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Building Research Assignments

to Develop Student Voices

& Empower Students

as Scholars

Young Rhetoricians Conference

June 21, 2024

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Who We Are

Outreach and Reference Librarian

The University of the District of Columbia

she/her

Meghan Kowalski

Faith Rusk

Cathy Meals

Assessment and Reference Librarian

The University of the District of Columbia

she/her

Lower Division Research Assistance & Instruction Coordinator

San Francisco State University

she/her

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Agenda

We‘ve got a few tips

Research Assignment Recommendations

How to work with your librarians!

Recommendations for Collaboration

What we learned and how we learned it

Our Study

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Yikes!

How this work got started

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Project Goals

How do faculty develop their research assignments?

#1

How can librarians support instruction beyond “teaching the databases”?

#3

How do faculty identify and prioritize which skills to teach?

#2

MEGHAN

Our goals for this project were to interview faculty and learn from them how they develop their research assignments

First, how do they make decisions on what they want the assignment to be (a paper, a podcast, etc.)
Second, how do they decide on the specific assignment parameters - how many sources, and what type, what make up the final product?
We also wanted to know the reasoning behind these decisions

We also wanted to hear from them about how they identify which skills they want/need to teach in their classes, and how they approach this instruction. We wanted to see what they considered the most important, what they spent time teaching through direct instruction or other methods, and what support services they used (or not) to teach these skills.

Lastly, with this greater understanding of how they worked, we also hoped to discover how librarians could offer more and better support to students in their development as information literate citizens, and to also better support faculty in their research pedagogy.

We’d love to do more than the most common request of teaching students how to use the databases!

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General Findings

We all want the same things

Our Goals Align!

Our expertise and support

Role of Librarians

What it means and why that matters

Defining Critical Information Literacy

MEGHAN

After our analysis, several things jumped out at us.

First our goals align! All faculty and librarians wanted the same things.

Students who could find information
How to use information effectively in different situations
Students who, just generally, could successfully navigate the increasingly confusing information landscape.

We also found that faculty were working towards critical information literacy skills even if they did not necessarily define it that way.

Librarians are steeped in this world and our defining theoretical document is the ACRL Framework for information literacy in higher education.
We won’t discuss it in detail today, but it you haven’t encountered it before, we encourage you to take a look.
It’s valuable to think about information literacy holistically, rather than just specific research skills (though there’s good stuff for research skills in the framework as well)
The framework has six overarching themes which are then broken down into knowledge practices and dispositions
The faculty we interviewed, without knowing the framework, referenced many skills and knowledge practices that directly align with it
Faculty specifically talked about how important it was for their students to “Get” why what they were teaching was a necessary skill both in and outside the classroom - several specifically called out the fact that the “life outside the classroom” aspect of research skills for more important than, say, knowing perfect APA citation style.

Finally, faculty commented on many aspects of effective research design and teaching that align with our expertise as librarians

We are often called to teach library orientations and “the databases”
Search skills are literally the least we can do as students are already well-versed in search (If you can search amazon, you can search a library database)
Even the faculty we work with regularly are not making full use of what we offer - Mostly because they don’t know!
There is a HUGE gap between what libraries currently DO and what we CAN teach or provide
At the same time, faculty are overburdened with everything they have to teach
Most faculty have not been trained in how to teach let alone the pedagogy of specifically teaching research
SO we can work more closely together to right this imbalance and support each other more fully in ways that best uses each of our skills and time

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Poll #1

How do you usually engage with the library?

www.menti.com/aldxdh4ex7u1

Code: 4657 3011

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Poll #2

How do you usually engage with research pedagogy in your classes?

www.menti.com/aldxdh4ex7u1

Code: 4657 3011

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Do you have a

research assignment?

What do you think about?

What are common sticking points?

What’s working?

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What do librarians do all day?

Our Skills

Navigating the information landscape

1

Asynchronous Material

We make “stuff”

3

Instruction

We teach in many ways

2

CATHY

Our skill set = Offering resources and helping people navigate the vast information landscape - figure out where to look, how to search, how to identify/evaluate, how to ethically use, how to share. This can go from “what does an academic library do?” to helping graduate students with theses/dissertations to helping faculty through the scholarly publishing process. Lots of flavors of librarianship, areas of specialty/expertise

Goals = academic success, lifelong learning

Instruction (all forms) - in-person, in class, in reference sessions, in small groups, in appointments, online, chat….

