Research Guides: Information Literacy and Technological Agility Shared Competency (ILTA): Outcome 4: Use

Outcome 4: Use

Definition: Use information sources ethically to address information needs.

Indicators	Exemplary	Developing	Emergent	Not Evident
4.1 Credits ideas gathered from sources according to relevant citation styles.	Accurately credits all sources according to guidelines.	Accurately credits sources according to guidelines with minor inaccuracies (e.g., typos, formatting mistakes).	Credits sources but does not follow the guidelines (e.g., incorrect APA format).	Does not credit sources.
4.2 Uses sources are accurately and appropriately to document ideas.	Uses sources to elaborate on student’s own ideas and cites them accurately and appropriately (e.g., synthesis of student’s own ideas are evident).	Sources are paraphrased appropriately and cited but little synthesis of student’s own ideas are evident (e.g., excessive use of direct quotes).	Sources are used inappropriately or inaccurately (e.g., paraphrasing without citation, or patchwriting).	Sources are used with no documentation (e.g., verbatim copying without citation).

Common Artifacts, Activities, and Tools: Citation tutorials; Copyright; Academic integrity; Paying for information when needed; Conflict of interest; Intellectual property; Bibliographies; In-text citations; Source analysis

Sample Activities for this Outcome

The 3 P's: Population, Place, Problem
This is a fun, hands-on activity that can help with brainstorming a topic and/or reserach question. Can also function as an ice-breaker! The results can be informative...and also sometimes entertaining!
Citation Relay Race
20-30 minute activity for students to practice citing material in a specific citation style. Can be adapted for any citation style.
Collecting & Citing Sources
Keeping track of all your sources can be frustrating and overwhelming—but with a little bit of organization, managing sources can be a breeze! In this activity, students will learn how to auto-generate a bibliography in virtually any citation style, keep track of sources, and more! This workshop will show how Zotero can help save and organize research sources.
Evaluating, Summarizing, Annotating, Citing, and Synthesizing
This exercise offers students a list of curated links that they will use to complete an assigned project on green roofs. Students must evaluate, summarize, annotate, cite, and synthezize the materials in a completed document containing an ultimate recommendation for a course of action.
Integrating Citations
Now that you've done your research, it's time to cite your sources. We sampled several academic papers to show you a variety of ways you can integrate your sources into your own writing. In these examples, we followed the APA style guidelines. Use these strategies to diversify your writing and show your readers how your sources contributed to your work!
Plagiarism
In this lesson, students will learn the value of information and how to avoid plagiarism in their own work.
Quote Tracing Activity
The purpose of this activity is to recognize how a quote can be taken out of context in subtle (and overt) ways. The goal is to locate a quote within a news article and trace it through multiple layers of context to discover how journalists’ interpretations of quotes impact our understanding of actual events and news.
Research Now! Research Log
Developed for the University of Connecticut's "Research Now!" online curriculum. This research log is designed as a general-level tool for any class with a research component, and to be modified for specific classes.
STEM Honors Citations and Bibliographies Class Activities
Students will receive a demonstration of the relationship between their reference list and their in-text citations. Students will see examples of how to better integrate citations into their writing, including examples of paraphrasing, summarizing, and incorporating multiple sources or switches among sources.