This learning outcome is a little confusing to me. I think this one would be challenging to present to a faculty member as a potential library session topic, unless the subject of the class was social media or communication.

Frame: Scholarship as a Conversation

Outcome: Students will be able to critically evaluate contributions made by others and self in participatory information environments.

Base Time: 5-20 min.

Primary Strategy: The librarian gives students a rubric for evaluating a discussion board and/or comments of their classmates and themselves. This is especially useful if the librarian is teaching the course, but could possibly be done by an embedded librarian.

Additional Strategies:

• Find an article on a platform with commenting features and ask the students to both evaluate 1-2 comments using a rubric and write a draft response (which each student can then choose to post if desired).
• Have a discussion as a class about online etiquette using good and bad examples.

Why this learning outcome is important:

Contributing to conversations among groups of colleagues online is an important skill which requires preparation, practice, and critical thinking skills.

Key Points

• Students should consider themselves contributors to the scholarly conversation.
• Being a contributor to the scholarly conversation comes with responsibilities.
• Contributions of others to the scholarly conversation should be evaluated critically.

Subject-Specific Tailoring

• This could be an opportunity to show students a resource in which scholars from a particular discipline respond to one another.
• Let the faculty member share how she/he contributes to the scholarly conversation and what kind of contributions are considered appropriate.

Real-World Application

Students will continue to contribute to conversations of experts, and they need the skills to contribute thoughtfully and evaluate other contributions critically.

Potential Assessments

• Post evaluation rubrics (to be completed by the students)
• Drafts of comments to be shared on an online platform
• Formative assessment

Use of Technology

• Students could use a rubric to evaluate comments on a VoiceThread lecture or presentation.
• Using a real social media site or a fake one like Twiducate, students could evaluate comments posted, discuss the attribution and dissemination of information in social media, and compose well-constructed social media posts to share.