Kevin MacLeod (kevin.1macleod@royalroads.ca) is Associate Faculty in the School of Education and Technology at Royal Roads University, Victoria BC Canada.

Rationale

Willison et al. (2017) describe the Research Skill Development (RSD) framework as presenting the skills associated with research in manner that is intentional, coherent, and sequential. The RSD features “a continuum of five levels delineating the extent of autonomy – the conceptual space – that students are given or experience when using skills associated with research” (p. 432). Autonomy may be considered as the degree of scaffolding necessary for learners to become self-directed. The five levels are as follows: Prescribed (Level 1), Bounded (Level 2), Scaffolded (Level 3), Open-ended (Level 4), Unbounded (Level 5) (Willison et al, 2017, pp. 432-433). The authors explain that “shifting towards higher levels of autonomy does not imply permanence but rather is a flexible process where students may need to revert to low levels of autonomy to aid an increase in competence and rigour” (p. 432). The RSD framework is applicable to learners ranging from early childhood to doctoral study in graduate school.

Research courses are an integral part of post-secondary programs, supporting students’ continued development of research-related skills including problem solving and critical thinking. However, students may be reluctant to take the research courses in their programs (Mulvenon & Wang, 2015; Rand, 2016) based on negative previous experiences leading them to doubt their own abilities. For example, students new to graduate programs continue from where their undergraduate research courses ended. Some of these early experiences may have been unpleasant and students may need encouragement and strategies when they formally reembark upon the theoretical study of the research process. In his introductory research textbooks, John Creswell explains that students have already learned valuable research skills through their life experiences that include “solving puzzles, employing a long attention span, using a library, and, of course, writing out your thoughts” (Creswell & Guetterman, 2019, p. 24).

Students who are research-reluctant may be pleasantly surprised to discover they already possess the background experiences and skills to be successful in their research endeavors. However, they will not realize this until the research courses are in progress. At this stage, students may be receptive to new ideas and practices as they approach their research courses and examine their own misgivings about research for the purpose of realizing the full benefit of their programs.

Students may become willingly vulnerable, and this state of mind is necessary when beginning a new program of study. Thus, post-secondary students’ windows of vulnerability will be open for good purpose and this sensitivity may have a deep and lasting effect, potentially influencing the way students perceive themselves as graduate students and beginning researchers.

It is important for post-secondary students to be reminded of how identity and self-esteem are constantly evolving for people of all ages, and these may be particularly challenged at the beginning of a new program. For example, “Identity encompasses the memories, experiences, relationships, and values that create one’s sense of self. This amalgamation creates a steady sense of who one is over time, even as new facets are developed and incorporated into one’s identity” (Psychology Today, 2021, para. 1). Students will be confronted with challenges in their programs of study that may test their self-esteem and confidence.

Instructors can plan research courses with thoughtfully sequenced assignments and activities formulated to engage students in their interests, reinforce confidence, and encourage autonomy. By experiencing some early successes in research courses, students may start to entertain themselves as beginning researchers. As they start to see themselves in this light, students will need to engage with the course material, seek support from instructors, and interact with students in their programs to create beginning researchers’ communities of practice, which may be another form of encouragement and support.

Overview

The following series of assignments presents an approach for leveraging the window of vulnerability available to instructors and is based on post-secondary students being self-directed, problem centered, and motivated to learn. The activities are experiential, utilizing students’ background knowledge, offering choices, and are relevant to their current roles as students. Students receive constructive feedback on their assignments from other students and instructor in a supportive environment. The beginning activities reinforce the relevancy of students’ past experiences with consuming and creating research to establish a foundation for further study. Table 1 shows the names of the assignments and relative weightings. The column on the right-hand side indicates the level of learning autonomy. Each assignment has been summarized in Appendix A.

Table 1

List of assignments, weightings, and placement along the Continuum of Learning Autonomy (Willison et al., 2017)

In this section, the two assignments that use Twitter: Assignment 2: Participation in Discussions (Twitter), and Assignment 3: Reflections on Research – Discussion Forum (Twitter) are described. Using Twitter, a popular form of social media, can provide many educational benefits for students and instructors. Twitter as a new literacy practice has been found to positively impact learning settings (Ricoy & Feliz, 2016), transcend classroom-based activities (Li et al., 2018), provide an interactive and collaborative space to share information (Tur et al. 2017), encourage critical thinking (Abella-García et al., 2019), increase student engagement (Kunka, 2020), provide a foundational technology for teachers (Greenhalgh et al., 2016), activate faculty towards taking a more participatory role (Gleason, & Manca, 2020) and allow academics a wide audience to promote their research and to stay updated in their field (Meyer, 2018).

