Yesterday, I co-facilitated a workshop with Brad Hughes, Director of the Writing and Writing-across-the-Curriculum Programs, on “Designing Effective Library Research Assignments.” Here’s the description:
“Co-led by the director of the Library and Information Literacy Instruction program and the director of the L&S Program in Writing Across the Curriculum. What makes a successful and engaging library research assignment? Not sure what your expectations are, or that you’re communicating clear expectations to your students? Disappointed with the quality of the research your students produce? In this discussion-based workshop, we will learn about the ways that good assignment design can guide students to develop valued research skills, engage critically with source materials, and avoid common pitfalls such as plagiarism.”
I’ve co-facilitated a number of workshops on this topic, mostly for UC Berkeley’s GSI Teaching and Resource Center, which prepares graduate student instructors for teaching. I always learn a great deal from my co-facilitators from other parts of campus, and Brad is particularly knowledgeable about assignment design and a skilled facilitator, so this was a very rewarding collaboration for me. The downside was that we only got a few attendees, including a librarian and a few people from a language department. They were all very thoughtful about the relationship between undergraduate research in learning, as well as the role of the instructor, so I found the conversation very interesting. We’ll be repeating the workshop for the Teaching and Learning Symposium, and we’ll continue to refine the content and hope for more attendees next time.
I’m also thinking about how to share this content with more librarians, revising our existing materials on assignment design, and how to work more closely with the Writing Center when faculty consult with them about assignment design.
