This assignment asks students to write an obituary, requiring them to gather information from several sources, analyze those sources, synthesize their information, and develop a point of view about a subject.
This activity introduces students to considering authority when evaluating information resources.
This assignment explores perspective and evaluation of information by asking students to research a medical condition from a patient’s perspective and then consider it from the perspectives of medical professionals.
In this assignment, students compare bibliographies from Oxford Art Online and Wikipedia. They then are asked to locate sources from a bibliography.
This assignment encourages students to read for bias and evaluate information critically.
In this assignment students are asked to locate and compare the same images in different sources: Google Images, a library image database (ArtStor or EmbARK), and a museum database. The students are asked to evaluate the quality of image files and the information about images. The assignment enables the students to gain insight into copyright issues.
In this assignment, students are asked to locate three articles about a controversial issue. The articles must be from different types of sources (newspaper, magazine, scholarly journal, etc.). The students then are asked to compare the sources in terms of the intended audience, the authors’ credentials, bias, depth of coverage, point of view, etc.
In this assignment, students must track down the text of an article cited in another article. They then are asked to compare the two articles in terms of the conclusions reached, the type of article, etc. Through this assignments, students are given the chance to observe and articulate how earlier research and writing in a field shapes the research and writing that follows.
This assignment asks students to practice generating descriptors and “tagging” using web-based social bookmarking software.
This assignment helps students learn to search for articles and compare the types of information found in popular and scholarly sources.
In this assignment, students create their own database of resources.
This assignment highlights the subjective nature of editorial content and allows students to practice finding facts to back up opinions.
This assignment enables students to compare opposite sides of a controversial issue and consider the validiy of different information sources. Students are asked to locate articles with different viewpoints and compare them using criteria such as authors’ credentials, intended audience, evidence used to support arguments, and more.