Instructor Resources (e.g. in-class activities, worksheets, scaffolding applications, supplemental modules, further readings, etc.): 
Potential Pitfalls and Teaching Tips: 

Students need devices to submit their practice via the google form. A non-technology work around by is for students to hand write their examples, which the instructor collects and then copies onto the board (or retypes on the instructor computer), but it is time consuming.

Collaborators: 
Suggested Citation: 
Rusk, Faith. "Active In-Text Citation Instruction & Practice." CORA (Community of Online Research Assignments), 2019. https://projectcora.org/assignment/active-text-citation-instruction-practice.
Submitted by Faith Rusk on August 9th, 2019
Share this on: 
Short Description: 

This activity helps students collectively practice summarizing, paraphrasing and quoting. To begin, students have a conversation as a class on any topic of their choosing. The instructor transcribes the conversation and then as a group, the class examines the conversation and write summaries, paraphrases and quotes.

Attachments: 
AttachmentSize
Scholarship as Literal Conversation.docxdisplayed 748 times19.17 KB
Sample Transcription & Summary, Paraphrase, & Quote.docxdisplayed 650 times13.15 KB
Learning Outcomes: 

Students will be able to effectively summarize, paraphrase, and quote, using in-text citations

Discipline: 
Multidisciplinary

Information Literacy concepts:

Individual or Group:

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

This activity can be used in a one-shot library instruction class or by an instructor in a semester long course.

Potential Pitfalls and Teaching Tips: 

Students are often eager to lead their own discussion, but it they need prompting, don't be afraid to ask probing or follow up questions ("Why do you like hop-hop? What is it you enjoy?") or assign opinions to them, ("So your favorite type of music is show tunes!") to get them to explain why they do or do not like what you've thrown out, or respond instead with an opinion of their own.

Suggested Citation: 
Rusk, Faith. "Scholarship as Literal Conversation." CORA (Community of Online Research Assignments), 2019. https://projectcora.org/assignment/scholarship-literal-conversation.
Submitted by Lindsay Davis on July 12th, 2019
Share this on: 
Short Description: 

A "jigsaw lite" activity to help students recognize that the information tools and systems they use in their everyday and academic lives are not neutral as existing power structures are reflected in the creation, organization, and access of information. Students work in small groups to read an assigned article about bias in a tool, source type, or system and answer questions to share with the larger class.

Learning Outcomes: 

Students will be able to recognize that search tools and systems reflect power structures of race, gender, sexuality, class, etc.

Discipline: 
Multidisciplinary

Individual or Group:

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

This lesson and activity was designed for an upper-division Critical Race and Ethnic Studies (CRES) course, CRES 101 Race and the Media. While students didn’t need to include outside research for their media analysis assignment, due to the theme of the class, the graduate assistant and I felt that adding this layer of complexity would further contribute to students’ understanding of bias in knowledge creation, which is a unit covered in the course. After introducing the lesson using Polkinghorne's visualization and sharing the PBS NewsHour video, I divided students into six groups of five students. Each group read their assigned article, discussed and answered the discussion questions, and then reported what they learned to the class. While I link the articles on the online class guide, I also bring enough printed copies of the articles. For printing, I have found that it is easier to copy-paste the text of the articles into Microsoft Word / Google Docs. Although I included a handout with the discussion questions here in Project CORA, in class, I actually display the questions on the online class guide and have students write their answers on a large sticky note, which I provide, along with markers.

Potential Pitfalls and Teaching Tips: 

You may need to ask probing questions when students report their findings to the class. It can be helpful to remind students that not everyone has read the same article, so they need to provide enough information for classmates to understand the gist of the article. Though the general discussion questions allow for quick facilitation, which is helpful when swapping out articles for newer ones, you may want to develop more specific questions for each article. More targeted questions can help students focus on the most relevant parts of the reading. The articles will age quickly, so it's important to be on the lookout for short articles related to these issues. I have found that articles that fit on two pages in Microsoft Word / Google Docs work best for students to be able to read in class. True jigsaws can be challenging for a variety of instruction types, which is why I opted for in-person class reading in which students stayed in their groups and reported out their answers and thoughts to their classmates. This also helps combat anxiety students may feel about reading in a timed setting as they have others in their group who can help answer questions if they don't quite finish the article. There are many ways this lesson and activity can be adapted; it could work very well in a flipped setting, for example.

