Searching as Strategic Exploration (Frame 6)

Submitted by Ken Liss on November 18th, 2017
Short Description: 

In this lesson students view a series of short videos about searching library resources, interspersed with exercises in which they conduct searches on their topics and reflect on what they find and on the research process. (The first two videos and accompanying activities are done outside of class; the third can be done in class.)

Attachments: 
AttachmentSize
Links to videos and descriptions of accompanying searching and reflection activitiesdisplayed 1237 times122.27 KB
Learning Outcomes: 

• Students will learn that research is about exploring the scholarly conversation about a topic and not just about finding answers to questions.
• Students will learn that exploring library (and non-library) resources can help them develop different directions and ways of approaching their topics than they initially had in mind.
• Students will learn how to create strategies for overcoming common obstacles encountered while researching a topic.
• Students will learn how to follow paths from one scholarly source to others.

Discipline: 
Rhetoric, Composition, and Writing

Information Literacy concepts:

Individual or Group:

Ability Level:

Tags:

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

This set of videos and interspersed searching and reflection exercises was developed by a librarian and two writing instructors as part of a project in the third year of the ACRL Assessment in Action program. It has since been used more widely in the Boston University College of Arts & Sciences Writing Program.

Suggested Citation: 
Liss, Ken. "Exploring the Scholarly Territory Using Library Resources." CORA (Community of Online Research Assignments), 2017. https://projectcora.org/assignment/exploring-scholarly-territory-using-library-resources.
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Submitted by Susan Archambault on September 22nd, 2017
Short Description: 

Lesson plan for a 1-hour introductory Communication Studies theory class. Emphasis is on getting students to use the appropriate tool for their information need while considering indicators of authority. Collection of exercises requiring students to do the following: 1) look up background information on a communication theory; 2) chase down further readings; 3) find a scholarly article that applies a communication theory using the ComAbstracts database. This supports an "interpersonal communication paper" where students outline and critique a communication theory and identify a study that applies the theory.

Attachments: 
AttachmentSize
Library Exercisesdisplayed 2189 times4.11 MB
Answer Key- Library Exercisesdisplayed 1475 times4.1 MB
Script for Sessiondisplayed 1613 times20.91 KB
Relevant links: 
Communication Studies LibGuide
Learning Outcomes: 

*Find background information on a communication studies theory *Find relevant previous research that is cited in encyclopedia articles *Find a peer-reviewed study that applies a communication theory *Pick out the main points in a theory-based scholarly article *Demonstrate an understanding of APA citation format

Discipline: 
Communication Studies

Information Literacy concepts:

Individual or Group:

Ability Level:

Tags:

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

This supports an "interpersonal communication paper" where students choose a communication theory to outline and critique. They also must identify a study published in a peer-reviewed journal that applies the theory.

Suggested Citation: 
Archambault, Susan. "Scaffolding: exercises for introductory communication theory classes." CORA (Community of Online Research Assignments), 2017. https://projectcora.org/assignment/scaffolding-exercises-introductory-communication-theory-classes.
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Submitted by Elisa Acosta on July 2nd, 2017
Short Description: 

This activity was created to introduce first-year students to library resources they can use for their annotated bibliography assignment. In pairs, students are assigned a task card that requires them to find an information source. After finding a source meeting the criteria of their task card, the student teams input their answers into a Google Form. Formative assessment takes place during class, allowing the librarian to modify instruction on-the-spot based on the responses from the form.

Summative assessment takes place at the end of the semester, when a rubric is applied to a sample of student responses from the activity. This assessment provides a more thorough picture of where students may have succeeded or struggled with the activity, and may provide ideas for how to adjust the activity in the future.

This recipe is from The First-Year Experience Cookbook, edited by Raymond Pun and Meggan Houlihan and written by Elisa Slater Acosta and Katherine Donaldson.

Relevant links: 
Taste Testing for Two: Using Formative and Summative AssessmentTask CardsGoogle Form Additional Resources
Learning Outcomes: 

The student will use information ethically by providing basic citation information for their source.
The student will be able to identify the appropriate information type based on their information need.
The student will be able to properly identify the format of the information source they find.
The student will be able to use effective keywords for their information need.
The student will be able to describe the purpose of a specific information source.
The student will be able to articulate how they could support a social justice argument using a source.
The student will be able to find a relevant source to match their information need.

Discipline: 
EnglishMultidisciplinaryRhetoric, Composition, and Writing

Information Literacy concepts:

Individual or Group:

Ability Level:

Tags:

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

This activity takes place after the Research Exploration Exercise and before the Annotated Bibliography .

