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?