Information Literacy Skills Development (ILSD)

While not all COTR courses require students to complete a research paper, most require students to effectively research their topic.

Your COTR Librarian can work with you to plan assignments which make good use of Library resources and to present Information Literacy Skills Development instruction for your courses.

While the traditional research paper is still a commonly-used assignment, there are a variety of alternatives.

Instructors may choose to create and use alternative research assignments to include a research component in a course that doesn't lend itself well to papers, or to respond to the rising incidence of plagiarism. Some instructors add assignments leading up to the final research paper that allow students to receive feedback on every stage of the research process. Ideas include:

• Search log
• Annotated bibliography

In other instances, instructors choose to move away entirely from the requirement to write a paper. Ideas include:

• Podcast
• Mock conference presentation
• Debate
• Promotional video

Check out these websites for other ideas and examples:

Citation Expectations that can be added to Assignments

Insert the specific criteria for students to follow in each assignment.  Formatting the criteria as a check list is incredibly useful for students to both understand your expectation and to follow your instructions.

Example:

1.      Use the following format to cite your sources:  ☐APA   ☐MLA   ☐Chicago   ☐CSE

2.      Required:
         ☐In-Text Citation  – OR -  ☐Footnotes.
         ☐Works Cited (MLA) – OR -  ☐References (APA) - OR  ☐ Bibliography, Selected Bibliography,Works Cited, or References (ask your instructor)

3.      You    ☐may     ☐may NOT    use Wikipedia.com as a source for this project.

4.      Use the following source(s) in your project:   

         ☐Textbook     ☐Book   ☐e-Books   ☐Web       ☐Academic Journal   ☐Magazine  ☐Newspaper ☐Primary Resource    
         ☐Multi-media (art, music, video)    ☐Interview   ☐ Other:

5.      Include full website address in your MLA or Chicago citation:      ☐Include       ☐Do not include 
          (NOTE: Full website addresses are NOT commonly use unless your instructor requires the URL)
           (NOTE: APA requires the website address)

6.      Cite multimedia such as art, photos or videos:
          ☐Cite source   ☐Do not cite    

7.      You do not have to cite common knowledge.
         Examples of common knowledge for this course are:
      Justin Trudeau is the Prime Minister of Canada.