Group

Submitted by Kim Pittman on April 4th, 2017
Short Description: 

In this workshop, students learn about the driving forces behind fake news, reflect on how our opinions impact the way we evaluate information, and discuss and practice using criteria for evaluating news. The workshop includes a brief presentation on fake news and cognitive biases, reflection prompts for students to respond to, and an activity in which students work in groups to evaluate different news articles on a common topic.

Learning Outcomes: 

Students will be able to evaluate sources based on information need and the context in which the information will be used. Students will be able to recognize cognitive biases in order to reflect on how those biases influence their thinking about source credibility.

Individual or Group:

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

We offered this as a standalone workshop, and invited instructors in our writing program to offer extra credit to students who attended. We’ve also adapted the workshop for public library and community settings. The workshop generally takes about an hour and could easily be used in one-shot library instruction.

Potential Pitfalls and Teaching Tips: 

The closing activity works best with a topic that students find relatable and interesting, but one that they may not already have especially strong opinions about. We’ve used the topic of affordable housing in our region. We choose articles that represent a variety of news source types (in-depth articles, editorials, short blog posts or overview articles) that illustrate different viewpoints and levels of depth and analysis. If working with a smaller group or a longer time period, we recommend assigning each group two articles in order to allow them to compare the two. If offering this workshop as a standalone workshop (rather than course-integrated), we recommend including an opportunity for students to introduce themselves to each other in the opening think/pair/share. After they’ve had a chance to talk to each other, ask each pair to share their response to one of the reflection questions with the larger group. This serves as an icebreaker and increases student participation throughout the workshop.

Collaborators: 
Suggested Citation: 
Pittman, Kim. "What's Happening? Evaluating News in a Time of Information Overload." CORA (Community of Online Research Assignments), 2017. https://projectcora.org/assignment/whats-happening-evaluating-news-time-information-overload.
Submitted by Gina Schlesselman-Tarango on March 22nd, 2017
Short Description: 

A gallery walk is a silent, interactive exercise followed by small- or whole-group discussion. You can use this exercise to introduce students to new material, to review previously-introduced material, or to assess teaching and/or learning.

Attachments: 
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Gallery Walk Lesson Plan.docxdisplayed 2088 times117.93 KB
Poster Content Ideas.docxdisplayed 2661 times14.04 KB
Learning Outcomes: 

Long-term outcome: Begin to develop a critical understanding of the information environment. Supporting outcomes: I can describe peer-reviewed sources in terms of both the review process and the scholarly conversation. I can identify peer review's affordances and limitations. I can reflect on whose/which voices are not represented within the community of scholars.

Discipline: 
Liberal Studies

Individual or Group:

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

This exercise was implemented in a first-year seminar course after the 20 students had engaged in activities and discussion about the information cycle and scholarly sources (peer review, scholarly conversation, "the literature"). It was followed by a unit on "information privilege" and finally by a group research project.

Potential Pitfalls and Teaching Tips: 

Space is key for a successful gallery walk! If your classroom is too small or if you don't have enough wall space, consider using a quiet hallway. I've found that I get better student response when I use more visual poster content. Big blocks of text create traffic jams and put unnecessary pressure on students to read and comprehend text quickly and in front of their peers.

Suggested Citation: 
Schlesselman-Tarango, Gina. "Gallery Walk: What Shapes Information?." CORA (Community of Online Research Assignments), 2017. https://projectcora.org/assignment/gallery-walk-what-shapes-information.
Submitted by Elisa Acosta on March 20th, 2017
Short Description: 

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.

Attachments: 
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Worksheet #1 displayed 1071 times14.86 KB
Worksheet #2 displayed 955 times14.79 KB
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Worksheet #1 (short version)displayed 1012 times14.48 KB
Worksheet #2 (short version)displayed 1034 times14.42 KB
Worksheet #3 (short version)displayed 928 times14.67 KB
Learning Outcomes: 

Identify voices missing or marginalized in Wikipedia Define "notability" Define "reliable sources" Explain how Wikipedia's policies and guidelines contribute to its gender gap in knowledge

Individual or Group:

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

One-shot library instruction. This exercise is a "warm up" for the Wikipedia edit-a-thon co-sponsored by the Women's and Gender Studies Department. http://librarynews.lmu.edu/2017/03/wikipedia-edit-thon-gender-race-sexua...

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

Jackson, J. (2016, July 28). Building on Millions of Tiny Shoulders: Tips for Hosting a Wikipedia Edit-a-thon. [Blog article]. Retrieved from http://programminglibrarian.org/blog/building-millions-tiny-shoulders-ti...

Potential Pitfalls and Teaching Tips: 

If taught Fall Semester, most first year students don't know what peer-review is yet.

