This document discusses the use of active learning techniques to teach students how to evaluate scholarly articles. The librarians at the University of Idaho implemented an activity where they divided students into groups and each group analyzed a different article. This revealed that students had difficulty identifying components of citations and distinguishing between scholarly, popular and trade publications. Student feedback showed that the hands-on activity helped emphasize the lesson and apply their knowledge compared to more passive instruction. The benefits of active learning were that it reinforced concepts and critical thinking skills while addressing student confusion between articles and websites. Challenges included the class time needed and strong instructor cooperation required.

1. Evaluating Articles Using
Active Learning
Techniques
Kristin Henrich
Diane Prorak
University of Idaho
August 15 2013 | PNLA 2013

2. Instruction Background
• 9 Instruction Librarians for 12,000 FTE
• 5,352 unique students taught in FY13
• 309 unique instruction sessions
• 25% of these sessions are for English 102

3. English 102 Context
• Introductory composition and rhetoric
• Enrollment = majority incoming freshmen
• 40 sections/semester
• 1 week of library instruction per section

4. Library Learning Outcomes for English 102
After the sessions, students will be able to
• find outside sources for a project that are appropriate for their
topic, the requirements of the assignment, and their level of
expertise.
• retrieve reliable sources of information using library based and
other information sources.
• determine the reliability of an information source regardless
of the viewpoint presented.
• learn to respect intellectual property by using and attributing
sources of information appropriately

5. Integrating Active Learning
• Librarians routinely adapted active learning strategies to
teach concepts such as:
• Topic Development
• Library Website Navigation
• Finding Books Using the Library Catalog
• Finding Articles Using Library Databases
• Website Evaluation
• But students were still lacking skills to contextualize articles
they found…

6. Why did we do it?
• Impact of web evaluation activity
• Feedback from instructors
• Student confusion on articles vs. web
• Value of critical thinking skills
http://bit.ly/14qxCWD

7. Article Activity
• Divide into groups
• Each group will receive one article to analyze
• Articles: http://bit.ly/14tuc7l *
• Use the sample checklist provided to guide your analysis
• Bias?
• Intended audience?
• Popular? Scholarly?
• Be prepared to summarize your group’s discussion for the
larger audience
*Hyperlinked articles are specific to U of Idaho databases; full citations included

9. How did students do? Or what did
results reveal about knowledge?
• Had difficulty identifying citation components
• Had difficulty identifying bias, at article or journal level
(Mother Earth News = Reliable)
• Confusion about scholarly, trade, popular (E Magazine =
Scholarly)
• Showed that exercise was valuable—students lacking
knowledge initially
• Peer teaching during group presentations helped students
grasp concepts more clearly

10. Glad we did the
article authenticity
activity to be
certain we
understood the
lesson
Very informative, the
group activity helped
emphasize the points
being made
Helped keep
the class time
less boring
Learned how
to distinguish
articles +
their purpose
activities allowed us
to apply our
knowledge
Helped me learn
how to identify
credible sources
I learn by doing
things so the
activities were
helpful
Very helpful! It
was hands
on, helped me
learn better.
What did
students think?

11. Benefits
• Active learning reinforces concepts
• Evaluation reinforces critical thinking skills
• Digital + print format clarifies article vs. web
confusion
• Using “trendy” articles shows students that
library resources can be relevant too

12. Challenges
• Requires strong instructor cooperation
• Requires class participation
• Time-consuming; can limit other lessons
• Large front-end time investment
• Need to find current + relevant articles in a
variety of publication formats/types

13. Variations
• Have students use links instead of printouts
• Have students use links AND printouts
• Include weblinks along with article sources
• Have students evaluate article prior to class; use
class time for discussion
• Choose one topic and create links to articles and
also other formats (e.g. websites) for small group
evaluation.

14. Best Practices
• Communicate with instructor
• Consider variations on activity based on class needs
• Double-check all links/articles
• Create alternate lesson plans if activity runs long (or
short!)
• Assessment!

15. Questions?

16. Additional Resources
• List of sample articles (links will only work at UI, but does
include full citations)
• http://bit.ly/14tuc7l
• Further reading on active learning in library instruction:
http://bit.ly/13169j5