Below, you will find a selection of activities and assignments that address some aspect of the research process. These activities were designed to be flexible and adaptable, and as such, we are only providing a general overview of the learning tasks and not a full description. Similarly, and whenever possible, we have provided a few ideas about how to adapt them to a blended or online environment. This list will continue to evolve and will be updated with ongoing input from both faculty and students, so check back when you are planning your next course(s).
Tips for adapting these activities beyond research assignments:
- Learning from Sources activities can also support critical reading contexts.
- Many of the Research Paper Alternatives are relevant for various critical thinking and inquiry contexts.
Activity Ideas: Research Strategies
Type of activity: Individual activity; In-class or outside of class activity
Goal: Help students develop flexibility and creativity while searching for relevant resources, especially when their initial searches may not yield helpful results.
Brief overview: This activity is designed to guide students through the process of selecting search terms and revising their search strategies based on search results. Instructors will gain insight into each student’s search strategies and research trajectory.
Type of activity: Group activity; Group discussion
Goal: Give students the opportunity to receive and give feedback regarding theirs and others’ research strategies.
Brief overview: Since students often resort to tried-and-true research strategies, this activity is designed to encourage experimentation through the peer-review process. Students will learn about different approaches to searching, and through the feedback process can reflect on what strategies might be successful. Instructors will be able to guide students through selecting appropriate strategies for the research project.
Type of activity: Lecture; Class discussion
Goal: Identify ways to use background information during the research process.
Brief overview: This activity is designed to teach students how and when to use background knowledge and previous experience to fill in knowledge gaps, identify additional research needs, and engage more effectively in the research process. Instructors will be able to discuss with their students when it is appropriate to use resources, like Google, WIkipedia, or encyclopedias, in their own research process.
Type of activity: Group activity; Group discussion; In-class or outside of class activity
Goal: Determine how two sources talk about a topic in order to locate additional search terms and learn how different writers talk about the same topic differently.
Brief overview: Locate two or more of the following types of sources on the same topic: a popular magazine article, a scholarly article, a newspaper article, a YouTube video, a tweet, etc. Compare two or more of these sources and identify how each of the authors address a particular issue. Identify any differences between each of these sources, as they relate to the topic, and use them to enhance search keywords or broaden and/or narrow the scope of research.
Activity Ideas: Determining Information Needs
Type of activity: Class discussion; Individual activity
Goal: Help students identify their specific information needs and questions prior to exploring resources.
Brief overview: This activity is designed to guide students through identifying what they already know about a given topic, and what they would like to learn from their research. Instructors can provide feedback on students selected areas of interest, suggest specific research questions, and help students determine an appropriate scope for their research.
Type of activity: Individual activity; Group activity; Group discussion
Goal: Create a visual map of a specific subject/concept to help students identify different potential research paths.
Brief overview: Students will develop a concept map that identifies related subjects/concepts that are important to their area of interest. Instructors can provide students with feedback regarding any gaps in their research. The concept maps can also be used to broaden or narrow their research focus, or to identify specific research questions.
Type of activity: Group activity; Group discussion
Goal: Identify what students will need to know for their project and where they can begin to look for that information.
Brief overview: As a class, students will brainstorm what everyone might need to know in order to effectively complete a research assignment. Then students can also brainstorm where they might begin to fulfill these information needs. Instructors will be able to suggest specific research questions or information needs, provide feedback on where to search for relevant information, and help students come away from this activity with a clearer understanding of how to move forward with their research.
Type of activity: Group activity; Group discussion; Lecture
Goal: Explore how various sources of information are created, accessed, and shared.
Brief overview: In this activity developed by Tessa Withorn (CSU Dominguez Hill), students will collaboratively define what makes a source traditional, emerging, public, or exclusive. Students can then use these definitions to assess the fit between a particular source of information and a specific information need. Instructors will gain an understanding of how students perceive different types of sources, and can provide suggestions for determining how and when to use different types of information.
Activity Ideas: Learning from Sources
Type of activity: Group or individual activity
Goal: Evaluate resources for their potential contributions to disciplinary discourse.
