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If you have clear goals for the ideal research project, you might think that all you need to do is declare those goals in your assignments and hope your students follow your instructions. This, however, is what we are already doing, and we know that students rarely submit projects that meet our expressed ideals. Disappointment is our constant companion.

                                                         

The problem with our current less-than-successful approach is that it treats the research project as a product rather than as the result of a process. If we want our students to improve their research abilities it is essential that we focus on training their process.

Here is a perspective for a different approach that is more likely to improve student submissions:

1. When we assign a research project, we can take up a unique opportunity to use the assignment itself to build student research ability, as long as we think of the project as a process to be taught rather than a product to be assessed.

2. The traditional pattern of assigning a project, receiving the final product, and grading it (with comments) measures performance only and assumes that students are learning how to do research by doing research (lots of evidence shows that they don't). With the rise of AI, we have no way to be sure that our students have engaged with the subject matter at all before they submitted the product.

3. Instead we need to view the assignment as a mentoring opportunity. Break the larger project into several segments, ending with a final submission. Use each segment to enlist one or more of your ideal assignment goals, to provide comments on student submissions (comments that focus more on the process than the content), and to allow students to resubmit each segment one or two times in order to improve their work.

For an abundance of resources to guide your students in aspects of the research process, go to https://libguides.twu.ca/ResearchSkills/Home
 

 

Slides for Session Two: 

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1g3VJppLrRTDgDKOCfoKVyo1ZIyBlsbgnVrSc3pgqMAU/pub?start=false&loop=false&delayms=3000

The following examples are just that - Examples. They may not reflect your discipline, but hopefully they will give you ideas for turning your stated ideal goals into smaller assignment segments intended to improve student research processes.

Segment One: Research Design and Preliminary Outline

Assignment:

• Choose a topic [by whatever means the professor suggests] and write 8-10 lines explaining basic facts about it. For this, you can use one of the library's encyclopedias, Wikipedia, or generative AI (but what you get may not be accurate).
• Find issues or problems within the topic that call for investigation. Write 3 possible research questions [or thesis statements] that are problem-based and can be researched with evidence.
• Out of your three possible questions, choose and state the research question [thesis] which you believe is the best.
• Create a preliminary outline of 3 or 4 points as a road map to help you determine what relevant resources you need to gather on your issue.

The following guides may help your students:

https://prezi.com/view/yBwgkY19s3TsDk9RjRo8/

https://prezi.com/view/MialHdBOsBkOcAwPMRbN/

Segment Two: Searching for Resources (this might be divided into two segments if you separate book searches from articles or call for searches in more than one database)

Assignment:

• Begin searching in [    ] database (e.g. Library OneSearch, PsycInfo) for [state type(s) of resources] on your issue. Draw your initial search terminology directly from main words in your chosen research question (see tutorial below). State which search terms you used, including subject terms that you selected on the results page in your database. For articles, you can limit to scholarly/peer reviewed articles.
• List [ {number} ] search results in [     ] format, being sure that they are high academic quality and relevant to the problem you addressed in your research question [thesis].
  
  This guide for students may help:

https://prezi.com/view/cfXArRA5a1rEAYQJnhYk/

Students will often need help with searching. (Note, for example, that Library OneSearch is the tool for finding books as well as articles). Most of our databases have citation generation tools, often found by clicking on a title in the results. Librarians can offer support here. 

In just over 7 minutes, this video walks you through the search functions of Library OneSearch, shows you our research guides, and offers options for formatting citations. [Open to full screen]

 

 

https://vimeo.com/754876809/b628c4b80f

Segment Three: Annotation for evaluation

Assignment: Annotate your formatted list of results, stating why each one is of high quality and relevant to your issue.

Segment Four: Final Research Question and Outline

Assignment: Provide a final research question (which you may have revised from the time you first formulated it), a final outline with headings and subheadings, and a final reference list [bibliography] in proper [     ] format.

Segment Five: Submission of the Final, Complete Project
 

[For tools to help you mentor students in research processes, see this page, which is loaded with tutorials: https://libguides.twu.ca/ResearchSkills]