Assignment

Submitted by Carolyn Schubert on June 14th, 2021
Share this on: 
Short Description: 

This scaffolded assignment was developed for senior Dietetic students enrolled in a research methods course. The lessons were collaboratively created via a librarian-faculty partnership.

Attachments: 
AttachmentSize
Lesson plan for Lesson 1displayed 849 times30.96 KB
Lesson plan for Lesson 2displayed 658 times32.54 KB
Lesson plan for Lesson 3displayed 693 times31.32 KB
Slides for Lesson 3displayed 879 times307.11 KB
Learning Outcomes: 

In general, question development using PICO format, database searching, and evidence evaluation. More specific learning goals described in individual lesson plans materials.

Discipline: 
Health

Individual or Group:

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

Lessons have been implemented in-person and online, both synchronously.

Additional Instructor Resources (e.g. in-class activities, worksheets, scaffolding applications, supplemental modules, further readings, etc.): 
Potential Pitfalls and Teaching Tips: 
Suggested Citation: 
Schubert, Carolyn. "Critical Reading Strategies for Dietetics Students." CORA (Community of Online Research Assignments), 2021. https://projectcora.org/assignment/critical-reading-strategies-dietetics-students.
Submitted by Duke University Libraries RIS Team on December 4th, 2019
Share this on: 
Short Description: 

This lesson on journal prestige could be taught by itself, as part of a series on scholarly communication, or as a small part of a larger lesson on information prestige.

Attachments: 
AttachmentSize
Citations for Info Privilege Lessons Mediadisplayed 908 times10.84 KB
Lesson Plandisplayed 1057 times377.57 KB
Learning Outcomes: 

Students will recognize the practices of scholarly publishers

Students will evaluate whether citation count is a good indicator of authority

Discipline: 
Multidisciplinary

Individual or Group:

Potential Pitfalls and Teaching Tips: 

This topic could fit well into instruction sessions that include significant treatment of source evaluation and is one potential approach as you move beyond simple categorization of sources as scholarly/non-scholarly or primary/secondary. It stops short of a critical examination of construction of authority but could be used to hint at greater subtlety and complexity. This topic has particular relevance for upper level undergraduates engaged in research, who may be starting to think about publication from an author’s perspective.

Suggested Citation: 
RIS Team, Duke University Libraries. "Journal Prestige." CORA (Community of Online Research Assignments), 2019. https://projectcora.org/assignment/journal-prestige.
Submitted by Duke University Libraries RIS Team on November 26th, 2019
Share this on: 
Short Description: 

This is an activity to get students to think critically about the sources and information presented in a Wikipedia article. Students are asked to look up an article on their own topic, or a topic related to the course, and examine the content and the “Talk” page to see what issues the article has related to Wikipedia’s 3 guiding principles for content: point of view (objectivity/bias), verifiability (quality of sources cited), and evidence of original researchNOTE: This activity works best for topics (people, events) that are current public debates and/or controversial.

Attachments: 
AttachmentSize
Directions for Instructordisplayed 944 times13.54 KB
Evaluating a Controversial Topic Activitydisplayed 1021 times1.01 MB
Learning Outcomes: 

Students will define Wikipedia’s guiding content principles

Students will evaluate a topic by investigating Wikipedia talk pages related to it

Discipline: 
Multidisciplinary

Individual or Group:

Course Context (e.g. how it was implemented or integrated): 
Additional Instructor Resources (e.g. in-class activities, worksheets, scaffolding applications, supplemental modules, further readings, etc.): 
Potential Pitfalls and Teaching Tips: 
Suggested Citation: 
RIS Team, Duke University Libraries. "Researching a Controversy." CORA (Community of Online Research Assignments), 2019. https://projectcora.org/assignment/researching-controversy.
Submitted by Duke University Libraries RIS Team on November 20th, 2019
Share this on: 
Short Description: 

This lesson on the nature and cost of scholarly publishing could be taught by
itself, or as part of a series on scholarly communication, or as a small part of a larger lesson on
information privilege.

Attachments: 
AttachmentSize
Lesson Plandisplayed 856 times269.69 KB
Citations for Info Privilege Lessons Mediadisplayed 938 times10.84 KB
Learning Outcomes: 

Students will recognize the practices of scholarly publishers

Students will understand the cost of accessing scholarly research

Discipline: 
Multidisciplinary

Individual or Group:

Potential Pitfalls and Teaching Tips: 

Introducing this topic could be as simple as indicating the impressive number of scholarly articles published each year or size of library collections budgets or be part of a lengthier lesson on how academic publishing works. It could be included in searching or source evaluation exercises and may set the stage for understanding the fundamentals of scholarly communication.

