Creating Effective Research Assignments
EFFECTIVE RESEARCH ASSIGNMENTS
• have a clear purpose
• relate to course objectives
• make students aware of the variety of resources available
• teach students to evaluate the quality of their sources
• teach students to conduct ethical scholarship
The following guidelines can help you and your students succeed.
REVIEW STUDENT LEARNING OUTCOMES.
• Outcomes are statements of what students should be able to do as a result of the assignment.
o Example: Students should be able to discern between scholarly and
non-scholarly journals.
• Explain how the research assignment helps fulfill the objectives of your
course; how will your assignment contribute to the students' understanding of
the course content? Include this information in the written assignment that you distribute.
TEST THE ASSIGNMENT YOURSELF.
• Come to the library and do the assignment yourself, or ask a librarian if it's
doable. Make sure your students have a reasonable expectation of
successfully completing the assignment. If you don't find the materials you
expected to find, please talk to a librarian and let them know.
• Review the assignment with one of the librarians.
• Ask your students for feedback on the assignment.
TEACH/REVIEW RESEARCH STRATEGIES. MODEL GOOD
RESEARCH BEHAVIOR.
• A research strategy is a method for organizing a research project, taking into
account the kinds of information sought and the sequence in which sources
should be consulted. See the UArts Libraries' Outline for Research.
• Research strategies often seem obvious to experienced researchers but are
generally unknown to students.
Example:
1. Define and focus your topic using an encyclopedia article or other
reference book for background information.
2. Develop a list of keywords and concepts.
3. Look for books using your keywords in the library catalog.
4. Use an appropriate periodical index (ask a librarian) to find more
current information in magazines and journals.
• Use library resources in the classroom to look up terms and show artwork.
Basic tools such as Oxford Art Online, Oxford Encyclopedia of Theatre and
Performance, Oxford Music Online, International Encyclopedia of Dance,
ARTstor, and the streaming audio and video databases have a lot to offer. Your librarians would be thrilled to show you how to use these.
DON'T WANT ALL INTERNET SOURCES? TELL THEM.
• State in your syllabus and tell students when discussing assignments that all papers/projects must cite a certain number of print materials. Depending on the assignment, you can also require that no Internet material be used. This is a common academic practice. A short freshman or sophomore paper can
most likely be written using only printed materials such as reference
books. BE CLEAR, however, that you are not banning the University
Libraries' electronic resources.
• If students are doing a lengthy paper, require a working annotated
bibliography (and grade it!) to be submitted several weeks before the
paper is due and make sure quality materials are included. The annotations
should evaluate the sources for their usefulness. You can probably direct
students to good materials they may not have found, or tell them to come ask a librarian for help.
THE MYTH OF THE DIGITAL NATIVE.
• Don't assume because your students are under the age of 25 that they are
good finders of quality information, or that they can effectively search the
library catalog. Most students are unaware of the academic resources (print
and online) that you may prefer them to use. Research is not the same as
surfing the Web.
ASSIST THE STUDENTS: PROVIDE THEM WITH SUBJECT GUIDES.
• Your UArts librarians regularly create subject and research guides that give
students something to work with by listing specific information sources or
types of sources for a particular assignment. We can create a guide just for
your class or for a specific assignment for your class.
CONSULT WITH THE LIBRARIANS AND USE THEIR SERVICES.
SERVICES INCLUDE:
• Consultation in designing assignments, determining appropriate research
strategies, and ensuring that needed materials are available.
• Printed or electronic subject guides and bibliographies for a discipline or a
specific assignment.
• Require your students to make an appointment with a librarian. (Please notify
the librarian first!)
• Library or class instruction on specific tools and methods. These can be done
in the library or in your classroom. If you schedule such a session tell your
students why it is important, and be there during the session to contribute
and to encourage student participation. Students will follow your lead! Talk
with them afterward to see what they learned, and ask them again at the end
of the semester for feedback on the session.
• Course reserve services to ensure access to required materials for all
students.
AVOID THESE COMMON PROBLEMS:
• Don't require scholarly sources on non-scholarly topics. A student allowed to
write a paper on the singer Pink is going to have a tough time.
