Jane Hammons

This online guide provides an overview of four common source evaluation myths that might prevent students from being able to effectively evaluate online sources. 

The goal of this assignment is to help students develop a better understanding of the need to provide citations. Moving beyond a focus on citations as giving appropriate credit to an author, this activity is intended to help students appreciate the value of citations for the reader (or scholars in general). Students will review a source without citations and attempt to answer a series of questions, then will discuss/reflect on what the activity contributes to their understanding of how scholars…

The goal of this activity is to help students develop a broader understanding how authority is determined and what types of sources are considered appropriate in different contexts. It is also intended to help address some of the misconceptions that students have related to the source evaluation process. 

This web resource provides a brief overview of the concept Authority is Constructed and Contextual. It includes a video, a concept description, and the related knowledge practices and dispositions. 

The goal of this activity is to help students start to think critically about the evaluation strategies that they have learned and whether they support the effective evaluation of information. Students will learn about the lateral reading strategy for evaluation and compare it to their existing evaluation process. 

The goal of this activity is to help students develop a broader understanding of the purpose of academic research assignments, by helping to identify some of the common misconceptions that they might have about research assignments. This could also be used as a low-stakes activity or assignment at the beginning of a research project to help clarify expectations.

The goal of this activity is to help students start to develop an understanding of research as an ongoing process of inquiry, rather than a straightforward process of compiling information on a topic. Students develop initial definitions of “research as inquiry,” review and discuss resources related to the concept, revise their definitions, and reflect on how the concept relates to their research practices.  

Goal: The primary goal of the activity or assignment is for students to develop an increased understanding of the peer review process and how it is connected to the authority or credibility of different information sources. Students will also be encouraged to consider some of the criticisms that have been raised about the process and consider alternatives for determining authoritative sources within a field or discipline. Learning Outcomes:

• Explain the basic process of scholarly…

This resource provides an overview of the concept Authority is Constructed and Contextual from the Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education. A brief overview of the concept is provided and several of the related knowledge practices and dispositions are highlighted. 

The purpose of this activity is to help students identify the types of research questions that scholars in their field are investigating in preparation for developing their own research questions. As a class, students will review multiple scholarly articles related to a topic or question, identify the research question or questions, and then discuss the characteristics of research questions that are found in the field. 

In this assignment, students will consider how the format of the information product can impact what they are able to convey related to a topic and how their information may be received and valued. Students will investigate a topic or question and share their response in multiple formats. Formats could range from a more traditional research paper or poster to blogs, infographic, video, or even a series of Tweets. Students will be required to consider how the format(s) they have…

This activity is intended to help students understand the types of sources that are most commonly cited in research in a specific discipline or field. Students will review the citations from multiple relevant journal articles to identify the types of sources that are often cited. They will also be encouraged to consider why certain types of sources may be more cited than others, and what may be missing by relying primarily on certain types of sources. In addition, students will get…

This assignment or activity is intended to help students learn how to trace the scholarly conversation on a topic, using references and cited by tools to find previous and more recent works related to a specific source.

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.