Collaborators: 
Katherine Donaldson
Suggested Citation: 
Acosta, Elisa. "Taste Testing for Two: Using Formative and Summative Assessment." CORA (Community of Online Research Assignments), 2017. https://projectcora.org/assignment/taste-testing-two-using-formative-and-summative-assessment.
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Submitted by Aisha Conner-Gaten on April 25th, 2017
Short Description: 

A two part instruction session that uses the "fish bowl" method, or students as instructors, to find scholarly sources and complete an annotated bibliography citation.

Attachments: 
AttachmentSize
Introduction Slide for Projector and Whiteboard signsdisplayed 1772 times63.81 KB
Instruction Session Overview and Scriptdisplayed 1369 times16.6 KB
Fishbowl Activity Task 1 Worksheetdisplayed 1443 times68.92 KB
Fishbowl Activity Task 2 Worksheet displayed 1351 times124.57 KB
Learning Outcomes: 

In this session, students will: - find scholarly sources using the library catalog or discovery service -create a citation using a citation style -learn the parts of an annotated bibliography -create an annotated citation

Discipline: 
Women's and Gender Studies

Information Literacy concepts:

Individual or Group:

Ability Level:

Tags:

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

This instruction session was created to support a Women and Gender Studies assignment that includes a 5-6 page paper on a topic related to race, sex, and gender and two annotated bibliographic citations of 100 words or less.

Potential Pitfalls and Teaching Tips: 

If students do not yet have topics, construct at least 3 examples for use.

Suggested Citation: 
Conner-Gaten, Aisha. "Finding Sources and Annotated Bibliography Fish Bowls." CORA (Community of Online Research Assignments), 2017. https://projectcora.org/assignment/finding-sources-and-annotated-bibliography-fish-bowls.
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Submitted by Lucinda Rush on April 18th, 2017
Short Description: 

An activity to teach students how to construct database searches using Boolean operators.

Attachments: 
AttachmentSize
PowerPoint slide displayed in class with directions.displayed 2361 times40.72 KB
AttachmentSize
Boolean Table Gamedisplayed 3734 times436.67 KB
Learning Outcomes: 

Students will use Boolean Operators (or “keyword connectors”) in database searching in order to find relevant resources for their research topics.

Discipline: 
Multidisciplinary

Information Literacy concepts:

Individual or Group:

Ability Level:

Tags:

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

The activity is used with "one shot" instruction sessions at the beginning of class. The activity is set up on tables and students begin as soon as they enter the class. This signals to the student that this will be an active learning class. The activity is referred back to later in the class at the appropriate time. Activity could be used at any point during class.

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

See attached.

Potential Pitfalls and Teaching Tips: 

This is a quick and informal activity. The particular activity is not assessed, but the concept is assessed later in class with a more in-depth searching activity.

Suggested Citation: 
Rush, Lucinda. "Boolean Table Game." CORA (Community of Online Research Assignments), 2017. https://projectcora.org/assignment/boolean-table-game.
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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

Information Literacy concepts:

Individual or Group:

Ability Level:

Tags:

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.
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Submitted by Margaret Brown-Salazar on January 26th, 2017
Short Description: 

Created by M. Brown-Salazar Saint Mary's College of CA This lesson was developed to have graduate level students explore social justice issues in information found on the internet. It is based on Dr. Safiya Noble's work: Algorithms of Oppression. Simplified, we asked students to consider that when we seek information, we need to examine the perspective/privilege of the voices/sources of information and identify/understand whose voices are represented and whose voices are missing and how that impacts/influences our understanding. Students were asked to consider issues we uncovered in relationship to themselves personally, as students and also also professional practitioners. We used clips from a lecture by Dr. Noble to stimulate discussion and asked to students to critically examine results of google image searches as an illustration of inequities. Students completed a survey as assessment.

