Community of Online Research Assignments

Strategic Searching and Research Question Evaluation

This an an active learning class using a jigsaw for teaching how to use Web of Science (25 minutes) and a modified Send-A-Problem (renamed Send Along) activity (15 minutes) that covers keyword brainstorming, practicing searching, evaluating the relevance of sources for a given topic, and considering whether that research topic is right-sized.

Hidden Layer: Intellectual Privacy and Generative AI

The Hidden Layer Workshop introduces key generative AI (genAI) concepts through a privacy lens. Participants probe the possibilities and limitations of genAI while considering implications for intellectual privacy, intellectual property, data sovereignty, and human agency. In the centerpiece activity, participants engage in a hidden layer simulation to develop a conceptual understanding of the algorithms in the neural networks underlying LLMs and their implications for machine bias and AI hallucination.

Reinforcement of Cultural Humility in Searching and Patient Communications

The sixth in a series of 6 courses, students focus on the Pharmacists’ Patient Care Plan involving prescription medications, patient history, and more complex patient cases. The librarian has already met with these students in other courses so this is and scaffolded approach with this being their last session with the librarian. The purpose of the librarian session is to make sure they feel comfortable doing advanced research on drug information pertaining to specific topics that will be communicated to patients.

Database Scavenger Hunt

Description: The Database Scavenger Hunt engages pairs of students in locating specific information or performing specific tasks across multiple resources. Each team works through a series of 16 questions/tasks, with verification of correct answers from the librarian/professor after every 1 or 2 questions, then places a mark on the corresponding wall grid of questions once an answer is deemed correct. The process repeats until the team completes all questions.

Academic Library Information Literacy Modules: First year / freshman embedded coursework

Embedded library modules in online, stand-alone website used by second semester English Composition classes for freshman level students.  This set of modules is co-authored with Mario Leyva, Assistant Director, Instruction and User Services at Our Lady of the Lake University, and Forrest Davidson. All coursework and assignments are available for download; quizzes available upon request.

Critical Reading Lesson Plan - Lower Division Sociology

A lesson plan for a 45-minute lower-division Sociology class. The texts used in the plan are Elijah Anderson (1999) Code of the Street: Decency, Violence, and the Moral Life of the Inner City and Thomas L. McNulty and Paul E. Bellair (2003), “Explaining Racial and Ethnic Differences in Serious Adolescent Violent Behavior,” which the students were to have read in advance.

Research matrix: synthesizing search results

This assignment was created to help undergraduate students use research articles to help inform their argument about a "text."  This exercise has been used in library instruction sessions for art history, composition, english literature, women's studies, and history classes. After reflecting on what they know about a text (or image or multimedia), brainstorming search terms, and tracking relevant patterns in search results, students can synthesize information from a variety of sources in an organized, methodological fashion. 

Who Can I Trust? – Questions to Ask When Evaluating Information Sources (featuring SIFT, PIE, and SMELL methods)

This lesson is intended as a one hour, single-session overview of one aspect of information literacy: evaluating the trustworthiness of resources, particularly online. The lesson is designed for a group of 10-25 adults in a public or academic library, or is also suitable for high school students. Instructor will teach students how to investigate a source and apply three small but powerful information literacy tools to evaluation: SIFT, PIE, and SMELL.

Google vs. Web of Science

The assignment has students search the same topic in Google and the Web of Science or BIOSIS database. They are asked to pick one result from each search, identify its components (title, author, year) and identify the container of the information (journal, book, news, etc.). They are then asked to compare and reflect on the different results. 

Patent Research Assignment

This assignment introduces students to United States patents and to prior art searching using two free, online databases: Espacenet and Lens.org. Instructional videos are available at: http://guides.lib.campbell.edu/patents . 

This assignment is designed to be scalable so that it can be implemented at an introductory level in a first-year design course, and replicated in the senior design course. To scale the assignment, modify the number of resources students are required to analyze and intensify the synthesis/analysis components.

Finding a Book

In post-session feedback, first-year students frequently express anxiety over how to physically navigate the library to find a book on the shelf. This is a simple, pre-session activity to help students try this out before class, so that they can discuss with their librarian any challenges they faced in attempting to complete the task. With the help of the course instructor, students are asked to find a book on their research topic (or course topic) and bring it to class.

Exhibition Explorer Card Deck: Experiential Learning for Rhetorical and Critical Thinking

Many academic and public libraries display their unique archives and special collections materials in exhibition spaces. With an array of primary sources and visuals, special collections exhibitions offer a wonderful venue for experiential learning of constructed narratives and perspectives. This Exhibition Explorer Card Deck is designed to guide students to experience close viewing of special collections materials through explicit steps for thinking rhetorically and critically in an exhibit space.

Stump the Database

This is a simple activity intended to warm up students, break the ice, and introduce the concept of keyword searching. Ask students to come up with a single word search that gives zero results. It’s harder than it sounds. It may be too elementary for graduate students or upperclassmen; use your judgement about students’ abilities and familiarity with searching. This activity can be a great segue in to a lesson on keyword development, Boolean operators, popular terminology vs. technical jargon, and the differences between different kinds of databases.