This is an activity we use in our Freshman-level writing class information literacy instruction one-shots. The activity presents four online resources and asks students to use the "Evaluating Online Sources" rubric to evaluate their assigned resource. Students vote using an online form on whether they would use a resource in their paper and then the instructor discusses each resource in depth with input from the group that evaluated it. Instructor will ask students to describe their resource and answer the questions asked by the rubric and then discuss the suitability of the resource. Exercise takes ~20 minutes.

Second of two library sessions provided to a introductory writing course. This is a scaffolded session focuses on visual literacy skills through the analysis of infographics and comics.

First of two library sessions provided to a introductory writing course. This session focuses on conducting research.

This lesson is intended as a single session within a major’s research methods course. Rather than using a shorter “scholarly vs. non-scholarly” comparison worksheet, this activity asks students to work in groups to systematically examine a scholarly article in depth, identify and evaluate its various components visually and in writing, and then compare it to a non-scholarly article on the same topic. Groups then report back to the entire class. Discussion is guided so as to touch on the processes by which sources are created, what these methods say about their authority, and to consider contextually appropriate uses for them. Although the activity was developed for students taking two social science majors' research methods courses (SOC 323 and ANTH 305), it could be adapted to any setting that lends itself to in-depth examination of information creation processes, the construction of authority, and the contextual appropriateness of sources.

Frame: Scholarship as Conversation Context: Lesson presented in the context of a one-shot, 50-minute library instruction session, with course libguide containing the multimedia presentations used for the lesson, organized in either boxes or tabs. Appropriate supplementary instructional content can be added to the libguide as needed.Lesson:Librarian overview of the frame of “Scholarship as Conversation” and why it is relevant to the students and their academic work. Focus on regarding scholarship as not a static “truth” frozen in time, but a process whereby researchers are in a continuum of inquiry and within which variation in research results comprises a “scholarly conversation.”Present Youtube video produced by librarian Anna Eisen entitled “Research 101: Scholarship as Conversation” accessible at https://youtu.be/YGia3gNyHDM to introduce the threshold concept.Next, present an NPR episode of the podcast “The Hidden Brain: A Conversation about Life’s Unseen Patterns” hosted by Shankar Vedantam, entitled “Scientific Findings Often Fail To Be Replicated, Researchers Say” aired on NPR on August 28, 2015 (access at: http://www.npr.org/2015/08/28/435416046/research-results-often-fail-to-be-replicated-researchers-say) Vedantam described a project headed by Dr. Brian Nosek at the University of Virginia in which researchers tried to replicate a hundred psychology experiments that were published in three leading journals. The results of the project were disappointing—nearly two thirds of the results of the experiments could not be replicated. Replication of results is a gold standard to measure quality of scientific research. An anecdotal topic referred to in the podcast was the research related to the health effects of coffee on the human body. Coffee and its health benefits (or lack thereof) are frequently discussed in the news media and was adopted as an example to utilize for an active learning component during the library instruction session.Distribute copies of the article “Health Effects of Coffee: Where Do We Stand?” at http://www.cnn.com/2015/08/14/health/coffee-health/index.html by Sandee LaMotte and published on the CNN website on August 14, 2015.  This article presents a chronology of “conventional wisdom,” popular beliefs, and research findings regarding the health effects of coffee intake from the 1500s to the present.Request that students break up into pairs, and review and discuss the article on coffee in light of the information they have just taken in via the the Youtube video and the NPR story.After 10 minutes, prompt and encourage the students to share their thoughts, analyses, conclusions, and insights regarding the content presented.Circle back to course purview and research assignments, and emphasize to students that they are “emerging researchers and emerging scholars” and they are the next participants in the conversation. They may be the contributors of new research knowledge in the future. 

This hands-on activity was piloted as part of a teach-in on fake news at Purchase College, SUNY. To convey the idea that “fake news” exists on a continuum, we did a pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey activity using a blank version of Vanessa Otero’s Media Bias chart. The chart is a useful tool for showing the nuances between nonfactual, biased, and inflammatory news sources. Participants are asked to research a news media organization and decide where to place it on the chart, then compare their choices to Otero's original infographic. Two groups can also compare their choices to each other. The ensuing discussion fits nicely with the ACRL Threshold Concept: “Authority is constructed and contextual” and can relate to "Research as Inquiry" or "Information as Value" as well, if economic factors related to the press and clickbait websites are discussed. The concept of a source being on a spectrum of “complex vs. clickbait” adds an additional layer of complexity for students who are used to focusing on binaries such as: liberal vs. conservative or “trustworthy vs. fake.” The details of how to implement this activity as well as copies of Otero's chart are attached. (P.S. An updated version of the chart was created in Fall 2017 adding more nuance along the "complexity" axis and removing some of the "PG-13" or "sassy" language. See attached PDFs).

This LibGuide is the result of our Reference Team's year-long project to create a new curriculum for our Instruction program, based on the Framework. Our project plan and documentation of our workflow is also available by request.MacPhaidin Library’s information skills curriculum is designed to teach students increasingly sophisticated research strategies throughout their Stonehill careers and to produce graduates who are adept at articulating their information needs, finding the resources to meet them, and using that data ethically to create new knowledge.By the time they graduate, students who participate in the full information skills curriculum can:Define their information needIdentify appropriate source types and research tools to meet their information needEvaluate information to determine its validity, accuracy, authority, timeliness and biasSynthesize information from research with existing understanding in order to create new knowledgeIdentify the legal, ethical, economic and social issues related to the use of information and recognize relevant intellectual property lawsUsing the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy in Higher Education, we’ve created a curriculum that identifies specific learning goals for the different stages of students’ studies. The stages focus on a variety of core concepts ranging from the simple – the iterative nature of searching - to the more complex – the impact of context on the value of information. The framework is designed to enhance student's information skills through faculty-librarian collaboration. This curriculum provides a template faculty and librarians can use to collaboratively craft instruction that will improve students’ information skills and, thereby, result in better work. This guide introduces our mission statement, curriculum and learning outcomes, and provides examples of the many ways librarians can assist you as your students develop their skills.

This lesson plan from Teaching Information Literacy Threshold Concepts, edited by Patricia Bravender, Hazel McClure, and Gayle Schaub and contributed by Debbie Morrow, concentrates on the value of information and the need to acknowledge that value through accurate attribution of sources, focusing not on print sources but on images and their use within the context of a presentation.

This lesson plan from Teaching Information Literacy Threshold Concepts, edited by Patricia Bravender, Hazel McClure, and Gayle Schaub and contributed by Ika Datig, addresses the search strategies and discovery tools students need to employ to recognize the possible reasons for setbacks and continue their research.

This lesson plan from Teaching Information Literacy Threshold Concepts, edited by Patricia Bravender, Hazel McClure, and Gayle Schaub and contributed by Toni M. Carter and Todd Aldridge, engages students with content in a way that compels them to consider the format of information each time they consider using it in their work.