The goal of this activity is to help students start to develop a broader understanding of the value of information and their rights and responsibilities as information consumers and creators. Students complete a simple true/false activity that is intended to help identify any misconceptions or misunderstandings that they might have related to information. 

This activity was designed to help students understand some of the costs associated with creating and accessing information. Students will consider the cost of a "package" of information resources and participate in a discussion focused on the value of information resources.  

The Penn State Berks Privacy Workshop Series focuses on privacy issues for students in the past, present, and future.  The Privacy Workshop spotlights privacy practices and concerns in the current moment; Digital Leadership explores future implications of past and current digital behaviors; Digital Shred provides tools to evaluate and mitigate the damage of past digital behaviors; and Digital Wellness focuses on privacy across the lifespan - bringing together the past, present, & future by finding a balance of technology & wellness, while aligning habits and goals.  Each workshop is grounded in theory – countering approaches that overpromise user control in the face of information asymmetries and the control paradox – and embrace students’ autonomy and agency by avoiding prescribed solutions, and instead encouraging decision-making frameworks.In the Digital Leadership Workshop, students will be able to:recognize that online behavior is persistent and there is no guarantee that it will remain private (despite privacy settings)anticipate how perceptions of their online behavior can impact their personal and professional opportunities and make informed, intentional decisions regarding their activityalign their online activity within the context of their future professionmodel constructive online behaviors as student leaders and future professionals

In this workshop, students learn about the driving forces behind fake news, reflect on how our opinions impact the way we evaluate information, and discuss and practice using criteria for evaluating news. The workshop includes a brief presentation on fake news and cognitive biases, reflection prompts for students to respond to, and an activity in which students work in groups to evaluate different news articles on a common topic.

In this interactive online workshop, you will learn strategies for generating research questions and turning those questions into keywords. Coming up with keywords will help you craft more effective searches!By the end of this workshop, you'll be able to:Develop specific research questions from a topicTurn questions into keywordsConstruct a preliminary search for your specific research questionThe workshop includes interactive videos and self-assessment questions.

Writing a literature review can seem like a daunting task. It involves finding sources, synthesizing them, and relating them to your research topic. This workshop will guide you through the process of writing a literature review, providing plenty of examples and tips along the way.By the end of this activity, you'll be able to:Recognize key components of a literature reviewIdentify a knowledge gap in previous research and express how you can address the gapOrganize sources effectively and logicallyThe workshop includes interactive video animations and self-assessment questions.

This interactive online workshop introduces and defines plagiarism and discusses when and how to cite, quote, paraphrase, and summarize.Learning outcomes:Learners will be able to:Identify strategies for avoiding plagiarismAccurately cite sources in a consistent styleSummarize, paraphrase, and directly quote a textThe workshop includes integrated self-assessment and feedback. 

The information literacy in class assignment was introduced to Sophomores and Juniors in STEM during a math class. Concepts such as types of information sources and critical evaluation of information sources were introduced.  The remainder of time is devoted to a group assignment on evaluating information sources both on the Web in comparison to the information resource.Students worked in groups to complete the assignment which was handed out on paper.  The first part explained again criteria for evaluating information sources while the second part gave 3 example sources from a Wikipedia article.  Students were asked to identify the type of information source (scholarly journal, news, book, website) and the authors with their credentials.  Then the students were asked to infer the intended audience for the information source and the usefulness of the information for their coursework later in the semester.  Finally, the students were asked to located an item in the library’s discovery search interface that was of high quality in the characteristics they had explored.

Created in collaboration with Dr. Jordan Moberg Parker, UCLA's Director of Undergraduate Laboratory Curriculum and Assessment in Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics, C.R.E.A.T.E.S. is a set of 6 steps that help learners read and critically analyze scientific papers. The C.R.E.A.T.E.S. method, pioneered by Dr. Sally Hoskins, has a demonstrated positive impact on undergraduate students' self-confidence in scientific reading, as well as in their general perceptions of and beliefs about science and scientific thinking (Hoskins, et. al, 2017).The new C.R.E.A.T.E.S. site uses interactive media, step-by-step directions, and detailed annotation of authentic examples to guide students through the process.

This exploratory study aims to improve librarian support for undergraduate users as they find, access, evaluate, and appropriately use primary source materials in their research. By approaching object-based information literacy instruction via the Association of College and Research Libraries’ (ACRL) Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education (Framework), this project will promote use of academic library special collections and archives in ways that reinforce the theoretical approach espoused by that document. Primary source evaluations collected before and after one semester of Framework-based instruction indicate that the concepts identified therein are relevant to and support learning with primary sources.