Assignment 2: Participation in Discussions (Twitter)

The purpose of this assignment is for graduate students to use Twitter to interact with each other along with educators, innovators, researchers, and leaders in education and research. Tweets to the instructor and colleagues in this class should include information sources that students consider interesting and relevant for the further development of their research interests and for supporting the introductory study of research in education. In the tweets, include text along with links, images, and video.

A Twitter hashtag for this assignment is provided to students by the instructor. During the two-week time frame for this assignment, students send eight to ten tweets per week to the hashtag. Franker’s (2018) Twitter rubric will be utilized to assess students’ participation in the assignment.

Graduate students who are new to Twitter should engage the following tutorials during the time frame for this assignment.

Twitter Tutorials

If you are not familiar with Twitter, access the Help Center (Twitter, 2023), then click Using Twitter. Select a few of the introductory tutorials and read documentation that addresses how to use Twitter.

Other Activities

• Access Twitter’s Help Center, then scroll down to the Search and Trends section.
• Use the search feature in Twitter to locate resources (for example, people, organizations, documents) to support the development of your research interests.
• Locate four or five resources to further the development of your research topics and share with our group’s hashtag.
• In her blog post, Meyer (2018) advises academics to use Twitter to help keep them up to date in their fields and to share research. Consider how academics promoting their research could be of assistance to you in the pursuit of your topics of interest?
• Find three or four researchers in your areas of interest and follow them. Share your findings by way of our group’s hashtag.
• If time permits, explore some of Twitter’s other features and capabilities.

Refer to Appendix B for a copy of the handout for Assignment 2: Participation in Discussions (Twitter).

Assignment 3: Reflections on Research – Discussion Forum

The purpose of this assignment is for graduate students to follow-up on one of their tweets and to inquire where the information originated. Students should select one tweet encountered during Assignment 2. The topic of the chosen tweet should be examined using STAR* evaluation: source, timeliness, accuracy, and relevance (Townsend et al., 2020). While there are many different types of evaluation methods and criteria available, the last component of STAR* includes an item that draws from evaluators’ affective domain to describe any emotions the source item may have evoked.

Students are instructed to formulate their initial postings in the 550 to 600-word range and add a new discussion forum, then upload their content. Generally, the initial postings are due on a Friday. Students read responses from other graduate students and respond to any two of the postings by Sunday. Fray’s (2006) rubric (Appendix C) for assessing participation in an asynchronous discussion forum is provided to students beforehand.

The discussion forum-type of assignment involving reading articles, posting text, and responding to other students’ posts may be overutilized in courses. Some variety for structuring students’ responses can be implemented with Digital #PowerUps: Hashtags to empower higher-order student engagement in online discussions (University of Central Florida, 2020). Digital powerups, as keywords, are displayed as hashtags connected to writing prompts within online discussions. For example, by including specific levels of Bloom’s Cognitive Taxonomy (McGuire, 2018, p. 30) as powerups, students’ participation in discussions may be scaffolded and better support critical thinking. For each discussion forum, students are instructed to promote engagement from multiple entry points by including two or three powerups in their posts along with one or two powerups in comments to other students.

Reflection

When implementing the series of assignments listed in Appendix A, including the two assignments that involve Twitter, in several different offerings of the same research course over the years, I have experienced how active learning has many different facets that work together. In the foundational work of Chickering and Gamson (1987, as cited in Kunka, 2020), a framework comprised of seven key actions to encourage student engagement was presented as follows “… student-faculty contact, cooperation among students, active learning, giving prompt feedback, emphasizing time on task, communicating high expectations, and respecting diverse talents and ways of learning” (Kunka, p. 320).

I have noticed that after the two-week Twitter assignment ends, many students new to Twitter continue to use this form of social media for the duration of the course to support the development of their research interests. While conducting these activities and assignments, I have observed that many graduate students may start research courses with an uneasy feeling, but as the courses progress, they began to settle and focus on their work. This positive progression is due to several factors. For example, students are relieved to hear they will be selecting their own topics for assignments and then are better able to focus on studying components of the research process within the course sequencing. Students can better think of themselves as researchers and engage in that work when they are relaxed, focused, and stable. The potential benefits for students perceiving themselves as beginning researchers start  when they experience early success with the first assignments. Students can build on this success as they encounter content and assignments associated with the next topics in the research course.