Suggested Citation: 
Acosta, Elisa. "The Gender Gap in Wikipedia." CORA (Community of Online Research Assignments), 2017. https://projectcora.org/assignment/gender-gap-wikipedia.
Submitted by Sarah Crissinger on February 23rd, 2017
Short Description: 

These materials support a workshop for seniors on losing access to information after graduation. After a short lecture on why information costs money, we used each exercise, which focus on students making their work open, to encourage students to think critically about how their information sharing decisions impact others. We used three types of exercises--academic, creative, and work/corporate--to acknowledge that students are creators of multiple kinds of information.

Learning Outcomes: 

Students will be able to articulate how their own decisions impact others' ability to access information in order to make more intentional sharing choices with their information output

Individual or Group:

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

We were given a one hour slot during our university's annual Senior Summit. We had to collaborate with our Center for Career Development to do this.

Additional Instructor Resources (e.g. in-class activities, worksheets, scaffolding applications, supplemental modules, further readings, etc.): 
Potential Pitfalls and Teaching Tips: 
Suggested Citation: 
Crissinger, Sarah. "Why You Won’t Have JSTOR When You Graduate and What You Can Do About It." CORA (Community of Online Research Assignments), 2017. https://projectcora.org/assignment/why-you-won%E2%80%99t-have-jstor-when-you-graduate-and-what-you-can-do-about-it.
Submitted by Jason Jarvis on February 16th, 2017
Short Description: 

This assignment is a non-partisan way to interrogate the way the 45th POTUS uses Twitter using the concepts of Metaphor and Enthymeme. The assignment could be altered to focus on any Twitter handle or trending hashtag. The teacher should give a short 15 minute introduction the concepts and then break students up into small groups to decipher Tweets. The last portion of class is for group presentation/discussion of students findings.

Learning Outcomes: 

1) Understanding the rhetorical concepts of metaphor and enthymeme 2) Understanding how Trump (and/or other political figures) use Twitter 3) Understanding the structural power and limitations of social media/Twitter 4) Small Group communication

Individual or Group:

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

This assignment was used two days after the election. It was designed as a non-partisan examination of Digital Politics and the power/limitations of Twitter.

Suggested Citation: 
Jarvis, Jason. "Twitter Politics - Metaphor, Enthymeme + Trump." CORA (Community of Online Research Assignments), 2017. https://projectcora.org/assignment/twitter-politics-metaphor-enthymeme-trump.
Submitted by Carolyn Caffrey on February 15th, 2017
Short Description: 

An introductory lesson to finding and understanding data in social sciences.

Learning Outcomes: 

*Identify appropriate data sources and locate data using disciplinary data repositories
*Recognize that data has value beyond its original purpose including to validate research or reuse by others
*Track a scholarly conversation within sociology through data sources

Individual or Group:

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

This lesson took place in a sociology research methods course (created with Mary-Michelle Moore). Students were familiar with basic database searching techniques and were getting ready to do their own literature reviews on a sociology topic of their choosing followed by some assignments using SPSS to analyze existing data sets.

After a quick review on finding peer-reviewed journal articles, the librarian asks students "Where does data come from?" to talk about data sources.
Then students split into small groups to explore an article and its accompanying data set in Google Forms. (We have access to ICPSR so the questions ask students about an article that uses a dataset from ICPSR but FigShare or freely available sources could also be used).
After students complete the Google form the librarian pulls the class back together to discuss the answers.
The librarian also pulls up the codebook, questionnaire, and talks about the ways different researchers approach the same data set to answer their research questions.

Students struggle most with "what makes a data set trustworthy." They tended to focus on external indicators such as it's used in peer-reviewed articles, funders, and who the authors are. We also tried to emphasize the quality of the data itself as an indicator (completeness, sample size, questions asked, documentation, etc.).

Then students search for data sets on their research topics as well as other peer-reviewed articles through citation chaining in ICPSR.

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

"Good Data Examples" from Love Your Data Week were provided as supplemental reading in the learning management system

Potential Pitfalls and Teaching Tips: 

It can be adapted for other disciplines that use data sets.

Students struggle most with the question, "What makes this data set trustworthy," so we provided some followup up resources on analyzing data sets to the class through the learning management system.

Suggested Citation: 
Caffrey, Carolyn . "Where does data come from?." CORA (Community of Online Research Assignments), 2017. https://projectcora.org/assignment/where-does-data-come.
Submitted by Janelle Wertzberger on February 15th, 2017
Short Description: 

This class activity is designed to help health sciences students understand challenges to accessing public health information in a variety of settings. The exercise was created for students in Prof. Dailey’s Global Health class (HS 322) at Gettysburg College in Fall 2015.

The activity, as well as notes for instructors considering using this exercise, are both shared here.

Attachments: 
AttachmentSize
Open Access Challenge.pdfdisplayed 1415 times403.8 KB
Learning Outcomes: 

Students will engage in problem-based learning to determine the cause of a described disease and find published sources that will help develop a treatment protocol. (The wrinkle is that students will not have the same access to information.)

Discipline: 
Health

Individual or Group:

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

This activity was designed for Health Sciences 322, Global Health, at Gettysburg College, and was first used in Fall 2015. That semester, the class enrolled 18 undergraduate students (mostly juniors and seniors) and met for a 75-minute class period.

