Forbidding the use of Google in academic research assignments has been compared to abstinence-only sex education. How can we strengthen students’ digital literacy and critical thinking skills in research assignments by acknowledging, allowing, and guiding their experiences with online information?

This 2-part workshop will explore some ups and downs of research in the digital age, and discuss how research assignments can be designed to support students’ critical engagement with the information sources they encounter both at university and in their everyday lives. Our guiding question will be: How can we, and why should we, design learning opportunities that position the academic sources we privilege in the context of larger information systems and acknowledge learners' experiences with other information sources in these systems?

This workshop is for faculty wanting to help students engage more critically with information sources in research assignments, and for those looking for new approaches to assessing critical thinking outcomes for students.

In this workshop, faculty will:

• Identify ways that digital information literacy intersects with academic literacy and explore opportunities to meaningfully incorporate and assess these skills in research assignments.
• Revise or create a research assignment with a strengths-based, information systems approach to foster purposeful student interaction with information sources.

Facilitator: Sara Sharun
When:  Part 1: Wednesday, November 24, 2021, 10:30 am - 12:00 pm
              Part 2: Wednesday, December 1, 10:30 am - 12:00 pm