College Research Literacy Summer 2019--Demonstration

Please watch this introductory video to "Scholarship as Conversation". All of our lessons, videos and learning activities are focused on this topic for week 2. 

Course Objective: Cite sources using accepted citation styles and understanding issues surrounding plagiarism.

Please work through the tutorial below and then answer the quiz questions.

Tracking Scholarly Conversations

Now that we have learned a little bit about what scholarly conversation is, let us use an example to illustrate what to look for in order to trace a conversation.  We know that scholarly conversations take time to occur.  So, our first step will be to look at a fairly recent article and begin to look back from that article to see what has been said previously in the conversation.

Since voter registration and voter fraud have been such hot topics in the US, but especially in Kansas, we’ve selected a recent research article about voter participation in US presidential elections.  You can use the link provided to download the article and review it as we progress through the assignment. You’ll need to review the article and answer the questions below. Normally, you would read through the articles to select what citations you want to follow up with, but for demonstration purposes, we will just review the articles to complete this exercise.

You will need to work through each item in this learning activity in the order they are listed to successfully complete it. If you have trouble accessing the articles, questions, or videos please contact one of the instructors as soon as possible.

This Learning Activity will take approximately 50 minutes. If you are unable to complete the activity in one session, it is broken down into three parts and you can complete them at different times if needed.  Just be sure to submit each section as you complete it.

Please download and review the linked article above. You'll need to review the article in order to answer the questions below.

Please watch this video before downloading and reviewing the second article.

Please download and review the linked article above. You'll need to review the article in order to answer the questions below.

Please watch this video before downloading and reviewing the third article.

Please download and review the linked article above. You'll need to review the article in order to answer the questions below.

Hopefully, you have started to see how interconnected research articles can be!  There are additional ways that you can track the scholarly conversation over time.  We noted earlier that most of the authors cited other works that they themselves had written, building upon prior research and earlier conversations.

Citations are a critical piece of scholarly conversations. Without properly citing information, readers will have no context or background for the conversation, which then appears one-sided and can cause confusion. This is why professors, professional publications and other scholarly institutions require a strict adherence to citation styles and the inclusion of a reference list or bibliography.

After investigating citations and bibliography or reference lists, it can be a good idea to search for additional articles by an individual or group of authors to see other research that might not be listed as well as to gain an idea about the progression of their research over a period of time.

Learning Outcomes for this activity:

• Students will be able to summarize information presented in a current article
• Students will be able to locate and examine the bibliography of an article
• Students will be able to describe how a chain of research is created over time

This activity was adapted from:

Burkhardt, J. (2016). Identifyng Most Important or Most Cited Informaiton. In Teaching Information Literacy Reframed: 50+ Framework-Based Exercises for Creating Infomraiton-Literate Learners (pp. 20–21). Chicago: Neal-Schuman.

Changing Course

We have learned about different ways that "Scholarship as Conversation" can occur. One thing to keep in mind is that with both traditional and newer, more modern forms of communication available, conversations can be more diverse, have much wider audiences and they allow for participation from all levels, from novice to expert in subject areas to participate.

The article listed below, "Is Sugar Toxic?" is one piece of a larger conversation that is taking place. Consider as you read thru the article how the author summarizes other viewpoints before responding with his own opinions or conclusions.  Because the conversation isn't happening in 'real time' it impacts the way conversation develops!

This activity requires you to download and read an article and answer a few questions.  If you have trouble accessing the article or quiz, please contact one of the instructors as soon as possible.

Reading the article and completing the quiz should take you about 20 minutes.

This link will take you to the full text article available in the database Nexis Uni. You will need to enter your campus user name and password to access the article.

Learning Outcomes:

• Students will learn that new discoveries and new views can change the conversation
• Students will learn that what we thought we knew can change in a scholarly conversation

This activity was adapted from: 

Burkhardt, J. (2016). Changing course. In Teaching information literacy reframed: 50+ framework-based exercises for creating information-literate learners (p. 31). Chicago: Neal-Schuman.

Evaluating Different Types of Information Sources

One part of understanding how scholarly conversation occurs is understanding the different types of resources that you will encounter. Later on in the class (week 5) we'll learn more about how different types of information are created, but for now, we'll focus on identifying them. Being able to identify different resource types will help you to understand whether it will helpful to you when choosing resources for work or school projects.

In this activity we will look at three basic types of information sources, they are typical examples of sources that are found in library research databases or by searching the internet using Google Scholar.  The three articles used for this assignment include a newspaper article, a magazine article and a research article.  You will see that each type of article makes a contribution to the "Scholarly Conversation" on a specific topic in a unique way.

• Newspaper articles are typically written by journalists used to writing on a wide variety of topics in a general way; typically short
• Magazine articles are typically written by journalists who may focus on a particular subject area, such as health, education, or art; short articles, but usually longer than newspaper articles
• Research articles are typically written by scholars or professionals in a specific field or subject area and tend to use a more specialized vocabulary written to other experts in a field of study; usually longer than newspaper or magazine articles with many more details

Using the file link below, you'll need to download and print a copy of the worksheet you'll need to complete in order to answer the questions at the end of this activity. 

This is a sample worksheet we completed using a different set of articles. Look at this for help in understanding how to fill out your worksheet.

Complete this worksheet to analyze the three different articles that are linked to be able to answer the questions at the end of this activity. You do not have to turn in this worksheet. It's available to help you evaluate the three articles.

This activity requires you to download and analyze three different articles and answer a few questions.  If you have trouble accessing the articles or quiz, please contact one of the instructors as soon as possible.

Click the links to access and download the articles.  It is not necessary to read the articles completely.  However, you will need to examine them closely to be able to analyze them and complete the worksheet.

This type of resource evaluation is recommended for student researchers to use prior to reading and making final selections of information resources for all types of research papers and projects that you may have for your classes. It can feel like it's a little time consuming, however, it can save you lots of time and angst later as you begin reading and using your resources to write papers.

Analyzing the articles, completing the worksheet and the quiz should take you about 25 minutes.

Learning Outcomes:

• Students will learn about different information sources
• Students will learn how information sources differ from one another
• Students will learn how to select sources that fulfill their information need

This activity was adapted from: 

Burkhardt, J. (2016). Evaluating different types of information sources. In Teaching information literacy Reframed: 50+ framework-based exercises for creating information-literate learners (pp. 26–27). Chicago: Neal-Schuman.

You will need to login to our Blackboard class to participate in our class discussion.  Please answer the question posted and interact with other students' or instructors' posts to receive credit.

This week's discussion question:

We've talked a lot this week about citations. What did you think about using citations prior to this week and what has changed after completing this week's learning activities?

Conclusion:

Hopefully, you have learned a variety of new things this week. Scholarship as Conversation is a foundational concept that will be built upon as we progress through this course.

Key points to remember:

• Scholarly conversation is tracked through the use of citations and references in a variety of formats, both print and digital
• Researchers at all levels, including students, can be participants in the larger conversation
• Multiple perspectives are a natural part of any conversation, including scholarly ones
• Understanding a source, it's background, audience, author and time published are important for discovering and using information resources effectively

Please take the following post-test to complete this week's assignments.