Overview

Scaffolding (i.e., breaking a process into steps) emphasizes process over product. This allows guardrails and supportive formative feedback throughout the process. We strongly recommend that professors build in discrete scaffolding steps for information literacy assignments in order to guide students through the process. This can also ensure that the students are doing their own work. A research worksheet can also help guide students to find the required sources, keep track of their sources, and identify relevant quotes/information.

Determine the Extent of Information Needed

• Clarify the types of information that are appropriate to use for an assignment and provide tips on how to find them (for instance, simply saying 'use JSTOR' or 'use the library databases' isn't always enough for students who don't know how to find or use them). Students will default to what they are comfortable with if they are not provided more guidance.
• Clarify when and in what circumstances general websites can or should be used.
• Ensure that the required source types and other limits (such as date) align with the topics students will be researching. For instance, statistics are best found on government websites and very current topics might not have much scholarly information written yet.
• When faculty "TilT" an assignment, we have an opportunity to indicate if/when SF library resources should be utilized.

Access the Needed Information

• Consider importing the Canvas "Introduction to the ÇàÇà²ÝÊÓƵ Library" and/or "Accessing and Choosing Library Databases" modules from the Canvas Commons into your course(s)
• Provide more details on how students can contact a librarian for research help. Many students aren't aware of librarians being a resource to help with research. Consider a warm handoff – connect the students yourself to a librarian.

Evaluate Information and Its Sources Critically

• Consider explaining why specific source types are necessary for an assignment or for research in your discipline.
• Include a framework for evaluating online sources.
• Include an annotated bibliography step in a research paper assignment to have students reflect on why a source would be useful and how they determined it was credible and/or scholarly. +1

Use Information Effectively to Accomplish a Specific Purpose

• Indicate if or how AI should be used with your assignments. Consider using the TiLT framework and be explicit about how AI should be used by students.

Access and Use Information Ethically

• Consider attending SF's "AI Getting Started" workshop to improve your AI literacy.
• Consider importing the "Academic Misconduct" module from the Canvas commons into your course. The 2023-2024 includes a blurb indicating students should cite AI-generated work.
• Provide resources for the citation style you would like students to use.
• Provide definitions and examples of plagiarism, including how plagiarism includes both word plagiarism (direct copying of words) and idea plagiarism (summaries and paraphrasing). Emphasize the importance of in-text citations.