I have observed it is of considerable benefit for students, engaged in the first assignments, to share aspects of their past research experiences with their new colleagues and begin to engage in self-determined learning by having the freedom to choose their own topics to develop the three sequenced research assignments on their own terms. Including aspects of past experience, choice, and relevancy in the assignment sequencing is in keeping with Blaschke and Hase’s (2015) description of heutagogy, which emphasizes the cultivation of autonomy, capacity, and capability in adult learners.

Willison et al. (2017) describe the Research Skill Development (RSD) framework as presenting the skills associated with research in manner that is intentional, coherent, and sequential. The RSD features “a continuum of five levels delineating the extent of autonomy – the conceptual space – that students are given or experience when using skills associated with research” (p. 432). Autonomy may be considered as the degree of scaffolding necessary for learners to become self-directed. The five levels are as follows: Prescribed (Level 1), Bounded (Level 2), Scaffolded (Level 3), Open-ended (Level 4), Unbounded (Level 5) (Willison et al, 2017, pp. 432-433). The authors emphasize that “shifting towards higher levels of autonomy does not imply permanence but rather is a flexible process where students may need to revert to low levels of autonomy to aid an increase in competence and rigour” (p. 432).

The research course discussed here supports the further development of graduate students’ autonomy by including assignments based on the five levels of Willison et al.’s (2017) Research Skill Development (RSD) framework. As the learners in the course may perceive themselves as vulnerable during formal study of the research process, special emphasis has been placed on assignments based on Level 3, which feature scaffolding. The intent of these assignments, especially Assignments 2 and 3 that were outlined, is to support students as they overcome misgivings about research, develop new confidence in themselves, realize additional levels of autonomy, and acquire more sophisticated research competencies as they continue to form identity as researchers.

References

Abella-García, V., Delgado-Benito, V., Ausín-Villaverde, V., & Hortigüela-Alcalá, D. (2019). To tweet or not to tweet: Student perceptions of the use of Twitter on an undergraduate degree course. Innovations in Education & Teaching International, 56(4), 402-411. https://doi.org/10.1080/14703297.2018.1444503

Blaschke L.M., & Hase S. (2015). Heutagogy, technology, and lifelong learning for professional and part-time learners. In A. Dailey-Hebert, & K. Dennis (Eds.), Transformative Perspectives and Processes in Higher Education. Advances in Business Education and Training (Vol 6, pp. 75-94). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-09247-8_5

Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, and Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. (2018, December). Tri-Council Policy Statement: Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans. https://ethics.gc.ca/eng/home.html

Creswell, J. W., & Guetterman, T. C. (2019). Educational research: Planning, conducting, and evaluating quantitative and qualitative research (6th ed.). Pearson.

Franker, K. (2018). Twitter rubric. https://www2.uwstout.edu/content/profdev/rubrics/Twitter_Rubric.html

Fray, B. (2006). Rubric for asynchronous discussion participation. https://www.udel.edu/janet/MARC2006/rubric.html

Gleason, B., & Manca, S. (2020). Curriculum and instruction: Pedagogical approaches to teaching and learning with Twitter in higher education. On the Horizon, 28(1), 1-8.

Greenhalgh, S. P., Rosenberg, J. M., & Wolf, L. G. (2016). For all intents and purposes: Twitter as a foundational technology for teachers. E-Learning and Digital Media, 13(1–2), 81–98. https://doi.org/10.1177/2042753016672131

Kunka, B. A. (2020). Twitter in higher education: Increasing student engagement, Educational Media International, 57(4), 316-331. https://doi.org/10.1080/09523987.2020.1848508

Li, K., Darr, K., & Gao, F. (2018). Enriching classroom learning through a microblogging-supported activity. E-Learning and Digital Media, 15(2), 93–107. https://doi.org/10.1177/2042753018757099

McGuire, S. Y. (2018). Teach yourself how to learn: Strategies you can use to ace any course at any level. Stylus. ISBN-13: 978-1620363157

Meyer, E. (2018, January 2). To tweet or not to tweet: Twitter for academics. https://iaphs.org/tweet-not-tweet-twitter-academics/

Mulvenon, S. W., & Wang, V. X. (2015). Graduate level research methods and statistics courses: The perspective of an instructor. International Journal of Adult Vocational Education and Technology (IJAVET), 6(4), 1-11.