Brief overview: By suggesting additional course materials, students will have the chance to evaluate resources while considering disciplinary norms, concepts, and important contributors. Instructors will gain insight into how students understand and apply disciplinary norms when determining the relevance of a given source.
Type of activity: Reflection activity; Individual activity; Group discussion
Goal: Reflect on the impact of assumptions on the research process
Brief overview: This reflective activity will ask students to reflect on what they expect to see when they conduct research on a project. These answers will be useful to determine the impact of their own personal assumptions towards a specific topic when doing research, the importance of considering where they conduct their research, and the types of voices that are highlighted/oppressed in their research.
Type of activity: Individual activity; Group activity; Group Discussion; Lecture
Goal: Identify potential research collaborators
Brief overview: In many fields, research is conducted in teams or with a collaborator. This activity will help students learn about important voices within a field, as well as identify their own potential “collaborators” from existing scholarship. Instructors, particularly those in introductory courses, will be able to help students understand why certain voices are important in their field, and how to draw on the expertise of others. This activity can be used in lieu of a literature review.
Type of activity: Group activity; Class discussion; Lecture
Goal: Encourage a critical inquiry approach to source evaluation that moves beyond the checklist method.
Brief overview: Evaluation of information sources goes beyond the ‘scholarly v. popular’ binary. By encouraging critical inquiry through open-ended questions, students will be able to engage more critically with their research assignments. Instructors will also have the opportunity to discuss how practitioners in one or more disciplines evaluate the information they use in their work.
Type of activity: Group project; Individual project
Goal: Develop a summary of a source, its arguments, and its conclusion.
Brief overview: Identify a book, a book chapter, or an article relevant to the task. Ask students to read the source, and then prepare a summary. As part of this summary, students will need to provide a summary of what they read, the arguments being made, and the significance of the argument. As part of this activity, students could also identify connections to other works read in the class, and specify how they are connected.
Type of activity: Group activity; Individual activity
Goal: Trace how research trends and academic knowledge change over time.
Brief overview: Select a bibliography or a review article written a number of years ago. Ask students to update the bibliography or review article and explain briefly why the new publications were chosen. In making their case, students should point to changes or trends in a particular field that have made the original source no longer relevant to current academic discourse.
Type of activity: Group project; Individual project; Capstone project
Goal: Trace how research trends and academic knowledge change over time.
Brief overview: Select a present-day issue or concern. Search the past literature at five or ten year intervals. Ask students to provide a summary of how theories or attitudes toward the issue have changed. Ask students to highlight particular works or scholars that are making the most notable contributions. Similar, ask students to point out any gaps they see or that they would like to see scholars address.
Activity Ideas: Research Paper Alternatives
Type of activity: Capstone project; Group project; Individual project
Goal: Evaluate a students’ understanding of disciplinary knowledge gathered throughout a specific course or across their college career.
Brief overview: As part of an upper division course, students will draw on their past coursework experiences to create learning objects, such as presentations or podcasts, for students in introductory courses. Instructors will be able to evaluate what students have come to learn about their chosen major. Instructors and departments will also have a broader set of activities, assignments, and presentations to draw from when teaching introductory courses.
Type of activity: Individual activity; Group activity
Goal: Identify important voices within a field/discipline
Brief overview: This activity will help students learn about important voices within a field. Instructors, particularly those in introductory courses, will be able to help students understand why certain voices are important in their field, and how to draw on the expertise of others.
Type of activity: Individual activity; Group activity
Goal: Build connections among various scholars (“voices”) and create space for the student’s own voice.
Brief overview: This activity will help students identify connections among the ideas and perspectives of several scholars or sources, while also incorporating their own perspective. Instructors will find this activity particularly helpful in writing-intensive courses as students begin their writing process.
Type of activity: Individual activity; Group activity
Goal: Conduct a critical analysis focusing on evaluating, critiquing, and synthesizing information.
Brief overview: This activity will use guiding questions to push students to reflect critically on any given reading. Instructors will gain insight into how students are reading a particular piece and what they deem important.
