Syllabus and five assignments within a two-credit live course at undergraduate level. See "Relevant Links" section for access to all assignments. Assignments include a rubric.

This activity proceeds via Socratic questioning. The goal is to have students explain the common stumbling blocks they encounter as they look for information and as they write papers (if they have). The role of the librarian is to facilitate the discussion by providing a contextual framework for student experiences. By showing students that their research process follows a common pattern, they can make better choices about how, when, and where to look for information (e.g., not jumping straight to peer-reviewed articles when they can barely define their topic)

A general worksheet for students to find key sources in selected databases for their assignments in Communication Studies.

In this sequence of activities, students will learn how to identify scholarly sources using three pronged test: 1) Is the source written by a researcher or academic 2) Is the source published in a scholarly book or peer reviewed journal, and 3) Does the source have an extensive bibliography. They will then be asked to find one scholarly book and one scholarly article on a general topic.

Learning Activities

Scholarly source pre-test

• Description of activity: Students will complete a three-five question true/false pretest. Each question will present the student with a source and ask them if the source is scholarly (true/false).
• Learning goal: Students will understand what they do and do not know about identifying scholarly sources. The pretest also works as an assessment strategy as well as a strategy for retention of the material.

Short lecture/discussion

• Description of activity: Instructor will lead students in a discussion about the elements that all scholarly sources have. This will lead to the list of the three-pronged test: 1) Is the source written by a researcher or academic 2) Is the source published in a scholarly book or peer reviewed journal, and 3) Does the source have an extensive bibliography. The instructor is leading the discussion should be creating a list on the board. This discussion should also include a specific mention that credible sources and academic sources are not always the same. A source can be credible without being scholarly and scholarly sources have been known to be not credible.
• Learning goal: Students will be able to apply the three pronged test to decide is a source is scholarly or not.
• Assessment: At the end of the discussion the Instructor will present students with a blog written by an academic that discusses a research project they worked on and includes a short list of cited reference at the end. The instructor will ask the class to vote on whether or not it is a scholarly source.

Find two scholarly sources

• Description of activity: Instructor will present students with a general topic (e.g. student debt) and ask them to find one scholarly book or book chapter and one scholarly article on the topic using whatever search tool they want (this can be done in pairs or groups of three). When they have found the sources, they will complete a Google form similar to this: http://libguides.lmu.edu/RHET1000/task (including asking what they used to find the sources – Google, Discovery layer, etc.). When the students are finished, the Instructor will project the results of the Google form and look at the search tools used by the students. If the students are overwhelming using Google or JSTOR, the instructor will discuss more useful places to find sources. Then the Instructor will randomly select some of the books and article the students found and ask they group how they identified them as scholarly.
• Learning goal: Students will be able to find scholarly books and articles.
• Assessment: At the end of the semester, librarian will collect final papers and assess the student bibliographies looking for evidence of scholarly sources. 

This set of assignments is designed to help students: (a) grow initial thoughts and questions into carefully scoped and well-reasoned research papers, and (b) develop critical thinking skills through interrogation of familiar images of religion and spirituality in American popular culture.

The following activity is meant to assist learning the concepts of strategic search. It introduces the idea that sources contribute different perspectives to an argument and that scholarship is a conversation. It can be used for any discipline but is particularly well suited to introductory writing courses.

This assignment is designed to help students develop a thoughtful research topic. Students go through a series of steps, questions, and background reading to help them better understand and refine a research topic.

A 10-minute presentation accompanied by a 20-page research paper. The presentation features highlights from your extensive research on a career field, including a profile of a specific company or organization and an interview with a practicing professional.

A research diary is a log of the steps and thought processes researchers go through as they conduct their research.  A research diary gives students the opportunity to reflect on the research process as they discover more information about a topic. 

Students are asked to reflect on their experience writing a required “literature review” for the course through a first-person “comic.” The visual narrative format allows students to come to terms with their own experience of what was hard, easy, or confusing about the literature review process and express it in a creative way.