Creating Effective Student Research Assignments
Presented as part of
Collaborating for a Cure: Moving Students Beyond the Online Quick Fix
California Clearinghouse on Library Instruction Spring Workshop, Fremont, CA, May 14, 2004
 
Reference/Instruction Librarian, Doe/Moffitt Library, UC Berkeley

    See also  PowerPoint presentation

Sample assignments

1. Comparing search tools

Objectives:
Students will be able to find high quality Internet resources; compare the results of selective web directories, search engines, and article databases; and describe how they evaluated the resources.

Tasks:
After an instruction session on web search tools and techniques, students search their topics in Google, Librarians’ Index to the Internet, InfoMine, and an appropriate article database, and answer these questions:

(1) Compare the 4 sets of results. 
How would you characterize the results from each search tool?  Which one produced the highest quality, most useful results for your topic?

(2) Take the best web site or page you found, and the best journal article.  Describe how you know it is suitable to use in a research paper.

2: Building a web resource

Objectives:
Students will be able to locate and select high-quality web sites on their topic, explain their choices, and create a web page designed to introduce the topic and the relevant sites to beginners.

Tasks:
After an instruction session on web search tools and techniques, students work in teams to create web pages on their topics. Each page briefly describes the topic and links to 5-10 relevant web sites. 

 

Related web sites

Effective Assignments Using Library and Internet Resources
< http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/assignments.html >

Find Websites [UC Berkeley instructional page]
< http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/Help/search.html >

Finding Information on the Internet: A Tutorial
< http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/FindInfo.html >

Mellon Faculty Institute on Undergraduate Research
< http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/MellonInstitute/ >

ThinkQuest
< http://www.thinkquest.org/ >

WebQuest
< http://webquest.org/ >

 

Publications

Agosta, Denise. E. “Bounded rationality and satisficing in young people’s Web-based decision-making.” Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology 53 (2002), 16-27.

Barthol, Richard P. and Ku, Nani D.  “Regression Under Stress to First Learned Behavior.”  Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology 59 (1959), reprinted in Lindzey, Gardner, et al., eds,  Theories of personality: primary sources and research.  2d ed. (New York, Wiley, 1973).  pp. 156-159.

Block, Marylaine.  “Gullible’s Travels [how to teach students to guard against misinformation, disinformation, and spin on the net].”  Library Journal NetConnect (Spring 2002), 12-14. 

Chappell, Virginia A., et al., “Beyond Information Retrieval: Transforming Research Assignments into Genuine Inquiry.”  Journal of Teaching Writing 13 (1994), 209-24.

Dervin, Brenda, “Sense-Making Methodology Site”
< http://communication.sbs.ohio-state.edu/sense-making/ > 

Isaksen, Judy L., et al., “World Wide Web Research Assignments (What Works for Me).” Teaching English in the Two-Year College 26 (1998),196-98

Lipow, Anne G. “Outreach to Faculty: Why and How,” in Shirato, Linda, ed. Working with Faculty in the New Electronic Library [19th National LOEX Library Instruction Conference] (Ann Arbor: Pierian Press, 1992).

McBride, Kari Boyd and Dickstein, Ruth. “The Web Demands Critical Reading by Students.”  Chronicle of Higher Education (March 20, 1998), B6. 

McGlinn, James E. and McGlinn, Jeanne M.  “Motivating Learning in a Humanities Class through Innovative Research Assignments: A Case Study.” (2003) ED479392 
Mosley, Pixey Anne.  “Creating a Library Assignment Workshop for University Faculty.”  Journal of Academic Librarianship 24 (1998), 33-41.
Nottage, Cindy and Morse, Virginia.  “Goal Setting: The Heart of the Problem in Research Assignments.” Knowledge Quest 30 (2001), 32-33.

Rothenberg, David.  “How the Web Destroys the Quality of Students’ Research Papers.”   Chronicle of Higher Education (August 15, 1997), A44.

Thompson, Christen.  “Information Illiterate or Lazy: How College Students Use the Web for Research.”  Portal: Libraries and the Academy 3 (2003), 259-268.

Young, Rosemary M. and Harmony, Stephena.  Working with Faculty to Design Undergraduate Information Literacy Programs: A How-to-do-it Manual for Librarians.  New York: Neal-Schuman, 1999.

Panel Discussion:
Challenges to Moving Students Beyond Google Searching

UC Berkeley Library home page redesign
Before:  < http://web.archive.org/web/20030715142125/http://lib.berkeley.edu/index.html >
After:    < http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/ >

Library Terms That Users Understand
< http://www.jkup.net/terms.html >