Asynchronous Material - forms, tutorials, vidoes, training modules, guides (much of it embeddable) - stuff for us to use, stuff for students to you, stuff for you to use…

Other duties as assigned

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Our Research Assignment Recommendations

1. Topics

2. Range of Sources

3. Evaluate

Relevant to their lives
Improves engagement
Empowering
Stronger work
Reduces plagiarism

What they are
Why they are needed
Who has it
Not just “scholarly”
Library and…

Asset-based
Transferable skill
Checklists
Think before you write

FAITH

Our first recommendation is to encourage students to select topics relevant to their lives, maybe even create assignments that necessitate it. This increases engagement, reduces plagiarism, empowers students, and results in stronger work.

Engagement: The faculty in our study found that when students selected topics that where relevant to their lives or their communities, they did better work and were more engaged!

This is in line with Gloria Ladson-Billing’s culturally relevant pedagogy

Next, faculty saw that in addition to increased feelings of engagement but also they felt empowered - several of our our faculty commented on their student’s realizations that they could use their work to pursue change in their community.
Reduced plagiarism: partially that interest reduces the procrastination/avoidance, but also there’s no paper mill paper on these more specific topics.

Our next recommendation is to require a range of source types and engage in a critical discussion about information sources and needs.

This is in line with what Dr. Trainer recommended in her keynote yesterday in relation to AI - a critical engagement with how these things work. Invite students them consider what kind of information they need, who has that information, how they can get it. And why

Explore the WHY of the sources they are using and not just WHAT kinds of sources
And I think Rose Torrell, a writing instructor who wrote about her journey with critical information literacy articulated this need to engage with the WHY perfectly. She said “since research policy varies from professor to professor, students get mixed messages about appropriate sources. The even bigger problem is that rarely are the reasons for the decisions that professors make about sources communicated to students in a detailed and consistent way, so the rules appear quite arbitrary.”

Avoid that pitfall and engage with student on the WHY

As as part of that, you have to think about your goals for the assignment and make sure your goals align with your assignment parameters and student research topics.

Your goal might be for them to learn how to use the library databases, but if they don’t need scholarly sources to answer their question, or you simply aren’t requiring it, the goal and the information need might not align, and might cause friction.

Sure they can find newspapers in OneSearch, but it’s not always the best or most relevant newspapers when you do a general search. Often times they’d be better off searching their local newspaper!

Introducing the library in a not-meaningful way can lead to the opposite of your intended effect.

So resist the urge to require students to use sources they find through the library simply because you want them to know about the library - there are other ways to accomplish that goal and it’s more important to have a critical conversation about source types and information.

Continuing to think about sources, our next recommendation is to have students evaluate and critically engage with sources before they begin writing, whether that is through an annotated bibliography with their sources, or through low-stakes writing with sources they are reading in class. Have asset-based discussions about evaluating, acknowledging that this is a transferable skill.

Students are already having to evaluate information all the time - on the internet, or like, gossip within their workplace. This is something we all have to do! This is just a different context. Elborg, a librarian, points out that “Information functions in very unique ways in higher education. …Students must learn how information functions in proof or argument, and why that information is accepted while other information is not.” (Elmborg, 2006, p. 196).
Checklists are easy but they can only do so much. Critical engagement with the context and the greater information landscape is a much more difficult but more valuable approach. And creating meaningful engagement with that before students start grappling with a bigger, high stakes research paper, is a really helpful scaffold.

To quote Elmborg again, “Information literacy...is more than a set of acquired skills. It involves the comprehension of an entire system of thought and the ways that information flows in that system. Ultimately, it also involves the capacity to critically evaluate the system itself” (Elmborg, 2006, p. 196). A checklist can’t get at that, we gotta do more with them. And it’s messy.
Also a caution, some student have actually been given overly simplistic checklists in the past, so this can be tricky. I sometimes feel like they think there’s one thing we want to hear for evaluating, but in fact, sources aren’t black and white, there’s so much grey. I checklist can’t capture that grey, so drawing on their existing experience, but thinking about the different values that shape this different information ecosystem can be helpful.

Lastly, create low stakes opportunities for them to engage with their sources before they begin writing, to help move away from quoting as evidence that I used the required number of sources, to critical engagement.

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Our Research Assignment Recommendations

4. Plagiarism

5. Real Life

6. Collaborate

Teach in-text citations
HOW to use sources
Why this is necessary
Relate (i.e., TikTok stitching)

Context of research
Open pedagogy
Write for purpose
More than grades

Writing & Research
Teaching is hard
We can do more!
Point-of-need
Pre-made material

FAITH

Avoid plagiarism by explicitly teaching in-text citations, and how to use sources. Discuss why this is necessary beyond avoiding plagiarism!

