Creating Effective Research Assignments While Keeping Your Sanity

Creating Effective Research Assignments While Keeping Your Sanity Carmen Genuardi, FTL Spring 2007 Some rights reserved (Be_Still)

AGENDA • Learning Outcomes & Objectives • Research skills and identifying objectives • Recommendations • Plagiarism Tutorial • Share your experiences • Next Steps • Your feedback is important Some rights reserved (Be_Still)

Learning Outcomes: To help support the Faculty in the creation of welldesigned, course-related research assignments that utilize Seneca Libraries’ resources and services while at the same time facilitating a positive experience for students who are developing research skills. Some rights reserved (Be_Still)

Learning Objectives: Upon completion of this workshop, you will be able to… Know Recall at least 2 of the recommendations that will help create more effective research assignments and student research experiences; Do Incorporate one or two of the recommendations into a suitable course-related research assignment (FTL Deliverable 4 Planning a Lesson and Teaching and Learning Strategies and Activities); Share experiences with the group around creating research assignments; Feel Recognize and appreciate the benefits of collaborating with the library (i. e. , Librarian) in creating course-specific research assignments. Some rights reserved (Be_Still)

Why? Article in College Teaching explained concern by professors… “In recent years, as students’ reliance on Internet research has grown, professors have expressed a growing dissatisfaction with the research efforts and thinking skills demonstrated by students” p. 324 “Academics are increasingly struggling to encourage students to perform library research that involves a more in-depth and critical exploration of the subject matter than a quick Google search typically provides. ” p. 324 Mahaffy, Mardi. (Fall 2006). Encouraging Critical Thinking in Student Library Research. College Teaching, 54(4), 324 -327.

Identifying learning objectives for your research assignments… What research skills should students have upon completion of this research assignment? Upon completion of this research assignment, students should be able to: 1. Know when they have an information need (ie. , identify gap in knowledge); 2. Locate the needed information in a specific discipline effectively and efficiently; 3. Use this gathered information ethically (by citing all of their sources); 4. Evaluate critically, both the gathered information and sources.

ACRL Standards –Handout adapted from: Jeanne Davidson & Anne-Marie Deitering: WILU 35: 11 May 2006

THERE IS A BETTER WAY!! THE MISSING PIECES OF THE PUZZLE I need some recommendations that will help me be less frustrated with the assignments my students hand in on a regular basis. some rights reserved (Fez)

A few recommendations… Don’t go it alone! The library is meant to be a place filled with resources, services and people who are there to help you. Contact a Librarian: We can and want to help.

Ensure the library has required information sources for completion of assignments • Information sources are constantly changing. • Try doing the assignment yourself to test its feasibility and ensure there a variety of sources (e. g. , databases, articles, books, ebooks) available for students to explore/compare different types of information sources. What to do? • Contact a Librarian to ensure availability and access of needed resources ahead of time. • Provide a list of the resources to students.

Remember, we want to hear from you! Send us requests for book titles, videos, and journal titles that will support your research assignments and your courses. By doing so, you will have the required information sources at the library for your students to complete course assignments.

Request a library instruction session to help students succeed in this assignment. Library instruction sessions will help students understand the organization of information within a discipline, how to search databases, and how to evaluate information. *Example of a library instruction session (ppt. and exercise) from an EAC 150 class this semester at King Campus.

Clearly state what students are expected to learn from the assignment. • Provide clearning objectives or even steps to follow. • Use Bloom’s Taxonomy and/or the Objectives we discussed earlier to help define this for you. • Create a rubric for yourself and your students so there are clear guidelines for your marking scheme.

Place material that will be in high demand on reserve. To minimize student frustration, place any journal articles, books or videos that will be used heavily by students at the reserve desk on a 2 hour loan. *Course Readings are also an excellent access point for providing course specific online resources.

Interlibrary Loan & Intercampus Loan • Part of being a student is learning good time management skills. • Students who plan ahead and start their research early, can take advantage of interlibrary loan and intercampus loan between our four Seneca campus libraries.

Academic Honesty and Plagiarism • Tell students what citation style you require. • Through the Seneca Libraries web site (http: //library. senecacollege. ca/), students can access online guides for MLA and APA under “Research Help” that were created specifically for Seneca students. Tip: Some faculty are having a discussion around plagiarism and what it means at Seneca and then students write a brief quiz to test understanding and sign this like it’s a contract.

Promoting Academic Honesty You can design research assignments that help to promote academic honesty and reduce student plagiarism by: • Students keep a “Research Log”; • Students submit research in stages during year; • Give choices for topic selection; • Collaborate with a Librarian to schedule a library research skills workshop a few weeks before the research assignment is due so that student’s have the skills they need to find reputable sources; • Alter assignment requirements (slightly), every year; • Use Turnitin to encourage students to site sources.

Plagiarism Tutorial http: //ilearn. senecac. on. ca/learningobjects/plagiarism/ Pre- and Post-Tests accompany this tutorial, consisting of 2 sets of 10 questions created in Respondus which are generated randomly and are then put into Faculty’s Bb course pages. Related Article: “Designing Assignments to Minimize Cyber. Cheating” from Teaching Professor (January 2005).

Share your experiences… I would like to take a few minutes to hear from all of you, what have been your experiences around designing (and marking) research assignments for your specific subject areas/discipline? Please share with us one that you feel worked well or maybe didn’t work so well.

Next steps next steps Some rights reserved (Malingering)

What we learned? ü Checklist ü Librarians at Seneca Libraries are eager to help with your information needs

Lastly… • Many college students regardless of class level, do not have the necessary skills to complete academic library research. • Yet, employers expect graduates will have these skills upon entering the workforce. • Please do not leave this portion of the learning process to chance. Work with a Librarian to ensure students have the necessary skills and resources to have a positive library experience.

Sources Consulted "Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education. " American Library Association. 2006. http: //www. ala. org/acrl/ilcomstan. html (Accessed 15 Nov, 2006). Miriam Library. (April 21, 2006). Promoting Information Literacy through Class Assignments. http: //www. csuchico. edu/lins/assignments/promoting_infolit. html (Accessed March 25, 2007). Mahaffy, Mardi. (2006). Encouraging critical thinking in student library research. College Teaching, 54(4), 324 -327.

Thank you!! Any Questions? I would love to hear from you. Have more questions? Carmen Genuardi, BSc. , BEd. , M. L. I. S. Information Services Librarian, Seneca Libraries 416 -490 -5050 ext. 5194 carmen. genuardi@senecac. on. ca