Research & Writing Toolkit, Illustrated!

The library and information literacy talk continues with special guest Mary Cash.

Impressed by what you see here in our Wordle? You can find information on these topics and more when you visit the Research and Writing Toolkit on our Student Wiki: http://at.ccconline.org/students/wiki/Academic_Resources_-_Research_and_Writing_Toolkit

And, for those of you who already know about the Toolkit, how do you use the Research and Writing Toolkit in your courses?

Besides having links to the Toolkit on my Resources page and on several of my Unit Homework page, I send my students to specific assets we've listed on the Toolkit, including the Research 101 tutorial from the University of Washington's library. Also, when I grade papers and run into students who have grammar or sentence issues, I often send them to a specific section in the Help with Writing part of the Toolkit - I often send students to the Comma Splices and Fused Sentences section.

LisaMarie has a discussion early in the semester in her anthropology courses that has students go to the Research Writing Toolkit to do some exploring and then they need to find something they liked and report back to the other students on that website or tutorial.

So, how do you use the Research and Writing Toolkit in your courses? Liz and I are going to be giving presentations on the Toolkit at the eLCC conference in April and at the D2L Fusion conference in July, and we'd like to share with others how our faculty use the Research and Writing Toolkit. And, if you're not using it now, perhaps we've inspired you to try to come up with some ideas on how to incorporate the toolkit into your course:) Please share those ideas with us in the Community's Cultivating Excellence discussion.

-Mary Cash

Sentence Works changes its name to Grammarly

Sentenceworks, the free online grammar checker available to CCCOnline students, changed its name to Grammarly@edu. Check out the new site and features by using the Grammarly@edu link in the Helpful Links widget inside your Desire2Learn classroom.

At the new site, you’ll find the same familiar features you’ve been using along with some new functionality including:
-Even more accurate grammar checking
-Support for more writing genres
-Printable reports

Your Sentenceworks user name and password will work at the new site (http://www.grammarly.com/edu/students). Easily retrieve your forgotten password for Grammarly by clicking on the “Forgot Your Password” link on the login page. Your password will be emailed to your college email account. Do you need a new account? No problem! Click on “Create Account” and fill out the required information.

Support for Grammarly@edu is available online at http://support.grammarly.com/home.

CCCOnline students have several tutorial services available like Grammarly@edu and NetTutor as described on the Student Wiki. What course do you teach and which of the resources do you recommend to students and why? Did you know that we list resource centers on other campuses that might help your students on the wiki? If you are not using these resources now with students, is this something you might consider adding to your courses for spring, and why or why not?

Quality Time: Teaching Students to Fish

“Do we give students the fish, or do we teach them to fish?” often asks Donna Hall, Design Team Coordinator, regarding assignment design. In our classes, the answer may vary based on the course and the type of assignment, but as part of our overall goal to develop students with skills in information literacy, research, and writing, we want to teach our students to fish.

One type of assignment I like to employ in my classes is student-generated content. History is a very broad subject and rather than dictating every detail they are expected to learn in long lectures, I guide students to select topics that fall within certain parameters but interest them. They share their final product with classmates in a discussion or other tool. The students not only learn content from each other’s projects but get to compare their assignments to the work of others in a conscious or unconscious self-evaluation.

One example is a research and writing project that requires students to locate primary and secondary sources on a historical term. In a discussion, they post a brief description of the term, their cited sources, and what we will find useful at each source. Additionally, while working on the discussion, students may ask the instructor or each other questions about sources, citation, or content, building a sense of community. What I have noticed is that by doing the project openly and seeing each others’ examples of how they put research and writing together, the quality of the individual student’s work greatly improves and they become self motivated to be experts on their piece of content.

Want to learn more on student-generated content? Here are two web resources to get you started: http://senerlearning.com/projects/student-generated-content
http://senerlearning.com/category/blog-topics/student-generated-content
Please share with us student-generated content assignments you employ in your courses in the CCCOnline Community Cultivating Excellence discussion.

Quality Time is a series of posts concerning course quality issues, best practices, and/or CCCOnline policy.

Research and Writing Toolkit Webinar

Have you ever wished for a set of quick links to assign to your students for brush-up help on research skills, avoiding plagiarism, or writing in general?

We’re happy to say we’ve been working on such a project, and we seek your feedback! Come to our webinar at 1:00 p.m. this Friday, Oct. 22, to learn about the Research and Writing Toolkit and share your thoughts.

Research and Writing Toolkit: Your Input Wanted!

Have you ever wished for a set of quick links to assign to your students for brush-up help on research skills, avoiding plagiarism, or writing in general?

We’re happy to say we’ve been working on such a project, and we seek your feedback!

Here is a link to our archived presentation at the faculty conference; also please note this direct link to the Research and Writing Toolkit.

Finally, in the corresponding CCCOnline Community discussion, we would love to hear your answers to any of these questions:
1) What subject do you teach and how would you use the RWT in your course(s)?
2) Which particular RWT resources would you find most helpful?
3) After you’ve reviewed the current RWT: do you have suggestions for content or layout?

Thank you!