Suggested Citation: 
Davis, Lindsay. "Bias in Your Search Results." CORA (Community of Online Research Assignments), 2019. https://projectcora.org/assignment/bias-your-search-results.
Submitted by Peter Catlin on July 10th, 2019
Share this on: 
Short Description: 

A classroom activity and lesson plan for first-year students. Your students will learn to differentiate between different categories of items -- such as Popular/Scholarly, or Primary/Secondary/Tertiary -- by playing this fun and easy game.

Attachments: 
AttachmentSize
The Sorting Machine - lesson plan.pdfdisplayed 1450 times567.85 KB
Learning Outcomes: 

Students will:
• Correctly categorize library items.
• Describe the different role that each category plays in the research process.
• Discuss how particular items could be used in the research process, in the context of each item’s category.

Individual or Group:

Suggested Citation: 
Catlin, Peter. "The Sorting Machine." CORA (Community of Online Research Assignments), 2019. https://projectcora.org/assignment/sorting-machine.
Submitted by Zoeanna Mayhook on June 16th, 2019
Share this on: 
Short Description: 

Research Resources the card game is an information literacy activity adapted from Apples to Apples game rules. Players write down their research topics, and their teammates suggest resources based on gold resource cards they have been dealt. Attached are the game instructions, cards, and discussion questions.

Attachments: 
AttachmentSize
Research Resources - Instructions.docxdisplayed 949 times104.52 KB
Research Resources - Gold Template Cards Sample Pack.docxdisplayed 857 times447.24 KB
Research Resources - Gold Template Cards Blank.docxdisplayed 719 times260.65 KB
Research Resources - Purple Template Cards Blank.docxdisplayed 659 times268.77 KB
Research Resources - Discussion Questions.docxdisplayed 803 times31.49 KB
Learning Outcomes: 

Students will be able to develop the scope of their research topic, and match information needs to appropriate resources

Discipline: 
Multidisciplinary

Information Literacy concepts:

Individual or Group:

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

Game was developed for a multidisciplinary writing class. Game could be adapted to focus on specific subjects or disciplines.

Collaborators: 
Suggested Citation: 
Mayhook, Zoeanna. "Research Resources: The Card Game ." CORA (Community of Online Research Assignments), 2019. https://projectcora.org/assignment/research-resources-card-game.
Submitted by Carolyn Caffrey on June 13th, 2019
Share this on: 
Short Description: 

This lesson is designed for lower-division composition undergraduate students to learn frameworks for evaluating the audience and purpose of various information sources. After analyzing an array of sources for audience and purpose students can dig in to a source in more detail looking for markers of authority and discussing strategies for verifying claims.

Attachments: 
AttachmentSize
Audience and purpose concept mapdisplayed 1717 times82.87 KB
Evaluating a Source Worksheetdisplayed 1246 times8.94 KB
Slides for Studentsdisplayed 2274 times432.21 KB
Lesson plan outline and pictures of research stationsdisplayed 1393 times564.85 KB
Learning Outcomes: 

Students will be able to:
1) Articulate different markers of authority in a variety of information contexts
2) Identify the purpose and audience of different information formats

Individual or Group:

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

This lesson plan was designed for 60 minutes and delivered to 42 classes in 6 days as part of a summer early start composition program. We needed something that was fun, interactive, could be delivered by many different instructors back to back, and supported the overall course goals of reading rhetorically.

Prior to teaching the lesson we assembled six self contained "research stations." These were boxes (but could also be dedicated spaces) filled with information sources with various audiences/purposes, worksheets to be completed in small groups, stickers to make the worksheets faster, and writing utensils.

The librarian begins the lesson with a warm-up question on everyday research, this is followed by a group map and discussion on the audience and purpose of information sources, finally the session concludes with an in-depth dive evaluating one popular source.

