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This activity is designed to help students understand the difference between background sources and scholarly sources. Students will read a quick overview of the key differences between these source types, and then they will be asked to classify five sample sources. For each source, they will make an initial judgment based on a screenshot and then take a closer look at the full source to see if their gut instinct was correct. Correct answers and explanations are provided for each source.
This activity is suitable for in-person, synchronous online, and asynchronous online instruction. It is self-paced and takes most students between 10 and 15 minutes to complete. The activity is hosted on Microsoft Sway, and it can be completed on a computer, tablet, phone, or any device with an internet connection.