Type of activity: Individual activity; Group activity
Goal: Identify patterns and exceptions in a given bibliography (For example, does the bibliography mostly cite works by white men? Whose voice might be missing?)
Brief overview: This activity will help students consider the source material for a given work and its potential impact on that work itself. Instructors can use this activity to help students analyze a given work or to think about how source material is used in a written work within a specific genre.
Type of activity: Group activity; Individual activity
Goal: Develop a process or plan for how to structure and write a research paper.
Brief overview: As part of this assignment, students will conduct research for a research paper, but they will not write it. This assignment will require some or all of the following elements: 1) a clearly defined topic; 2) a thesis statement or research question; 3) an outline of the paper; 4) an evaluative bibliography; and 5) an opening paragraph/summary/abstract.
Type of activity: Group project; Individual project; Capstone project
Goal: Creating and developing a research poster.
Brief overview: Ask students to conduct research on a topic of their choice, or on a provided prompt. Ask students to present their findings as a research poster or an infographic. A more concise version of this activity can be used to ask students to provide a summary of an article, a book chapter, or a book.
Type of activity: Group activity; Individual activity
Goal: Identify the scholarly impact of a work.
Brief overview: Select or ask students to identify a “classic” work in a particular discipline. Students will then research and read book reviews, biographical information, and indexes to determine how and why the work or scholar earned their status. As part of this assignment, students should also summarize the effect the work or the scholar has had on the field.
Type of activity: Group activity; Individual activity
Goal: Identify the scholarly impact of a scholar.
Brief overview: Select or ask students to identify an important scholar in a particular field of study. Students will then explore the scholar’s career and work by locating biographical information, preparing a bibliography of their work, provide an analysis of the impact of the scholar’s work, and trace the scholarly network which the scholar influences or has influenced.
Type of activity: Group activity; Individual activity
Goal: Engage with the work of a scholar.
Brief overview: Ask students to prepare an interview—either to be actually carried or one that they can’t conduct because the subject is long dead or otherwise unavailable. As part of this assignment, students will generate questions that show their familiarity with the interviewee’s life and their work and its significance. In addition, students could be asked to develop the answers of a real interview or write their own imaginary response based on available evidence. This last component can come from other interviews created by other students in the class.
Type of activity: Group activity; Individual activity
Goal: Investigate and learn about the treatment of an ailment.
Brief overview: Select or assign a diagnosis or ailment for students to research. Students will then act as the patient by investigating the diagnosis and the prescribed treatment. Their work should describe the conditions and its symptoms; its plausible cause (etiology); the effectiveness of the prescribed treatment, its side effects, and contradictions, along with the evidence; and a comparison of the relative effectiveness of alternative treatments. Student work can be presented in any format—oral or visual presentation, poster session, essay, etc.
Type of activity: Group activity; Individual activity
Goal: Examine the credibility of a major work within a field.
Brief overview: Assign or ask students to select a major work within a field of study. Students will then research the author, the author’s credentials, the argument or points of view presented in the work, and the field’s reception of the work by reading and comparing reviews of the work. Finally, students will suggest comparable works and identify their connection to the original work.
Type of activity: Group activity; Individual activity
Goal: Analyze an argument.
Brief overview: Select or ask students to locate an editorial. Students will then find facts that either support or refute the editorial. Students will also provide an evaluative bibliography that directly addresses their claims for or against the editorial.
Type of activity: Group activity; Individual activity
Goal: Examine the importance/impact of a scholarly work.
Brief overview: Select or ask students to identify a scholarly, or otherwise, work from a field of study. Students will then locate three or more reviews of the work. As part of their work, students will summarize each of the reviews, identify where and how they vary, and examine the viewpoints, biases, or assumptions that each reviewer shows.
Type of activity: Group activity; Individual activity
Goal: Examine a topic across different media.
Brief overview: Assign or ask students to choose a controversial issue or event. As part of their work, students will examine how the issue or event is covered across different media and sources of information (newspapers, editorials, magazines, scholarly journals, etc.).
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