Information
Literacy and Writing Assessment
Project:
Tutorial for Developing and
Evaluating Assignments
Section 3: Promoting
Effective Research and Writing
in your Discipline
How to
Develop Research/Information
Literacy Objectives for your
Course
To develop an assignment, the
first step is to examine the
goals and objectives of your
program area majors and minors,
which are listed in the Undergraduate
Catalog. The goals almost universally
include a goal dealing with
research or information literacy
and goals for effective communication
in writing and for sound critical
thinking. Once you are familiar
with your program area's goals
and objectives, you are ready
to link those goals to your
course goals and objectives.
The steps for this task follow:
- Review the goals and objectives
of your program area.
- Identify the research/information
literacy, writing, and critical
thinking goals and objectives
within the larger objectives
of your area.
- Brainstorm ways to address
the goals and objectives of
the major or minor.
- Identify goals and objectives
for individual courses.
- Identify research, writing,
and critical thinking objectives
within the larger objectives
of individual courses.
- Brainstorm ways to address
and achieve goals and objectives
for individual courses.
- Identify opportunities
for student research and writing
within your course and major
or minor.
- Create ILWA assignments
to meet the objectives of
the individual courses.
- Develop assignment criteria.
- Formulate assignment guidelines.
- Present assignment guidelines
effectively.
The School of Undergraduate
Studies cross-curricular initiatives
include information literacy
and effective communication
in writing for sound critical
thinking across the disciplines.
Tool
for Analysis: ILWA Syllabus
Review Checklist
One way to determine if your
syllabus meets the information
literacy and writing objectives
of your program area is to evaluate
them using the ILWA Syllabus
Review Checklist.
Course and Section ______________________
Faculty Member_________________________
Standard: The syllabus clearly
describes the ILWA project
students must complete and
how the project is related
to the content and objectives
of the course. The ILWA project
assignment is written out
and includes its purpose(s),
a sketch of its context and
possible audiences, the timing
of its various parts or stages,
and the assessment criteria
by which it will be graded.
Students are forewarned about
their ethical responsibility;
to cite sources responsibly,
they are informed of the expectation
that their use of source materials
reflect their own sound critical
judgment.
+/- Comments:
_____ Course Description/Goal(s):
States that students will
be asked to complete projects
involving research and writing
in the context of and to the
standards of the discipline
and the course level.
_____ Objectives: Objectives
specify research and writing
skills to be developed during
the course using task-oriented
language.
_____ Schedule Information:
Describes steps or stages
in the research and writing
assignments and states when
it (they) are due.
_____ Grading Information:
Defines criteria for assessing
research skills and writing
effectiveness.
_____ Academic Honesty: Accurately
reflects the UMUC academic
integrity policy.
Number of researched and
written assignments? ______1
______2 _______3 ______4 _______5
______6 or more
 Proceed
to the next section
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