Additional Instructor Resources (e.g. in-class activities, worksheets, scaffolding applications, supplemental modules, further readings, etc.): 

Pictures of our research stations are included in the PDF lesson plan. We used the following sources in our boxes:
• #1 Multimodal news piece: https://highline.huffingtonpost.com/articles/en/poor-millennials/
• #2 an opposing viewpoints opinion piece from a Marijuana policy institute [proxied link removed – sub in your own opinion piece here]
• #3 a news article: https://ktla.com/2019/05/29/contractors-like-uber-lyft-drivers-would-get...
• #4 a video: https://www.ted.com/talks/angela_lee_duckworth_grit_the_power_of_passion...
• # 5 a government report from a website: https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/statistics/mental-illness.shtml
• # 6 a scholarly journal article [proxied link removed – sub in your own short article here]
• #7 an encyclopedia article from Gale Virtual Reference
• #8 an edited scholarly monograph on a variety of topics pulled from our stacks

Assessment or Criteria for Success
Assessment Short Description: 
We used a short evaluation form designed for this session. The questions included: 1) Which part of today's session did you learn the most from? {checkbox of all the activities and components] 2) What was one aha! moment that you had today about understanding and evaluating sources? 3) If you could change or improve one thing about this session to better help you learn, what would it be? We also consulted with faculty teaching the course regarding their student work.
Suggested Citation: 
Caffrey, Carolyn . "Mapping Audience & Purpose: Evaluating Sources." CORA (Community of Online Research Assignments), 2019. https://projectcora.org/assignment/mapping-audience-purpose-evaluating-sources.
Submitted by Ashley Roach-Freiman on June 7th, 2019
Share this on: 
Short Description: 

BEAM Me Up is a one-shot session that works well in addition to a search strategies class, but can be done without. This session asks students to use the BEAM framework coined by Joseph Bizup to organize and synthesize research materials to create a complex and well-supported argument. Rather than evaluated sources using a checklist, the instructor using BEAM asks students to consider how the information will be used (and to consider how authors use information to build arguments). Adaptors may want to replace the sources given here with ones relevant to the students' curriculum. Our students are asked to create an argument that considers the city they live in, i.e. Memphis. I chose Stax Records because of its rich history locally and nationally, and because of its importance to the civil rights movement. I wanted to use a topic the students would find interesting and chose a variety of source types that I hoped would engage them both personally and intellectually. With credit to Brannen Varner, Michael Harris, and Joel Roberts.

Attachments: 
AttachmentSize
BEAM Slidesdisplayed 1128 times606.3 KB
BEAM Lesson Plandisplayed 1014 times48.81 KB
Learning Outcomes: 

- Assess the utility of several pre-selected sources by reading the source and sorting it into one or more categories of BEAM - Defend their choice given a pre-defined research topic - Discuss how the given sources support (or do not support) one another in a means conducive to creating an argument using the BEAM framework

Individual or Group:

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

Our instruction department has a long relationship with the First Year Writing program doing one-shots for a class that teaches argumentation and rhetoric.
Two years ago, their curriculum changed, requiring the instructors and students to focus on the city of Memphis. Students have to write their final paper about Memphis in some respect - topics include music, food, crime, urban development, etc. Because these students are facing their first real research project of college, they are among our most frequent patrons, and we wanted to give them a curriculum that addressed their needs directly and provided context for reading that they may not have encountered before. This session is offered in conjunction with a related session on searching databases, and alongside a comprehensive libguide as well as a suite of interactive tutorials.

Potential Pitfalls and Teaching Tips: 

Don't be prescriptive! Allow students to come to their own conclusions.

