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Canvas

What is "Research for Life"?

 “Research for Life” is designed to supplement the material and learning outcomes of ENGL101 (Comp 1). It is built as a cohesive piece, with each module building on previous concepts and clear opportunities for students to reflect on and practice the concepts that are presented. The pace at which you assign or incorporate the modules is up to you. The modules include an OER text, video tutorials, and assignments or discussions. It can be entirely self-paced to fit alongside other content within a course. 

The modules are built in such a way that students will not need a synchronous meeting with a librarian, though we are always happy to offer one should you feel a follow up would be beneficial. 

What is in the Canvas shell?

This Canvas course contains 13 modules exploring the concepts of information literacy, critical thinking, and academic research and expectations. Each module covers one specific area of information literacy and is about 30-45 minutes of work. 

 

What does each module include? 

    • Module "Overview" and "Wrap Up" pages: Contain the objectives from the corresponding OER textbook chapter.
    • "Reading" pages: These contain PDFs to the corresponding OER textbook chapter, along with questions for students to consider as they read. 
    • Assessments in the form of a quiz, discussion post, and/or assignment. It is up to you how many points to offer, but an essential part of information literacy is reflection and practice, so we feel these assessments are essential to the success of the reading material. 
    • "Additional Resources Suggestions" pages: These are faculty-facing pages (unpublished to student view). Here you will find additional links, videos, etc. that you can pick and choose from, to potentially include in your module.

General Learning Objectives

    • Information literacy is an integrated set of skills, knowledge, and practices that will help you to discover, interpret and create information in an ethical manner  (Ch. 1) 
    • Information systems interact in complex ways, weaving together scholarly, popular, false, and advertised content in ways that make it difficult to evaluate what you need (Ch. 3-5, 10) 
    • Librarians provide guidance to you through the materials they curate and create, working alongside you to assist you in navigating these information complexities  (Ch. 7-9)
    • The process of researching requires time and thought as you modify and adjust your research question based on the sources you find and the project requirements (Ch. 11-12)

If you are interested in exploring this OER for your information literacy instruction in Comp 1, contact the Humanities liaison librarian, Kay Neary, for more details.