Attachments: 
AttachmentSize
2016 2017 Seeking Social Justice in Information Lesson Plan Master's Level Students.docxdisplayed 1068 times32.54 KB
AttachmentSize
Pre-session Handoutdisplayed 1080 times25.63 KB
In Class Assignmentdisplayed 946 times16.76 KB
Learning Outcomes: 

Learning Objectives (include SMC institutional learning outcomes, ACRL Standards, Framework, or others) Students understand that Google is the dominate search engine. Students understand that most internet searchers believe the information they find is trustworthy, accurate, unbiased, credible Students understand that search engine algorithms are based on criteria for increasing advertising and marketing and not criteria to provide the best information available to answer their search query SRIL 1 Students understand that there are influences (social, political, economic, …) that shape social justice issues in information retrieval SRIL 1 Students can articulate a personal or professional practice that they could develop to become more critical consumers of information specifically as it relates to internet search results SRIL 1 SRIL 2 Students can articulate one action they might take to make the issue of social justice in information more apparent to others

Discipline: 
EducationLiberal StudiesLibrary and Information ScienceMultidisciplinaryPsychology

Information Literacy concepts:

Individual or Group:

Ability Level:

Tags:

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

This was a new unit added to a series of 3 information literacy sessions that graduates students complete in their Research Seminar course. The intention is to extend a lesson plan on using the internet for research to have students consider "the social, political, economic, and corporate systems that have power and influence over information production, dissemination, access, and consumption." (Gregory, L. and Higgins, S. (Eds.) (2013). Information literacy and social justice: Radical professional praxis. Sacramento, CA: Library Juice Press.) .

Assessment or Criteria for Success
(e.g. rubric, guidelines, exemplary sample paper, etc.): 
AttachmentSize
2016 2017 SeekingSocialJusticeinInformationAssessmentWorksheet.docxdisplayed 828 times15.61 KB
Potential Pitfalls and Teaching Tips: 

Although I asked students to watch the Noble video before the session - NO ONE did that! As I reconsider, I think it works fine without the pre-session video - I removed it from subsequent instruction sessions. This instruction takes on its own unique life with each group - it is fascinating. I am fortunate to work with faculty who allowed the session to take as long as it took. One session concluded and 15 minutes later students were still in the room talking about it in small groups on their own.

Suggested Citation: 
Brown-Salazar, Margaret. "Seeking Social Justice in Information | Graduate Counseling, Leadership and Education Students." CORA (Community of Online Research Assignments), 2017. https://projectcora.org/assignment/seeking-social-justice-information-graduate-counseling-leadership-and-education-students.
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Submitted by Margaret Brown-Salazar on January 26th, 2017
Short Description: 

Created by M. Brown-Salazar & G. Kessler Lee Saint Mary's College of Ca Library This lesson was developed to have students explore social justice issues in information found on the internet. It is based on Dr. Safiya Noble's work: Algorithms of Oppression. Simplified, we asked students to consider that when we seek information, we need to examine the perspective/privilege of the voices/sources of information and identify/understand whose voices are represented and whose voices are missing and how that impacts/influences our understanding. We used clips from a lecture by Dr. Noble to stimulate discussion and asked to students to critically examine results of google image searches as an illustration of inequities. Students created a shared file with images and thoughts that represented what they learned.

Attachments: 
AttachmentSize
2016 2017 Social Justice in Information First Year High Potential Students Lesson Plan.docxdisplayed 1398 times32.11 KB
AttachmentSize
2016 2017 Social Justice in Information First Year High Potential Students In-class Exercise.docxdisplayed 1092 times24.18 KB
Learning Outcomes: 

Learning Objectives (include SMC institutional learning outcomes, ACRL Standards, Framework, or others) Students understand that when you Google search your bias, your results will match your bias (SMC: IERP 2) Students understand that Google is the dominant search engine. Students understand that most internet searchers believe the information they find is trustworthy, accurate, unbiased, credible Students understand that search engine algorithms are based on criteria for increasing advertising and marketing and not criteria to provide the best information available to answer their search query (SMC:IERP 2) Students can articulate the impact of this content/topic on them Students can articulate one action they might take to make the issue of social justice in information more apparent to others Framework: All: Research as Inquiry, Searching as Strategic Exploration, Information Has Value

Discipline: 
Library and Information Science

Information Literacy concepts:

Individual or Group:

Ability Level:

Tags:

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

Session integrated into the High Potential First Year Advising Cohort curriculum.

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

In-class Exercise

Suggested Citation: 
Brown-Salazar, Margaret. "Social Justice in Information | First Year: High Potential Students." CORA (Community of Online Research Assignments), 2017. https://projectcora.org/assignment/social-justice-information-first-year-high-potential-students.
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Submitted by Cristy Moran on January 19th, 2017
Short Description: 

Students will generate a well-reasoned conclusion in a two-page paper in which they identify a "good" Internet source and a "bad" Internet source, using IL source evaluation terminology (outlined in CRAAP) to guide their writing.

They will then explain why the good source should be used to investigate the chosen topic, and why the bad source should not be used in their investigation.

