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Community of Online Research Assignments

An open access resource for librarians and educators

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.

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!).

Subject Guides from ACRL's Education & Behavioral Sciences Section

Subject guides compiled by ACRL's Education & Behavioral Sciences Section (EBSS). Information for key areas within communication studies including reference works, subject keywords, databases, web sites, organizations, journals and more. Specific topics include advertising, communication science and disorders, film studies, health communication, intercultural communication, journalism, media diversity & race, media ethics, media law, media ratings, new media, photojournalism, political communication, speech communication, and women & media.

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.

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

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.

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.

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