Potential Pitfalls and Teaching Tips: 

Notes about facilitating the activity are included in the document

Suggested Citation: 
Wertzberger, Janelle. "Open Access Challenge." CORA (Community of Online Research Assignments), 2017. https://projectcora.org/assignment/open-access-challenge.
Submitted by Aisha Conner-Gaten on February 9th, 2017
Short Description: 

This instructional session coincided with a project comparing data from two cities for an Urban Studies 1000 level (Freshmen) course. The session provided a basic overview of Simply Map as a web-based application, described the data available within and its origins (Census, American Community Survey, etc.), two activities for creating and visualizing the data, and supporting materials for understanding the data including a libguide and deliverable handout.

Learning Outcomes: 

User will be able to: -To create a map using variable data in SimplyMap -To create a standard report using variable data in SimplyMap -To create a ring study using variable data in SimplyMap -Develop relationships between variable data in SimplyMap

Individual or Group:

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

This session was conducted before the announcement of the course project that specifically calls for students to create SimplyMap reports to compare data across multiple locations for the Urban Studies course. Data found in SimplyMap can be used by students as maps, charts, and tables on a poster project to be completed at the semester's end.

Potential Pitfalls and Teaching Tips: 

Ensure that all users have SimplyMap access before the session begins. SimplyMap does have a user threshold for simultaneous access so contact the company to ensure enough seats for your session.

Collaborators: 
Suggested Citation: 
Conner-Gaten, Aisha. "Simply Map: Visualizing Census and Survey Data." CORA (Community of Online Research Assignments), 2017. https://projectcora.org/assignment/simply-map-visualizing-census-and-survey-data.
Submitted by Josh Rose on January 30th, 2017
Short Description: 

Through a reading assignment, a brief lecture, and small group discussion, students training to be high school teachers learn about Information Literacy (IL) and Critical Information Literacy, and consider how they can apply these concepts within their disciplines and in their teaching practice. This short, 55-minute session was taught for a course called "Foundations in Secondary Education", offered through the Single Subject (Secondary) Teaching Credential program at Saint Mary's College of California's Kalmanovitz School of Education.

Attachments: 
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An_Introduction_to_Information_Literacy_for_Secondary_Education.pptxdisplayed 1572 times308 KB
Learning Outcomes: 

1. Students describe what the term "information literacy" means, where it comes from, and how it works.
2. Students describe a process model of information literacy such as the Big6.
3. Students compare information literacy with critical information literacy.
4. Students discuss how they might apply information literacy or critical information literacy concepts within their discipline and in their teaching practice.
5. Students plan how they might work with a high school librarian or media specialist to teach information literacy concepts in the classroom.

Discipline: 
Education

Individual or Group:

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

This session was in response to a faculty member's request for a lecture about information literacy.

Prior to the session, students were asked to read James Elmborg's "Critical information literacy: Implications for instructional practice" (2006). During a brief lecture students learn about Mike Eisenberg and Bob Berkowitz's Big6 model of information literacy. Students then form small discussion groups organized loosely by their discipline (i.e. math and science; language arts; social studies) and discuss and answer the following questions:

- What are some potential criticisms of information literacy standards?
- What does information literacy (IL) look like in your discipline?
- How might you apply IL (e.g., the Big6) within your discipline and in your teaching practice?
- How might you apply critical IL within your discipline and in your teaching practice?
- Does your practicum school have a dedicated librarian or media specialist? How might you work with him or her to teach IL or critical IL in the classroom?

Students were then asked to report out to the larger group about what they discussed.

Suggested Citation: 
Rose, Josh. "An Introduction to Information Literacy for High School Educators." CORA (Community of Online Research Assignments), 2017. https://projectcora.org/assignment/introduction-information-literacy-high-school-educators.
Submitted by Sarah Vital on January 27th, 2017
Short Description: 

A 90 minute session with first year students in the School of Economics and Business Administration. Covered areas included overview of difficulties in searching and algorithm bias. Emphasis was on the importance to being critical consumers of information and understanding searches are not neutral.

Attachments: 
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SEBAFYACLessonPlan2016.docxdisplayed 1064 times12.33 KB
Learning Outcomes: 

Students are aware of the “algorithm bias” that is inherent in the technology of search engines (all search engines, from Google to library databases) and how this affects their search for information (and the concerns this bias has for social justice). Students understand ways to overcome this bias by 1) critically evaluating not just the individual resources found but also the search results in general , 2) using multiple resources for information retrieval, and 3) making use of experts and known, reliable sources

Individual or Group:

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

This was a session for the required First Year Experience .25 credit course. All students have majors declared in Business Administration (including Marketing and Finance), Economics, or Accounting

Suggested Citation: 
Vital, Sarah. "Social Justice in Information- First Year Business Students." CORA (Community of Online Research Assignments), 2017. https://projectcora.org/assignment/social-justice-information-first-year-business-students.

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