Aerial view of campus with Williamsport, the Susquehanna River and Bald Eagle Mountain as a backdrop

Classroom Resources

Designing an Effective Information Literacy Assignment

  • Reach out to a librarian. The librarians can make sure students will have access to the appropriate resources for your assignment and can assist in teaching students how to access, evaluate, and acquire said resources. We can help incorporate the Research and Information Competencies into your assignments.
  • Ask students to use a variety of resources. Students will need to be familiar with the various methods that scholars use to communicate with each other and the world, including books, peer reviewed academic journals, and newspapers. 
  • Scaffold the research process by assigning check points. Having students turn in an annotated bibliography or an outline of their argument before the final assignment is due provides formative assessment for you. It also helps students break down the research process and not rush the final product.

You can find great examples of information literacy assignments at Loyola Marymount University's William H. Hannon Library's guide. 

Plagiarism

The Snowden librarians are eager to participate in the fight against intentional plagiarism on our campus as well as educating our students to avoid accidental plagiarism. Please see the plagiarism tutorial the library has prepared. We would also be happy to include this in a library instruction session or come to your classroom to discuss this issue with your students in person.

We also maintain the Turnitin.com software, which can detect plagiarism. Please contact Jon Schoenfelder if you have any questions regarding this product.

Course Guides

Request a course-specific research guide with appropriate resources and instruction for a research assignment by contacting Tori Lieggi. Here is an example of a subject guide for the History department. 

Information Literacy Tutorials

Consider assigning an information literacy tutorial for homework can be a fast and easy way to develop your students' information literacy skills. Topics of popular tutorials include:

  • Using the Catalog
  • Finding a book in the library
  • Using Snowden Super Search
  • Advanced searching in databases
  • Understanding peer review
  • Brainstorming topics
  • and more!

Pairing Library Instruction & Resources with Moodle

Mentioning library services and linking or embedding library resources in your Moodle course page can be a great way to connect students to the library and enhance their information literacy skills. Here are some suggestions for incorproating the library into your course page: