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Community of Online Research Assignments

An open access resource for librarians and educators

The Gender Gap in Wikipedia

Students in an introductory Women's and Gender Studies course are required to critically analyze and edit an article in Wikipedia. Through class discussion and an active learning exercise, students begin to understand how and why women and many racial groups and individuals are underrepresented or systematically marginalized in Wikipedia. Students learn how to use the "Talk" tab to evaluate Wikipedia articles and learn about authority and power structures within that community.

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.

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

ABLConnect

ABLConnect is an online database of active learning efforts in post-secondary classrooms. It caters to faculty, graduate student teaching assistants, post-doctoral students and anybody else teaching undergraduate, graduate, or professional students across every discipline.  The site provides activities, lessons, and projects along with downloadable materials in a searchable online format.  It also has video tutorials, interviews with instructors, links to valuable technology resources, and academic research summaries to back up various active learning approaches.

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.

DQP Assignment Library

This resource is funded by The National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment (NILOA). It is a searchable online library of collegiate-level course assignments in a wide variety of academic disciplines that link to one or more proficiencies in the Degree Qualifications Profile (DQP). The assignments and commentaries here are works in progress, generously shared by faculty members from a wide range of fields and institutional types committed to advancing and documenting student learning.

 

 

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