Research establishes the conceptual ground for everything that follows. Students ask initial questions and begin to gather sources that can help answer them. From these early sources, students may begin to trace emerging patterns, identify further questions, and form lines of inquiry that guide the entire project. These early discoveries give story and production their substance.
In Research mode, understanding grows through engagement: reading, listening, annotating, searching, comparing, noticing, and iterating. Through this process questions evolve through exploration and each encounter with evidence shapes what the project may eventually become. Research establishes the project's foundation and remains active throughout every decision students make — returning, with sharper questions, each time story and production reveal something new.
Habits of Thinking
What cognitive or scholarly practices students are developing.
- TraceWhat patterns, tensions, or connections begin to emerge? How does learning more about the topic change the questions being asked?
- InterpretWhat voices, ongoing conversations, and perspectives shape the topic, and which remain unexamined? Which voices have authority on the topic? How does one’s preconceived notions and perspectives influence the search process and sources found?
- ImagineWhat possibilities for story or structure begin to surface through this research? How does knowing the form of the final product (e.g. as a podcast, video, or written piece) impact the value of the evidence discovered?
Strategies for Supporting Research as Inquiry
We collaborate with Research & Instruction librarians, drawing on their expertise in information literacy and their alignment with the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education. Together, we help students explore how search methods, source selection, and evidence use shape the ideas they will later communicate through story and production. As inquiry and form develop in tandem, students begin to experience research as both discovery and design.
- Contact a research librarian to create a tailored instruction session: Schedule a class session with a librarian to build students’ inquiry and information literacy skills through source discovery, evaluation, synthesis, and/or documentation. These sessions lay a strong foundation for story development and production choices later in the course.
- Analyze research in multimodal form: Engage students in examining how relevant podcasts, video essays, and digital stories use questions, evidence, context, and framing. Students connect research habits to multimodal rhetorical practices.
- Practice inquiry through reverse engineering: Invite students to explore existing media and ask, “How is the research working here?” or “What choices shaped this narrative?” Students begin to identify research habits and source patterns that guide their own inquiry.
Guiding Questions
- What assumptions or commonly held ideas shape how this topic is usually understood?
- What tensions, gaps, or emerging patterns appear across sources?
- Which perspectives or voices influence this conversation, and which remain absent?
- What questions feel promising to pursue next?
- How might these discoveries inform the project’s direction, story shape, or communicative form?
Workshop Examples
Workshops provide a structured framework to engage in active learning and exploration. Research & Instruction librarians develop instructional activities for students to move from their individual perspective to complex, evidence-based questions and understandings. Through developing information literacy skills in these sessions, students will be prepared to properly find and interpret varied, balanced, and relevant forms of knowledge and information.
Ideal Source Mapping
Students brainstorm what the ideal set of hypothetical sources would be for their project, based on categories of background, example, argument, and method.
Database Dating
Students do a deep-dive into one of a set of preselected research tools to create its “dating profile,” outlining affordances and limitations and the contexts in which each tool would be compatible with likely research needs.
Source Deck
Given a variety of 3-6 preselected sources related to a timely topic, students examine how each source was created and its relation to facets such as authority, currency, and relevance.
Amazing Library Race
Students race in groups to answer sets of questions about common search tools and strategies for college-level research.
Deconstructing Digital Narratives
Given a set of 4-5 short pre-selected media sources, students in groups examine how each incorporates research and think about what they might need to produce something similar.