GATOR Library: Where to Start Research: Information Literacy

Getting Started with Research

Tutorial: Why Information Literacy Matters Use this tutorial to show students how information literacy is relevant to their day-to-day lives. Students will become familiar with their own information seeking habits, privilege, and skills used in their personal, academic, and professional lives.
Video: Life in the Information Age Technology is changing the way we locate, analyze, and share information. Use this video to introduce students to the evolving information landscape and their roles as responsible information consumers and creators.
Video: The Research Process Part 1 (Pre-Research) and Part 2 (In-Depth Research, Outlining, and Writing Use this video to demonstrate the value of pre-research. Students will learn how to align their initial exploration to their assignment requirements.
Tutorial: Developing a Research Focus In this tutorial, students will be introduced to pre-research techniques to determine the scope and depth of their research focus.
Tutorial: Choosing a Topic Background research is an essential component of the research process. In this tutorial, students will learn how to differentiate between background and in-depth research, and locate and use background research to refine their research focus.
Video: How to Narrow Your Topic Do your students have trouble selecting a topic for a research assignment? This video will outline the process to help students hone in on a compelling research topic with appropriate scope using strategies like strategic searching. Students will also understand the importance of open mindedness and flexibility in the research process.
Tutorial: Background Research Tips Determining a manageable research question can be challenging for students. Use this tutorial to introduce strategies for aligning a research focus with assignment guidelines and research tools such as concept maps.
Video: Beginning Research with Wikipedia/Google Part 1 (Getting Started with Wikipedia/Google) and Part 2 (Transitioning from Google/Wikipedia to Databases) This video will help students understand the process of background research by introducing techniques for gathering background information using Google and Wikipedia.
Video: Thesis Statements Use this video to help students identify the purpose of their research efforts and construct evidence-based statements. Students will learn how to narrow in on a topic, conduct background research, and synthesize the existing body of evidence in order to craft a compelling argument.
Tutorial: Scholarship as Conversation Use this tutorial to encourage students to develop a scholarly mindset. In this tutorial, students will learn how their projects help build the body of work in a given field. Additionally, students will become familiar with the process of attribution and critical evaluation.

Evaluating Information

Video: What is Authority? Use this video to introduce students to the concept of authority, how it relates to research, source selection, evaluation, and attribution.
Video: Introduction to Bias This video introduces the idea of bias and prejudice and the importance of awareness of one’s own bias and the bias of others when evaluating sources and situations, and responding to arguments.
Video: Types of Bias This video builds on the introduction to bias video by discussing specific types of bias such as social bias, confirmation bias, and communal reinforcement.
Video: Evaluating Sources Use this video to encourage students to think critically about the information they encounter in print and online. Students will become familiar with strategies for evaluating sources based on these criteria: authority, accuracy, currency, relevance, and objectivity.
Tutorial: Evaluating Information Students will learn how to evaluate a range of resources in order to select the most authoritative sources on their research topic.
Video Tutorial: Identifying Misinformation This video will help students identify the characteristics and purpose of misinformation as well as its effect on their personal and academic lives.
Video: Objectivity in Reporting This tutorial will help students differentiate between news journalism and opinion journalism in order to analyze the purpose, standards, and expectations related to reporting and editorializing.