Attachments: 
AttachmentSize
Cristy_Moran_ClimateChangeCHM.docxdisplayed 1359 times14.96 KB
Evaluating Internet Sources Rubric.docxdisplayed 1256 times18.66 KB
AttachmentSize
Cristy_Moran_CRAAP_handout.pdfdisplayed 2072 times668.5 KB
Cristy_Moran_Intellectual_Standards_handout.docxdisplayed 1042 times15.77 KB
Relevant links: 
Elements and Standards - Paul-Elder Critical Thinking Model
Learning Outcomes: 

• Student will critically assesses sources using various criteria terminology such as: currency, relevance, authority, accuracy, purpose, etc., and adequately examines each source.
• Student will identify various specific authority factors for each source such as: domain, URL, corporate author, “About Us” or “Contact Us” links; or author credentials.
• Student will clearly state reliability and appropriateness of the information for the specific information/ research need, and demonstrate adequate reasoning and/or justification for assessing each source.
• Student will articulate and apply the Intellectual Standards to guide reasoning.

Discipline: 
ChemistryCommunication StudiesEnvironmental StudiesMultidisciplinary

Information Literacy concepts:

Individual or Group:

Ability Level:

Tags:

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

This lesson was created by a Chemistry professor for his Honors college Chemistry course. It has been enhanced for IL and adapted for our college's QEP (theme: critical thinking). It was also adapted throughout attending a Backwards Design class as an example (Library Juice Academy) thus the GRASPS instructional design tool was used.

Content will be uploaded into their online course shell (in the course management system) for them to view prior to an in-person library session. This will include a short library orientation video and another short using library resources video – both of which I created in the last year.

Students will attend a face-to-face library session – a full 75-minute class.

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

For additional information about the Intellectual Standards, please visit www.criticalthinking.org for the Paul-Elder Critical Thinking Model.

Assessment or Criteria for Success
(e.g. rubric, guidelines, exemplary sample paper, etc.): 
AttachmentSize
Cristy_Moran_ClimateChangewAnswers.docxdisplayed 964 times21.27 KB
Suggested Citation: 
Moran, Cristy. "Evaluating Internet Sources - Climate Change." CORA (Community of Online Research Assignments), 2017. https://projectcora.org/assignment/evaluating-internet-sources-climate-change.
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Submitted by Cristy Moran on January 19th, 2017
Short Description: 

Students will be expected to find evidence to investigate a pseudoscientific claim or conspiracy theory. For their graded assignment, they will be submitting a two-page paper to their Chemistry professor (the lead professor for this class in which I’m embedding). In their paper, they make a case that either supports the claim or rejects it. They will be expected to use both library and credible online sources for support.

Attachments: 
AttachmentSize
Full Lesson Overview and Descriptiondisplayed 1305 times19.41 KB
GRASPS for Lesson (Suitable for Students) displayed 1104 times16.44 KB
AttachmentSize
Cristy_Moran_Intellectual_Standards_handout.docxdisplayed 956 times15.77 KB
Cristy_Moran_CRAAP_handout.pdfdisplayed 1415 times668.5 KB
Relevant links: 
Intellectual Standards - Paul-Elder Critical Thinking Model
Learning Outcomes: 

• Students will construct various search phrases for use in online and library search tools
• Students will use certain evaluation criteria (e.g. CRAAP) to assess the credibility of online sources
• Students will identify specific library resources (e.g. databases) relevant to the field of study or content area of claims in which to search
• Students will examine sources for relevance to their research question and search need (specifically, to determine credibility of claims)

Discipline: 
ChemistryCommunication StudiesEnvironmental StudiesMultidisciplinary

Information Literacy concepts:

Individual or Group:

Ability Level:

Tags:

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

This lesson was created by a Chemistry professor, Dr. Perdian, for his Honors college Chemistry course. It has been enhanced for IL and adapted for our college's QEP (theme: critical thinking). It was also adapted throughout attending a Backwards Design class as an example (Library Juice Academy) thus the GRASPS instructional design tool was used.

Content will be uploaded into their online course shell (in the course management system) for them to view prior to an in-person library session. This will include a short library orientation video and another short using library resources video – both of which I created in the last year.

Students will attend a face-to-face library session – a full 75-minute class.

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

See www.criticalthinking.org for relevant information about the Paul-Elder Critical Thinking Models.

Suggested Citation: 
Moran, Cristy. "Evaluating Claims: Facebook Edition ." CORA (Community of Online Research Assignments), 2017. https://projectcora.org/assignment/evaluating-claims-facebook-edition.
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