Students are not automatically comfortable with when, why and how do we cite. This should be taught. And beyond “don’t plagiarize” - make it meaningful?
How: UDC’s writing center is not robust, which meant that students often couldn’t get support there, but there we were sitting at the reference desk saying we could help. It meant that we got to read some student work, and I’d often see plagiarism, but the most common form was simply incorrectly incorporating a source. The mechanics matter and when we’d teach it, students minds were blown.
When: sometime students say you only cite if you quote - that’s just a misunderstanding that can be corrected when in-text citations are explicitly taught.
And lastly is why: it’s not just about avoiding plagiarism, which is the reason most of us were told.

Have conversations about scholarship as a conversation, and giving credit where credit is due for ideas.
Here again, we also have a chance to reference what they know - i.e. comparing citations to TikTok stitching!

Discuss research and writing in real life contexts. Whenever possible, engage in open pedagogy, and allow students to write things for purposes beyond the course and being graded.

This could be writing wikipedia pages (though I recommend using Wikipedia for Education)
Or working with your campus to create an undergraduate journal for your class
Or maybe you are asking them to write op-eds on a topic that they could submit to a local newspaper for publication.

Lastly, we recommend that you collaborate with your library! Writing and research go hand in hand, but teaching both processes is difficult, and a lot. That was a major theme that came from our interviews, and I suspect you all can relate! Librarians can offer much more than a one-time library workshop. We can foster students' growth as researchers through offering point-of-need resources and consultations, and instructor growth by supporting research pedagogy and assignment design.

Plus, we have lots of pre-made stuff you can use!

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Recommendations for Collaboration

Talk to us!

Timeline for Engagement

The One-Shot

Three Other Approaches

We do this!

Early is better, but we’re flexible

Embedding, Consultations, and Scaffolding

We really, really, really want to work with you

We’re happy to do it but…

Your librarians can do more than you know

1

2

3

4

5

ALL OF US

FAITH

First of all, please talk to us. We want to collaborate! You may have encountered a librarian at your institution who was no interested in collaborating. They do exist. If that happens, I encourage you to try again with a different librarian. And if you can’t find anyone at your institution? Just reach out to us. We love this stuff and work at public institutions, so I can help anyone.

Timeline for engagement

Let’s talk timeline - when is the best time to start a collaboration? Early is always great but we can be flexible.
How early to reach out

TBH it’s never too early. If you are thinking about it, don’t hesitate to reach out. The more time we have, the more we can do, and the more we can really collaborate. Maybe you don’t have specifics yet, but if you reach out early we can be flexible and work through the unknowns alongside you.
But also, it’s usually not too late! I had a colleague tell me that sometimes she doesn’t reach out just because she’s planning week by week and she feels like she can’t ask! We like time to plan, but like i said before we have a lot of already made stuff. If you reach out later we might not be able to do as much, but we can still mostly likely offer support.
We are busy just like you! We need time to make stuff. If we don’t have time to create something new and perfectly tailored to your needs though, we might still be able to get you something that works for now.

MEGHAN

My guess is that for many of you working with your librarian means requesting a one-shot instruction session. We can do that, but we want you to know that’s not all we can do, and also, it’s not the best! We will teach a one-shot, but please be aware of the limitations:

The one shot exists out of context, and has a limited reach (Pagowsky, 2021).
It also tends to treat the research process as outside of the writing process, when they are very intertwined and the one-shot suggests that research can be reduced to a single-skills based lesson (Artman et al, 2010), which is in great contrast to the recommendations we’ve made here, which are rooted in a critical information literacy approach. While these skills might apply directly to the assignment students are undertaking, and certainly connect to aspects of information literacy, “research skills and information literacy are not the same thing” (Kowalski et al., 2021, p.116).
It’s very difficult to assess the impact of one-shots - do they actually contribute to student learning? There is not good evidence to that. (Cook, 2022)
There are those that feel it does have value (Benjes-Small, 2023); but we want you to know it’s not your only option, and by collaborating with your librarians you can do more!
The insights have mentioned here are cited in our reference list.

This is why we recommend some different approaches.

First, Embedded librarianship

There are many different approaches to embedded librarianship and fall along a spectrum of daily participation in a class to occasional outreach but they essential component of any embedding model is that the librarian is situated within the class.
Recently at UDC, we’ve been added to the Blackboard for all of the general education composition courses. We can see student work and discussions and share resources accordingly, and it’s been a great success, allowing us to understand what students are working on, and help them overcome roadblocks.
And we get to intervene in the moment when students are most likely to be paying attention.
Contrary to the one-shot, this support is not divorced from context, we have the context, and it makes a huge difference!