• The mob scene: an entire class looking for one piece of information or
researching one topic. This is seldom a positive library experience for
students.
• The shot-in-dark assignment: students working from incomplete/incorrect
information; materials assigned that the library does not own; inappropriate
methods given in instruction; impossibly vague topics assigned.
• The scavenger hunt: students given obscure factual questions and told to find
the answers without any guidance. The librarian does all the work and the
student doesn't really learn anything.
"WE ALREADY KNOW HOW TO DO RESEARCH."
Aka, DON'T ASK YOUR STUDENTS IF THEY KNOW
HOW. INVITE THE LIBRARIAN.
• Students will tell you they know how to do research. Chances are they don't or at least need a refresher. Most students have not seen a librarian since
freshman year.
ALTERNATIVES TO THE RESEARCH PAPER
Research does not only mean writing papers. Consider these ideas, or talk to your
librarian about your goals for your class.
• Students keep a research log, analyzing research sources and techniques
used, what worked and what didn't, and how their research affected their
thinking about their topic/their art.
• Students visit a special library such as the Historical Society of Pennsylvania,
Athenaeum of Philadelphia, American Philosophical Society, or Academy of
Natural Sciences and learn firsthand about primary sources.
• Compare and contrast discipline terms in 3-5 different dictionaries or
encyclopedias (ask a librarian to make sure there are enough sources to do this
for your terms). Discuss findings in class.
• Students prepare an annotated bibliography of information sources on their
topics. Be sure to grade it! The bibliography can be the end project or
preparation for a paper or presentation.
• Visual arts students keep a sketchbook journal in which they continue to
answer a set of questions given by the faculty person, who assigns look-ups in
reference sources and/or periodicals. Students can look at contemporary
artists, historic movements, definitions of terms and styles, etc.
• Students write an abstract of a journal article. Have students read their
abstracts in class and have a discussion.
• Students evaluate Web sites on a topic using evaluation criteria.
• Students compare and contrast scholarly journal articles with popular
magazine articles on a given topic.
• Students do an annotated "bibliographic trace." Students locate a current
book or scholarly article on their course topic, which they summarize. Then
they identify a footnote or citation that is of interest, connected to a chosen
theme, find that source, and summarize it. They repeat the process until they
have five sources - and a clearer grasp of how to trace a theme of interest
through several sources (as well as to gain more familiarity with scholarly
literature about the course topic).
• Students write "program notes" for a performance, art or museum exhibit.
Research the artist/object /composition using library and Internet resources.
• Students demonstrate how to find material on a topic using the library
resources, following the steps in the Outline for Research
• Students, working in groups, prepare a bibliographic guide (paper or
electronic!) that introduces new majors to information sources in the subject
field. The best ones could become a subject guide on the UArts Libraries
site/blog/Facebook page.
• Research the origins, evolution, and reception history of a song.
• Research what is meant by 'style' and 'form' in music.
• Research the history of a musical instrument or voice type.
• Using the library's audiovisual databases, put together a playlist/cliplist that
illustrates a genre or artistic movement and give a presentation.
• Research musicianship as a cultural value.
Thanks to UArts Music Librarian Mark Germer for his contributions on alternative assignments.
Getting to UArts Libraries resources
Always start at http://library.uarts.edu/
Reference sources such Oxford Art, Oxford Music, Intl. Encyc. of Dance:
http://library.uarts.edu/ > ONLINE RESOURCES > Reference Sources > select from list
Streaming audio and video:
http://library.uarts.edu/ > ONLINE RESOURCES > Audio/Video Online > select from list
Image databases such as ARTstor:
http://library.uarts.edu/ > ONLINE RESOURCES > Image Databases > select from list
Magazines, journals and newspapers:
http://library.uarts.edu/ > ONLINE RESOURCES > Articles > select from list
Presenter Handouts:
Presenter Biography:
Sara MacDonald, Public Services Librarian, has been a UArts librarian since 1987 and holds a BA in English from Temple University and an MS in information science from Drexel University. Sara recently attended the Art Libraries Society of North America conference in Washington DC where she sat at the reference desk in the Main Reading Room of the Library of Congress.