NorQuest College Library. (2023). What type of Researcher are you? [Video]. Library Tutorials. https://libguides.norquest.ca/tutorials/research_activities

Psychology Today. (2021). Identity. https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/basics/identity

Rand, J. (2016). Researching undergraduate social science research. Teaching in Higher Education, 21(7), 773–789. https://doi.org/10.1080/13562517.2016.1183621

Reazon Systems. (2015). iRubric: Online presentation rubric. http://www.rcampus.com/rubricshowc.cfm?code=H55B4B&sp=yes&

Ricoy, M. C., & Feliz, T. (2016). Twitter as a learning community in higher education. Journal of Educational Technology & Society, 19(1), 237-248.

Townsend, L., Fulton-Lyne, L., wa Kaai, N., Bailey, S., & Sereda, S. (2020). Evaluating sources: Skill overview. https://libguides.norquest.ca/ld.php?content_id=35522662

Tur, G., Marín, V. I, & Carpenter, J. (2017). Using Twitter in Higher Education in Spain and the USA. Comunicar: Media Education Research Journal, 25(51), 19-27.

Twitter. (2021). Help center. https://help.twitter.com/en

University of Central Florida. (2020). Digital #PowerUps: Hashtags to empower higher-order student engagement in online discussions. https://topr.online.ucf.edu/digital-powerups-hashtags-to-empower-higher-order-student-engagement-in-online-discussions/

Willison, J., Sabir, F., & Thomas, J. (2017). Shifting dimensions of autonomy in students’ research and employment, Higher Education Research & Development, 36(2), 430-443. https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2016.1178216

Appendix A: Series of Assignments

Online Activities

Ice-breaker Activity

Assignment 1) Reflections on Research – Discussion Forum (initial research interests and possible research methods)

Assignment 2) Participation in Discussions (Twitter)

Assignment 3) Reflections on Research – Discussion Forum (evaluate an online source)

Assignment 4) Research Ethics – TCPS 2: CORE 2022 (Tutorial)

Literature Review

Assignment 5) Literature Review

Research Proposal Assignments

Assignment 6) Presentation of In Progress Research Proposal

Assignment 7) Research Proposal

Ice-breaker Activity

This ice-breaker activity will introduce students to each other and will assist in initiating a supportive learning community, as this research course is the first in the program. The results of the activity will be shared as posts to a discussion forum. (There is no evaluation rubric for this activity, and it is supposed to be a little informal, just to get students thinking about research)

1) Student watch the video called “What kind of researcher are you?” (NorQuest College Library, 2023) at https://libguides.norquest.ca/tutorials/research_activities

2) Then, students briefly describe what kind of researchers they are based on the outcome of the activity.

3) Next, students respond to the following questions.

• Have you conducted any formal research in the past? If so, briefly describe the project(s).
• Have you done any informal research in the past? If so, briefly describe the project(s).
• Have you enjoyed these projects? Do you like doing research?
• Are you a user or a creator of research knowledge? Briefly explain.
• What are some of your research interests? List a few of these here. (Some of these topics may be pursued by way of the upcoming assignments in the course.)

4) Add a new topic to the discussion forum and provide your content. Please read the responses from other graduate students and respond to three of the postings.

Assignment 1) Reflections on Research – Discussion Forum (initial research interests and possible research methods)

The purpose of this assignment is for graduate students to reflect on potential research topics and complementary research methodologies. Students will provide a brief description of their initial research interests, perhaps based on descriptions from the ice-breaker activity or from a new research interest that has recently emerged. At this point in the course, students simply list and describe some of the areas of Education Research they are interested in and will narrow some of these down soon to arrive at possible topics for assignments. (Some of these could be pursued by way of the upcoming assignments in the course.)

From a list of research methodologies provided to students, including quantitative, qualitative, combined, and twenty-first century approaches, students pick two different types that could be used to pursue one of their research topics. Students make their first choice of research approach, along with an alternative method to use, and discuss how the choices could be used in the context of their research topics. The postings should outline specific examples from students’ own lives and practice as educators and educational leaders. (As a starting point, students may refer to the course textbook, along with conducting general searches on the WWW for some additional information to inform their choices for research methods.)

