General Education Program Learning Outcome II - Information Literacy

Standard One: The information literate student determines the nature and extent of the information needed.

Standard Two: The information literate student accesses needed information effectively and efficiently.

Standard Three: The information literate student evaluates information and its sources critically and incorporates selected information into his or her knowledge base and value system.

• Ask students to draft a research question or come to class with a research question they have used in the past. Then, provide students with research questions from more experienced researchers, and ask students to compare their research questions. Help students analyze some of the differences and determine what elements they might be able to incorporate into their next research question.
• Ask students to reflect upon the steps they went through when researching a major purchase or event in their lives (e.g. buying a car, selecting a college, etc.). Let them identify the steps involved in the research behind such a decision and their relative effectiveness in achieving the desired outcome, then consider how they might use a similar strategy in the academic setting.
• Assign students to keep research logs in which they note changes in particular research directions as they identify resources, read, and incorporate new learning.

Recommended Tutorials - Information Literacy: 

•  Module 3 - How do I Find Books?
• Module 4 -  How do I Find Articles?
• Module 5 -  Can I Use the Web?

It is a bad idea to do background research because knowing too much about a topic will lead to too many research ideas.

• True
• False

When choosing a research topic, you may consider your:

• Personal interests
• Academic or professional interests
• Societal needs
• Gaps in the existing research
• All of the above

Choose the sentence that contains the elements of a research question:

• I’m studying (topic) to investigate (question) in order to understand (significance).
• I’m studying (topic) to prove (idea) in order to convince (audience).
• I’m studying (a group) to develop a better understanding of (topic) because (significance).

 Source: University of Cincinnati Libraries