http://digitalreference.etherpad.com/3 - Stephen Francoeur

Fantastic list. What do you expect them to know or be able to do pertaining to evaluation? - marthalib

Ditto to Martha's comment, plus perhaps a general 'research ethics' and 'information ethics' heading - Pete

What Martha and Pete said. What kind of preparation/prerequisites will the students have coming in? Is this a first course, or one for students beginning upper-level study in their majors? - Catherine Pellegrino

Martha: for evaluation, I want them to have a set of criteria that they can applied depending on the information need they have. So if they need to make sure source is authoritative, they will know how to research who the author is and that author's expertise on a given subject. I'll also emphasize the usual criteria: timeliness (may or may not be important depending on the need), relevance, quality of argument, etc. - Stephen Francoeur

When we teach this course in the fall, it's mostly all freshman. In the spring, when I'll be teaching it, it will be mostly sophomores and juniors. No pre-reqs. - Stephen Francoeur

Ah, yes. We assign a similar exercise, but it is tough to get students come up with their own set of evaluation criteria, so I'm looking for suggestions regarding how to do this. I still get students who say, "It is a credible article because it is peer-reviewed" and think that is sufficient. - marthalib

That looks excellent, then. For the sophomores and juniors, I would definitely include something on what I think of as "the economics of information," which it looks like you're getting at with "publish or perish" and commercial vs. open-access publishing. Something about who owns information, and how money changes hands for the use and access to it. - Catherine Pellegrino

I'm not thinking so much that the students need to come up with their own criteria but rather that they have an intentional set of criteria that they can selectively apply depending on the context. - Stephen Francoeur

Martha- I use a clothing analogy to introduce ideas of time and place appropriateness, registers etc - Pete

Ooooh, I like the clothing analogy. Martha: oops, just saw your other thread...moving my comment there! - Catherine Pellegrino

Yes, trying not to threadjack :) - marthalib

Feel free to threadjack, Martha. I like where the conversation is going anyway. - Stephen Francoeur

I truly don't mean to be a smartass, Stephen, but define "information" and "knowledge"? Seriously? Perhaps in the context of your evaluation criteria above--regarding their particular info need--that's possible. Or is it more like an intro level philosophy course definition in that you can define it in the context of the argument you are critiquing/making? I ask because I am not audacious enough to try & define either of those terms and they are both special areas of interest for me. - Mar₭ Liŋdŋer

Operational definitions perhaps- one you can use in everyday work, not a fully worked out philopsophically rigorous analysis? - Pete

Right, that's the short way to put it, Pete. Thanks. But there are so damn many of them and every one is seriously limited, even in an armchair analysis. But then they may be of value in limited domains if not pushed too far. Tis a minor point but wondering what Stephen is going for. All in all, I think this sounds like an excellent course. :D - Mar₭ Liŋdŋer

Nicely put, D. :D - Mar₭ Liŋdŋer

More potential terms for the list: primary and secondary sources, evidence, argument, thesis. - marthalib

Personally, I'd be a lot more interested in seeing how you structure the assignments. It might be interesting, for example, to get them to work on defining the academic discipline they're working on. Lists of terms kind of turn me off, Like D I'm more interested in whether or not the students can take part in a conversation about the nature of scholarly communications in a couple of disciplines. BTW, I think this xkcd is relevant: http://xkcd.com/675/ - John Dupuis

Just had a great conversation with the head of instruction here and am rethinking my overall approach to this course. I'll comment more when I get off the reference desk later this afternoon. - Stephen Francoeur

Don't forget to take your stuff off Etherpad, if you wish to keep it. - carolh

Joan: Don't know. I haven't taught the course yet (will be doing so for the first time this spring). - Stephen Francoeur

I'm thinking now more about framing my course less on "how to library" and more on exploring how the process of inquiry and the process of researching what others have said will lead to knowledge or insight or argument. I want them to see how inquiry + research will lead to them to their own point of view. When I get a syllabus put together, I'll share it here. - Stephen Francoeur

Stephen, that sounds like a good way to go about it. - Steveo Librareo

Sounds excellent, Stephen! - Mar₭ Liŋdŋer