Suggested Citation: 
RIS Team, Duke University Libraries. "Scale of Scholarly Publishing." CORA (Community of Online Research Assignments), 2019. https://projectcora.org/assignment/scale-scholarly-publishing.
Submitted by Duke University Libraries RIS Team on November 6th, 2019
Share this on: 
Short Description: 

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.

Attachments: 
AttachmentSize
Finding a Book Instructions.docxdisplayed 723 times13.61 KB
Finding-a-Book-example.pdfdisplayed 856 times340.67 KB
Finding-a-Book-template.pdf.docxdisplayed 734 times93.98 KB
Learning Outcomes: 
  • Utilize the libraries online catalog to find a book suitable to chosen topic
  • Locate the specific book identified in the search in the stacks
Discipline: 
Multidisciplinary

Individual or Group:

Course Context (e.g. how it was implemented or integrated): 
Additional Instructor Resources (e.g. in-class activities, worksheets, scaffolding applications, supplemental modules, further readings, etc.): 
Potential Pitfalls and Teaching Tips: 
  • Librarian will need to coordinate with instructor to ensure that the assignment is clearly communicated to students before class;
  • Participation, or assignment, credit helps as an incentive.
Suggested Citation: 
RIS Team, Duke University Libraries. "Finding a Book." CORA (Community of Online Research Assignments), 2019. https://projectcora.org/assignment/finding-book.

Teaching Resource

Roadmap specifically for librarians who are new to instruction, or who are charged with training someone who is new. Includes sample lesson plans and activities, observation form, training checklist, etc.

Submitted by Sarah Ralston on November 15th, 2017
Share this on: 
Short Description: 

This activity/assignment was designed for a first year composition course in collaboration with an English/Writing instructor. It could be used in an information literacy credit course, First Year Experience course, or in another discipline-specific context. The purpose of the lesson is to lay the foundation for students to be able to read scholarly work more effectively and critically.
Students are given instruction on reading a scholarly article and directed to look for key pieces of information such as research question or hypothesis, methods, participants or data sources, key findings, and limitations of the study. The instructor then shows an infographic (prepared in advance) showing those key pieces of information in a concise, visual format. Students are introduced to an online infographic maker such as easel.ly or piktochart, and directed to create their own infographic on the article as practice.
The graded assignment is for students to create an infographic on a scholarly article of their choosing, relevant to a larger research assignment in the composition (or other) course (e.g. an annotated bibliography).

Attachments: 
AttachmentSize
Lesson plan, background prep, and assignment instructionsdisplayed 1967 times18.43 KB
"Parts of a Scholarly Article" Handout and Sample Infographicdisplayed 2757 times703.54 KB
Handout&Sample.pptxdisplayed 1931 times703.54 KB
Learning Outcomes: 

1. Students will be able to identify the components of a scholarly journal article in order to become familiar with common structures of research articles.
2. Students will be able to locate the key pieces of information (hypothesis or research question, methodology, participants or data sources, findings, and limitations) in a scholarly journal article in order to read for understanding.
3. Students will be able to present the key pieces of information from a scholarly article in a visual format using infographic or other online creation tools.

Individual or Group:

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

This assignment was created for a first year composition course in collaboration with the instructor. She wanted to use infographics as a method for teaching multimodal writing, and I wanted a strategy for showing how to read scholarly articles. This activity was conducted on my second visit to class, so students already had instruction on source types and characteristics of scholarly articles. We'd also had a discussion about the concept Scholarship as a Conversation. I spent the class time following the lesson plan as written, and the following class day the students had time in the computer lab with their instructor to create their own infographics. The final essay for the class is an argumentative essay, requiring 5 sources, 2 of which must be scholarly. An infographic summarizing one of the scholarly articles is required as an attachment to the essay.

Suggested Citation: 
Ralston, Sarah. "Scholarly Articles: Reading for Understanding." CORA (Community of Online Research Assignments), 2017. https://projectcora.org/assignment/scholarly-articles-reading-understanding.

Teaching Resource

The resources included represent 12 data-driven assignments created by USC faculty recipients of the Provost's Data-Driven Assignment Grant Program in Spring 2015.

Teaching Resource

Two dozen teachers, librarians, administrators, and writing center professionals share their expertise and insights on successfully utilizing the frameworks for writing and information literacy. 

Pages