The length of the initial posting should be in the 400 to 450-word range. Add a new topic to the discussion forum and provide your content. Students read the responses from other graduate students and respond to two of the postings. Fray’s (2006) rubric for assessing participation in an asynchronous discussion forum will be utilized.

Note: Structuring students’ responses with Digital #PowerUps: Hashtags to empower higher-order student engagement in online discussions (University of Central Florida, 2020) may provide more variety for the participants.

Assignment 2) Participation in Discussions (Twitter)

The purpose of this assignment is for graduate students to use Twitter to interact with each other, along with educators, innovators, researchers, and leaders in education and research. Tweets to the instructor and colleagues in this class should include information sources that students consider interesting and relevant for the further development of their research interests and for supporting the introductory study of research in education. In the tweets, include text along with links, images, and video. During the two-week time frame for this assignment, sending eight to ten tweets per week will serve as a guideline. Franker’s (2018) Twitter rubric will be utilized to assess students’ participation in the assignment.

Assignment 3) Reflections on Research (Twitter)

The purpose of this assignment is for graduate students to follow-up on one of their tweets and to inquire where the information originated. Students should select one tweet that was encountered during the two-week time frame for Assignment #2) Participation in Discussions (Twitter). The topic of the chosen tweet should be examined using STAR* evaluation that involves the following parts, source, timeliness, accuracy, and relevance (Townsend et al., 2020).

The length of the initial posting should be in the 550 to 600-word range. Add a new topic to the discussion forum and provide your content. Students read the responses from other graduate students and respond to two of the postings. Fray’s (2006) rubric for assessing participation in an asynchronous discussion forum will be utilized.

Note: Structuring students’ responses with Digital #PowerUps: Hashtags to empower higher-order student engagement in online discussions (University of Central Florida, 2020) may provide more variety for the participants.

Assignment 4) Research Ethics – TCPS 2: CORE 2022 (Tutorial)

The purpose of this assignment is for graduate students to explore the ethical dimensions of research, as they begin to plan a research proposal. The Government of Canada’s Panel on Research Ethics promotes the ethics of research involving humans by way of the Tri-Council Policy Statement: Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans – TCPS 2 (Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, and Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, 2022). The TCPS 2: 2022 Course on Research Ethics (CORE) tutorial includes eight models focusing on topics from the TCPS 2: 2022 that are applicable to all research across discipline and methodology.

When students have successfully completed the CORE 2022 tutorial, they will receive a certificate of completion from the website. Upload a copy of the certificate to the assignment module in Moodle and completion marks will be given for this assignment.

Assignment 5) Literature Review

The purpose of this assignment is to give graduate students an opportunity to apply their skills in conducting a literature search and organizing the search results by specific categories. This assignment will benefit course participants in preparation for the literature review component of a research study by becoming aware of potential literature in a field of interest. Students will be provided with a suggested procedure to follow to engage in a literature search, however, students will choose their own research topics to pursue.

The rubric to assess this assignment will be available to students in the learning management system (LMS). Upon completion of this assignment, students upload it to the LMS.

Assignment 6) Presentation of In-Progress Research Proposals

Graduate students will briefly share the in-progress versions of their research proposals with colleagues and instructor, by describing their topics and how their research formulations have been developing so far. These in-progress reports are conversations with the class about topics, initial searches, guiding questions, research approaches, along with describing the significance and importance of the study. Students choose a form of digital media, for example, MS-Power Point, Google Slides, Prezi, Powtoon, Slide Share (or another type of presentation means that students are familiar with) and develop an overview of their research topics providing details from the sections of their research proposals. The major benefits of these presentations are for colleagues and course instructor to provide comments and suggestions to each graduate student to help align and further the work needed for Assignment 7) Research Proposal.

Students will add a new topic to the discussion forum and upload their presentations (document or URL). Students read the responses from other graduate students and respond to two of the postings. Reazon Systems’ (2015) online presentation rubric will be utilized to assess the assignments.

Note: Structuring students’ responses with Digital #PowerUps: Hashtags to empower higher-order student engagement in online discussions (University of Central Florida, 2020) may provide more variety for the participants.

Assignment 7) Research Proposal

The purpose of this assignment is to support graduate students as they apply their learning from this research course to refine and rationalize a researchable problem after having reflected on a topic of interest and conducting a literature review. This assignment will benefit graduate students by providing an opportunity to formally plan a research project.