Next, we recommend consultations with librarians

We can weigh in on the pacing of your scaffolding, share activities, help refine timing and approach. There’s absolutely no reason faculty can’t schedule an appointment with us to discuss your research assignment! We would literate squee with glee at the prospect.
Because of our experience helping students at the desk, and in individual consultations, we can a good sense for might be confusing, or where an additional scaffold could be valuable.
And again, we already have a lot of pre-made stuff some and, sometimes, our support can be really straightforward or we might know a tool that will make your life easier without you having to create something from scratch
And if we don’t have what you need, having a conversation with you can help us determine what digital learning object we may need to create. Generally, when one faculty member needs support, others do as well.
Also, there’s some good research on more programmatic approaches - faculty information literacy institutes, etc., but your library might not have the staffing or support to create a program, and you don’t need to wait for them to develop one. Consultations can serve as a stop gap to missing systemic support.

Finally, we recommend scaffolding through the curriculum

There are two types of feedback that we see a lot when it comes to instruction.

“I’m a senior, I wish I had know this sooner!” AND
“Thanks, but I had the same lesson last week”

It is often up to faculty members to request instruction, which means that usually, there’s pretty patchwork coverage, and that’s where we run in to this issues - students aren’t getting the information they need when they need it. And because of the inconsistency, they are gettings the same information, instead of being able to build on their information literacy skills.
We encourage you to work with your librarians and your department to help prevent this patchwork support but to think about information literacy throughout a program or major.
We can all work together to consider what skills do students need to to develop at practice through each course, and how can we make that support intentional and consistent
This also saves time because we can cover foundational skills in intro classes and more disciplinary specific issues further along in the curriculum.

CATHY

We’ve been told people don’t know we do this - we do!

But a warning again - some librarians might not be interested. If you encounter someone who isn’t, try again!
Or it might look slightly different depending on your institution - there could be less or more, or different areas of expertise

Circling back around to the argument of our title and also, why you should do all this.

Explicit teaching IL, connecting it to students lived experiences, and providing appropriate support

Nothing natural about learning to do research, research is hard and can be anxiety-inducing (same for teaching research)
Example of faculty member who was first-gen student - if they didn’t know, assumed it was their fault, therefore explicitly teaches everything so students do not have the same experience
How I learned to do research - sink or swim - that’s not really teaching
Yes, it’s a lot! That’s why we can help - complementing what happens in the classroom

Critical perspective is empowering - it’s not just about learning a set of tools or skills, but learning how to navigate and critique systems.

Info/research is more complicated than ever and will continue to evolve; it’s our job to help students gain the critical thinking skills and conceptual frameworks to succeed in that world
Lifelong learning, career applications - what we have to do and how we do it might change but there are fundamental things we can do to support models of continuous learning and flexibility

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Q & A

What do you wish we knew?

Thank you!

Meghan Kowalski - meghan.kowalski@udc.edu

Cathy Meals - catherine.meals@udc.edu

Faith Rusk - frusk@sfsu.edu

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References & Further Reading

Artman, M., Frisicaro-Pawlowski, E., & Monge, R. (2010). Not just one shot: Extending the dialogues about

information literacy in composition classes. Composition Studies, 38(2), 93–110.

Benjes-Small, C. (2023). There’s a baby in the bath water: In defense of one-shots. College & Research

Libraries News, 84(1), 12-14. https://doi.org/10.5860/crln.84.1.12

Cook, D.B. (2022). Is the library one-shot effective? A meta-analytic study. College & Research Libraries,

83(5), 739-750. https://doi.org/10.5860/crl.83.5.739

Elmborg, J. (2006). Critical Information Literacy: Implications for Instructional Practice. The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 32(2), 192–199. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2005.12.004

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References & Further Reading

Kowalski, M., Meals, C. & Rusk, F. (2021). Transforming theory into practice: Creating student-centered instructional activities rooted in the Framework. College & Research Libraries News, 82(3), 114-120. https://doi.org/10.5860/crln.82.3.114

Meals, C., Kowalski, M., & Rusk F. (in press). Where We Come In: Faculty Research Pedagogy and Implications for Librarian Practice. portal: Libraries and the Academy.

Pagowsky, N. (2021). The contested one-shot: Deconstructing power structures to imagine new futures. College & Research Libraries, 82(3), 300-309. https://doi.org/10.5860/crl.82.3.300

Torrell, M. R. (2020). That Was Then, This Is Wow: A Case for Critical Information Literacy Across the Curriculum. Communications in Information Literacy, 14(1), 118–133. https://doi.org/10.15760/comminfolit.2020.14.1.9