Alternatives to the Research Paper:
How to Incorporate Research into Your Course
There are numerous ways to incorporate research into your course without assigning a major research paper. These alternative assignments enhance student learning of the course content while simultaneously teaching them information literacy skills.
Examples include:
- Students do outside reading of sources they identify and evaluate themselves and use the information they discover to inform an in-class discussion of the topic. For example, ask each student to find background information about a certain topic and serve as the class “expert” on that topic during the class discussion.
- Students find and summarize recent newspaper, magazine or Web articles concerning a controversial issue related to the course topic a few times during the semester.
- Students work in groups to research a topic and do a short in-class presentation.
- If the class includes theory, students can be asked to do outside reading about a theory (in an encyclopedia, for example) and explain that theory to the rest of the class.
- Students find a popular and scholarly article on a topic related to the class, briefly summarize the articles and describe how they differ. They can also be asked to keep a research log about how they found the articles.
- Students can select a topic and compare how that topic is treated in several different sources.
- Introduce students to the difference between primary and secondary sources by asking students to find the original research findings discussed in a short article found in the popular press.
Other Ideas for Including Research in Your Course:
Term Paper Alternatives: Ideas for Information-Based Assignments, from King's College
Ideas for Library-Related Assignments, from the University of Puget Sound
Creative Assignments Using Information Competency and Writing, from Ohio University |
