About this Book

Hi, I’m Kathleen. I have worked as an academic librarian at Sheridan College in Ontario, Canada for the past 13 years. In my role, I help International and domestic students find, evaluate, and use information sources ethically for their research assignments.

This handbook is the culmination of an 8-month sabbatical project to create an open educational resource that supports research assignment design at post-secondary institutions in Ontario.

How to Use this Book

As an open educational resource, you may access, share, or adapt the materials within this handbook for personal and educational purposes. Below are suggested methods, styles, or approaches to using this book.

Self-guided Activities

Read through the materials and complete the activities on your own, at your own pace. Use and modify the example text from chapter 4, Developing Assignment Instructions, for your own assessments. If you are working through the guide alone, I encourage you to take advantage of opportunities for working with colleagues or sharing your learning with your professional community.

Facilitated or Co-learning Approach

If you have the opportunity, completing and sharing the activities within a group setting or in partnership with a colleague can greatly enhance the learning experience. Not only will this deepen your learning and create a sense of accountability, but it can also provide a safe space to talk about your personal challenges developing effective research assignments as well as an opportunity to share first-hand experiences and effective solutions to common problems.

Experimenting & Collaborating

The best approach to really learning deeply about how to develop student research skills through effective research assignment design is to experiment with the strategies provided throughout the handbook to discover what works best in your context. Seek out other instructors at your institution who are implementing creative, well-designed assignments who are willing to mentor you and share their strategies. And finally, reach out to librarians at your institution who are willing to work collaboratively on your plan.

Acknowledgements

This handbook was developed on land originally inhabited by the Haudenosaunee, Anishinaabe and Neutral peoples. As a second-generation Canadian from English-German heritage, I am grateful to be living and working here.

Drawing on the scholarly research and experiences of individuals from across Canada, the United States, and around the world, each study that informed this work brought its own unique context to bear on my understanding of the concepts discussed here. It’s an honour to draw from and contribute to this rich body of literature.

I would like to thank all of the people who directly contributed to this handbook’s development, including:

• Marian Traynor and Susan Shepley: thank you for giving me the opportunity to work on this project.
• The staff at the Learning Portal, a collaborative project of Ontario Colleges, who offered extensive feedback and support throughout the writing process.
• Supriya Habbu who offered very helpful insights and suggestions for the book from a faculty perspective.
• Sam Cheng who offered feedback as a fellow librarian.
• Iryna Pavlolva who shared her expertise regarding academic integrity strategies.
• Patricia Buckley who helped shape the approach to Indigenization.
• Jen Booth who helped put the finishing touches on the book and improved its accessibility.

Accessibility

The web version of Designing Research Assignments that Enhance Research Skills has been designed with accessibility in mind by incorporating the following features:

• Content has been optimized for people who use screen-reader technology.
  • all content can be navigated using a keyboard;
  • links, headings, and tables are formatted to work with screen readers;
  • images have alt tags.
• Information is not conveyed by colour alone.
• The option to increase font size (see tab on top right of screen).
• Use right and left arrows on your keyboard to navigate to next or previous pages.

This book is available in a number of file formats, including PDF, EPUB (for eReaders), and various editable files. Look for the “Download this book” drop-down menu on the cover page to select the file type you want.

Those using a print copy of this resource can find the URLs for any websites mentioned in this resource in the footnotes.

If you have any issues accessing this book, please contact me at: kathleen.oakey (at) sheridancollege.ca.