Creating Effective Research Assignments

Some essential questions to ask yourself when evaluating a library assignment are:

Purpose/Relevance

• Does the assignment clearly state, in writing, what goals will be accomplished by completing it?
• What are the educational elements that make this assignment more than "busy work"?  Make this explicit to your students.

Critical Thinking

• Does the assignment require students to summarize, analyze, or evaluate resources?  If it does, it will help students know what they have learned from completing the assignment.

Accuracy

• Is the assignment based on correct, current, and available information?

Flexibility

• Are you giving students the opportunity to tailor the assignment towards their personal academic interests or education goals?

Variety

• Are you encouraging students to use a variety of resources (print/online, popular/scholarly, etc.)

Clarity

• Is the terminology you use in the assignment clear? For example, students are easily confused by phrases like primary sources, secondary sources, scholarly sources, academic sources, peer-reviewed sources. Students are also tripped up by terms like citation, reference, abstract, bibliography, literature, as well as the distinctions between magazines and journals. Use these terms carefully and make sure you explain what you mean by them.
• Have you made sure students understand what you mean by sources that are found online, in electronic format, in a library database, or on the web? Be aware that most recent scholarly information purchased or subscribed by MVCC Library is delivered in an electronic format on the web. If you don't allow "web resources" as sources, this could be confusing to students and limit the information available to them. Consequently, be very specific about the types of sources you want students to avoid. Contact your librarian if you need advice on how to clarify this terminology.

Doability

• Is the assignment appropriate to the skill level(s) of your students?
• Is there sufficient resources and information available at the library for the topics chosen by your students?
• Is the due date and overall time frame realistic based on the availability of materials?  Keep this in mind if students might need to use the library's Interlibrary Loan service.