Information Literacy Learning Goal A:

A1. Familiarize yourself with the types of sources used in a particular discipline.

Explore the following questions with students and show them examples of relevant sources.

• How do scholars, experts, or other professionals in your discipline generate new information, ideas, products, inventions, or creative works? Through research, testing and development, creative activity, etc.?

• How does this output get communicated and shared with other scholars, experts, or professionals? Through journals, books, online forums, etc.? 

• What measures are in place, if any, to ensure that this information is accurate and reliable?

• When and how does this output get communicated and shared with the general public? Through newspaper articles, magazine articles, blogs, websites, etc.? 

• What measures are in place, if any, to ensure information communicated to the general public is accurate and reliable?

Then, supply them with a new set of sources and have them identify the source type. You might also consider merging this assignment with some elements from Assignment Idea 2, just below.

A3. Match a particular source type to a specific information need.

Supply students with imaginary scenarios (such as some plausible career scenarios) where they need to find information. For each scenario, provide them with a list of different source types and ask them to explain which would be the most/least appropriate to consult and why. 

Encourage them to explore these questions:

• How do different types of sources solve different information problems? 

• When and why would you seek information in a book versus a journal article versus a newspaper article versus a website, etc.?

• How does authority, reliability, expertise, and the vetting process play a part in choosing the best sources to solve an information problem?

A5. Match primary and secondary sources to a particular information need.

Supply students with imaginary scenarios (such as some plausible career scenarios) where they need to find information. For each scenario, ask whether it would be more appropriate to consult primary sources or secondary sources and why. You could also have them state the exact types of primary or secondary sources they'd consult for each scenario and discuss why that type of source is more appropriate.

A7. Take a deep dive into empirical research articles.

Provide students with an empirical research article that's not too hard to read. Explain its purpose, audience, use, and how it is organized – for example:

• Title - Article titles usually provide a very concise overview of what the article is about.

• Abstract - This is a short summary of the entire research project.

• Introduction - In this section the authors show how their research fits into the context of previous research, why they conducted their particular study, and the specific questions or hypotheses they set out to answer.

• Methods - Here the authors will describe how they conducted their research project including, procedures, instruments, participants, variables measured, etc.

• Results - The authors use this section to show the data they collected, often using graphs, figures, or tables.

• Discussion - In this section, the authors explain what they learned from their study, including the significance of it, and how it advances our knowledge of the world.

• References - This is where the authors list citations to the publications they referred to throughout their article.
  
  

Then, have students read the article and select some of the following questions for them to answer:

• • What journal was the article published in?

  • What is the title of the article?

  • At what point in the abstract can you find a short summary of what the authors learned from their study? (Beginning? Middle? End?)

  • Look over the introduction. Notice that the authors cite a lot of other articles in the introduction to show what's already known about the topic. How have past studies led the author(s) to this particular study? In what ways does citing previous research enhance the authors’ credibility and justification for their research?

  • Where in the introduction can you find the specific research question or hypothesis that the author(s) studied? (Beginning? Middle? End?)

  • What are the specific research questions, objectives, or hypotheses that the author(s) studied?

  • The United States National Science Foundation (NSF) defines reproducibility as "the ability of a researcher to duplicate the results of a prior study using the same materials as were used by the original investigator." Furthermore, NSF considers reproducibility to be "a minimum necessary condition for a finding to be believable and informative.” What section of a research article best fulfills the condition of reproducibility? (The title? abstract? introduction? methods? results? discussion/conclusion?)

  • What methods did the authors use to conduct their study? Provide a short summary of the data collection procedures, instruments, sampling techniques, etc.

  • What sorts of visuals (if any) do the authors use to display their results to the reader? Do they use just text? Or do they employ graphs, diagrams, photos, tables, etc.? Do you think the authors are effective in communicating the data they collected to the reader? Why or why not?

  • In the discussion and/or conclusions, the authors explain what they found from their research project and what makes those findings important. So, what did the authors learn? Was their project a success?

  • What do you think about what the author(s) found and its importance? Do you think their conclusions are credible and sound – and if so, why? Or, do you think more studies are needed in order to corroborate their findings?

  • Within the discussion and/or conclusions did the authors mention any limitations to their study? If so, what were they?

  • Within the discussion and/or conclusions did the authors suggest directions for future research? If so, what did they suggest?

  • What do you think is the point of documenting a research project like this and publishing the results in a research article?

  • Who do you think is likely to be interested in reading this article and why?

  • How might this article be used by other researchers in the future? Imagine a scenario and describe it.

  • Can you find any evidence on the first page of the article about where the authors work? And/or can you “Google” the authors to learn more about them? Based on what you learn, do you think they are qualified to run research studies, interpret the results, and write up research articles? Why or why not?

  • Do you think the inclusion of a methods section enhances the credibility of a research article? If so, how?

  • In the references section of the article, the authors provide a list of all outside publications they cited throughout their paper. Do you think this enhances the credibility of the article? If so, how?

  • Was this article published in a peer-reviewed journal?

  • How does undergoing peer-review help to ensure the reliability of a research article? 

A9. Identify source types within your Google results.

When searching for information in Google, it helps to be able to recognize source types from the brief details provided within your search results. When you have this ability, you can make more informed choices about which sources to click on, and avoid investigating sources that are likely to be a dead-end. 

To give students practice with this skill, have them run searches on a topic in Google and then have them try to work out what types of sources are represented on the first page of results without clicking on the result to investigate it further. 

For example, you might think of an information problem that a professional working in your discipline might encounter – and specifically a problem that requires running a Google search for information. Then, show how you – the expert – would identify source types in your Google results and explain to students which Google result you'd click on first and why. After you've modeled what you'd do, have them practice for themselves and provide feedback.