Suggested Citation: 
Roach-Freiman, Ashley. "BEAM Me Up: Source Use and Synthesis." CORA (Community of Online Research Assignments), 2019. https://projectcora.org/assignment/beam-me-source-use-and-synthesis.
Submitted by Anaya Jones on March 19th, 2019
Share this on: 
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 1568 times745.53 KB
StudentScholarLessonPlanTermCourse.docxdisplayed 970 times22.84 KB
StudentScholarLessonPlanSingleSessionScholarlyProcessFocus.pdfdisplayed 1268 times440.62 KB
StudentScholarLessonPlanSingleSessionScholarlyProcessFocus.docxdisplayed 984 times20.46 KB
StudentScholarLessonPlanSingleSessionAuthorityFocus.pdfdisplayed 1091 times437.39 KB
StudentScholarLessonPlanSingleSessionAuthorityFocus.docxdisplayed 968 times20.03 KB
Student Scholar Lesson Plan Start Heredisplayed 1242 times572.13 KB
AttachmentSize
Sample Artifact.pdfdisplayed 1288 times149.96 KB
StudentScholarAssignmentInstructions.pdfdisplayed 2203 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 Beth Hoppe on February 18th, 2019
Share this on: 
Short Description: 

This activity provides an interactive, student-centered, fun opportunity to explore skills of critical thinking and evaluation of resources. By allowing students to connect those things that they already know (even if they don’t know they know it) to larger concepts, we encourage them to trust themselves and to begin to develop their intuition as scholars, moving away from checklists and formulas for resource evaluation and toward a thoughtful critique of sources based on individual need and use.

Attachments: 
AttachmentSize
Sphere of Discourse: What, how-to, why, etc.displayed 2040 times16.97 KB
Learning Outcomes: 

Describe different sources of information
Articulate benefits/drawbacks of information sources
Consider information as influence
Investigate role of various media in different forms of "conversation" (scholarly, popular, etc)
Define library spaces/terminology/sources

Individual or Group:

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

The Sphere of Discourse works well in courses that may traditionally get an orientation to the library. It can be modified to work for specific disciplines or contexts.

Potential Pitfalls and Teaching Tips: 

This activity requires space!

Suggested Citation: 
Hoppe, Beth. "Sphere of Discourse." CORA (Community of Online Research Assignments), 2019. https://projectcora.org/assignment/sphere-discourse.
Submitted by Carolyn Caffrey on December 10th, 2018
Share this on: 
Short Description: 

This assignment was created for a credit bearing course for first year students. It's designed to help students take what they've learned about algorithmic bias from the course lectures and readings and apply it to their own search practices. They also critically analyze search results for advertisements and compare DuckDuckGo to Google. [You could also look at this assignment as an adaptation of Jacob Berg's wonderful, "Googling Google," assignment at https://www.projectcora.org/assignment/googling-google-search-engines-ma... ]

Attachments: 
AttachmentSize
analyzingsearchengines_assignment.docxdisplayed 1320 times534.31 KB
Learning Outcomes: 

Students will be able to: -identify advertisements within a list of search results -discuss the role advertising plays in how search results are ordered -describe how search results are impacted by human biases in their ranking algorithms

Discipline: 
Multidisciplinary

Individual or Group:

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

This assignment occurred early in the semester as we discussed algorithms, bias, and filter bubbles. Students were asked to draw on class discussions and lectures on page rank, the history of search engines, and filter bubbles. Other assigned material going into this assignment the IRL podcast episode "Social Bubble Bath" and Eli Pariser's TED talk on filter bubbles. Students commented that they enjoyed this assignment, weren't aware that Google was an advertising company, and were unfamiliar with DuckDuckGo. The course itself was designed and taught by me (a librarian) as part of our first year seminar program.

Assessment or Criteria for Success
Assessment Short Description: 
Assignments were evaluated using the rubric from the attached assignment sheet. In general, students had difficulty identifying all of the advertisements. While students had no difficulty analyzing gender bias or racism in the image results, they did struggle with the phrase "god" in identifying how the results may privilege particular narratives and identities over others.
Potential Pitfalls and Teaching Tips: 

Be careful with the choose your own image search --- several students picked topics such as our institution name or vague concepts like "music" which didn't as clearly illustrate the course concepts. In the future I would remove the choose your own option for the image component. This assignment was designed with first year students in mind.

Suggested Citation: 
Caffrey, Carolyn . "Analyzing search engines: What narrative is told through the algorithm." CORA (Community of Online Research Assignments), 2018. https://projectcora.org/assignment/analyzing-search-engines-what-narrative-told-through-algorithm.

Pages