As a starting point for Assignments 6 and 7, continue with the same area of research interest that was used for Assignment 5) Literature Review and develop the area further. One possible framework for this assignment is to create the following sections in the proposal.

Title Page

Table of Contents (optional)

Introduction

Statement of Research Problem

Definition of Terms

Literature Review (Add the edited version of your Assignment 5 here.)

Research Approach

Specific Research Questions

Description of the Research Method

Ethical Considerations

Research Participants, Sample Size, Research Sites, Time Frame.

Discussion

Significance of Your Study

References

Appendices (draft versions of surveys, interview questions, etc.)

The rubric to assess this assignment will be available to students in the learning management system (LMS). Upon completion of this assignment, students upload it to the LMS.

Appendix B: Assignment Handout

Assignment 2: Participation in Discussions (Twitter)

Weighting:  5%

Due date:

The purpose of this assignment is for graduate students to use Twitter to interact with each other, along with educators, innovators, researchers, and leaders in education and research. The tweets to the instructor and colleagues in this class should include information sources that you consider interesting and relevant for the further development of your research interests and for the introductory study of research in education. In your tweets, include text along with links, images, and video. During the two-week time frame for this assignment, sending eight to ten tweets each week will serve as a requirement.

Your instructor will provide the hashtag to use for this assignment. The rubric to assess this course requirement has been included at the end of this document.

Twitter Tutorials

If you are not familiar with Twitter, access the Help Center (Twitter, 2023), then click Using Twitter. Select a few of the introductory tutorials and read documentation that addresses how to use Twitter.

Other Activities

• Go to Twitter’s Help Center, then scroll down to the Search and Trends section.
• Use the search feature in Twitter to locate resources (for example, people, organizations, documents) to support the development of your research interests.
• Locate four or five resources to further the development of your research topics and share with our group’s hashtag.
• In her blog post, Meyer (2018) advises academics to use Twitter to help keep them up to date in their fields and to share research. Consider how academics promoting their research could be of assistance to you in the pursuit of your topics of interest?
• Find three or four researchers in your areas of interest and follow them. Share your findings by way of our group’s hashtag.
• If time permits, explore some of Twitter’s other features and capabilities.

Assessment Rubric (Franker, 2018)

Appendix C:  Assignment Handout

Assignment 3: Reflections on Research – Discussion Forum

Weighting:  10%

Due date:

The purpose of this assignment is for graduate students to follow-up on one of their tweets and to inquire where the information originated. Pick one tweet that you encountered during the two-week time frame for the Participation in Discussions (Twitter) assignment. The topic of the chosen tweet should be examined using STAR* evaluation that involves the following questions (Townsend et al., 2020). Create your assessment in a separate document and formulate your assignment within the 550 to 600-word range.

1) Source

• Who is the author? Are they reputable? What are their qualifications?
• Do they provide unbiased and factual information?

Read Laterally

• • Reading laterally means opening up new search tabs to search the person or organization to confirm legitimacy.

2) Timeliness

• When was it published?
• Does this matter to your assignment?

Is the Information up to Date?

• • It is important to use up to date information, meaning that it was recently published and that they used current information for sources.
  • Not all websites have this information clearly stated, so be cautious about relying too heavily on online resources.

3) Accuracy

• Are there errors?
• Can you verify their references?

Consider the Sources

• • Find the original information and evaluate it for yourself.
  • What conclusions do you come to on your own?

Check Previous Work

• • Look to see what other credible sources say about the topic so you see the whole picture.

4) Relevance

• Does the information meet your assignment’s requirements?
• Does it answer the question?

5) * (This is the asterisk from STAR*)

• How does it make you feel?

Check Your Emotions

• • A lot of online information is meant to provoke and inflame our emotions.
  • Emotions can impair our ability to think critically, so check in with yourself to see how you are feeling. Angry? Disgusted? Irritated? Pause and reflect.

Do you plan to use this information source as part of your literature review assignment? Briefly explain.

Once you have completed your assessment, access this assignment’s discussion forum, add a new discussion topic, and paste your assessment in the new post. Initial postings are due Friday by 11:55 p.m. and responses to colleagues are due Sunday by 11:55 p.m. (These responses will be considerably shorter compared to your initial posting.)

Assessment Rubric (Fray, 2006)