Designing Research Assignments

Download the Effective Assignment Checklist

This guide was originally created by Elizabeth Foster, who is currently Public Policy & Social Sciences Librarian for Georgetown University and is used with her permission and that of Lehigh University. Resources were created for a workshop by the Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning CITL at Lehigh University.

• State the purpose of the assignment and the learning objectives.
• Provide discipline-specific context: what does research mean in your discipline? How is research conducted, disseminated, and evaluated?
• Provide logistical information: length, citation style, formatting, number of sources, acceptable and unacceptable sources, etc.
• Provide evaluation criteria or a rubric.

• Topic selection: Provide some guidance on how to decide on a topic or design a manageable research question.
• Recommended sources: Identify key databases and resources so students know where to start.
• Critical thinking: If you usually emphasize finding and accessing information, take things a step further and also emphasize evaluating and synthesizing information from different sources.
• Make research reflective: Have students compile research logs or write a brief reflection on the research process.

• Check to see if the library has the resources students will need to complete the assignment.
• Share your liaison librarian's contact information with your students.
• Ask your liaison librarian to make a course guide or visit your class for an instruction session.
• Add your liaison librarian to your Course on Canvas 
• Promote online library resources, such as RVC's Library Guides and Interlibrary Loan.

• Specify the required citation style.

RVC Library   

Reference Desk   RVC-LibRef@RockValleyCollege.edu   815-921-4619

Librarians

Brent Eckert   B.Eckert@rockvalleycollege.edu  815-921-4604

Maria Figiel-Krueger   M.Figiel-Krueger@rockvalleycollege.edu   815 921-4606

Lukas Wenner   L.Wenner@rockvalleycollege.edu   815-921-4603