Librarians are always available to help you integrate information literacy into your course. We can support you in helping to teach information literacy skills to your students; suggest ideas for curriculum or assignments; develop tutorials, handouts, or materials specific to your course; and more. Please reach out to us at library@gcc.mass.edu.

But we know that sometimes you want to help yourself! Please take advantage of these resources.

• Designing a research-based assignment? Make sure you have considered all of these questions! (pdf download)
• Visit our GCC Library for Faculty Moodle site, with sample gradeable assignments, forums, readings, and videos on information literacy topics. Contact a librarian for the enrollment code!
• Academic honesty and plagiarism resources
• Want to dive deep into information literacy assignments and curriculum with your colleagues (and be paid to do so)? Check out our summer workshop, Research Across the Curriculum.
• Embed our library video tutorials in your Moodle course (we can make videos or handouts to suit your specific needs, as well).

Research-based Assignments

• Is it clear what the goals of the assignment are?
  • What will students learn as a result of completing this assignment?
  • What are the information literacy student learning outcomes?
  • What are the writing or presentation outcomes?
  • What are the discipline-specific outcomes?
  • Are these goals clear to students?
• What resources will students need to be able to successfully complete this assignment?
  • Does our library have these resources? Are they freely and easily available elsewhere?
  • Is there a link to the library (or other needed resources) in the assignment and/or syllabus?
  • Is there a link to any related student services (peer tutoring, technology help desk, etc.) in the assignment and/or syllabus?
• Does this assignment provide space for metacognition?
  • Does this model a process students can repeat in the future? Is that clear to students?
  • Is there space for students to reflect on what they are doing, which strategies are working and which aren’t?
• When is the assignment due?
  • Does this provide enough time for students to be successful?
  • Does it provide time for you to give feedback to students, and for students to revise and/or integrate that feedback into their next piece of work?
• Is it clear what the criteria for success are?
  • Do you have grading criteria or a rubric to help you score student work? Is this available to students?
• Are you able to provide a model of successful student work for this assignment?
  • Might you ask past students if you can use their work as a sample, or can you create your own?
  • How will students access the sample(s)? Hand out in class, provide in Moodle, etc.?

Information Literacy Curriculum

• How does information literacy connect with the rest of course content?
  • Is it clear to students how these skills connect to continued study and/or real life?
• What will students need to learn to successfully complete this assignment?
  • What do they already know? Can you assume, or do you need to find out?
  • Which information literacy skills do you need to teach, in addition to your course content?
  • What can a librarian help teach?
• How will you teach information literacy skills?
  • What needs to be done during class time (for face-to-face classes)?
  • What can be done outside of class, as homework?
  • What supports does the library already have available (i.e. Moodle plug-ins, videos, handouts, etc.)?
  • If you want a librarian to teach, where does that fit in the course schedule?
• Is there room in your curriculum to do this well?
  • If not, what needs to change? Course content, the research assignment, or both?