Research Guides: Information Literacy in the Curriculum: Information Has Value

The Value of Information

Learning Goals

Give credit to the original ideas of others through proper attribution and citation.
Recognize the meaning of intellectual property in the United States.
Understand that intellectual property is a social construct that varies by culture.
Articulate the purpose and distinguishing characteristics of copyright, open access, and public domain.
Know how to find open access materials.
Differentiate between the production of original information and remixing or repurposing open resources.
Manage their online presences responsibly.
Decide where their information, as knowledge creator, should be published.

Assignment Ideas

Provide students with a list of citations and ask them to identify the types of sources represented by the citations (books, chapters, periodical articles, etc).
"Read the References:" ask the students to select a research article and read the articles cited by it. The students are instructed to:
- explain how each article is related to the original article;
- consider under what circumstances it is appropriate to cite other papers;
- differentiate what different purposes the citations serve
Have students track down resources used by other students in their bibliographies. Have students “grade” each other’s works cited page for correct style and completeness of citations (as well as appropriateness of sources cited).
Exercise: Authorship, rights of authors, and responsible use of others' work

The following questions can be discussed in small groups with a summary to follow):
- What or who is the author? What does it mean to create something?
- Are you an author? Name some of the things you have created.
- Suppose your college/program had an essay contest and you won it. You received a certificate and a handshake form the dean of your college. Then you find out that your roommate sent your essay to a magazine essay context with his or her name instead of yours. Your roommate won $5,00 and a spot on a popular TV show. How do you feel about what happened? What can you do about what your roommate did?
- In the scenario above suppose your roommate took only one paragraph of your essay and still won the money and the TV experience. Would you feel any differently?
- In the same scenario suppose your roommate took your ideas, changed the language just a little, and still won the money. Now how would you feel?
- Why is it important to cite sources when writing or doing other kind of research?
(Modified from Burkhardt, J.M., MacDonald, Mary C. (2010). Teaching information literacy: 50 standard-based exercises for college students. Chicago: ALA).

Assessment Ideas

Quizzes and tests to assess the understanding of concepts related to citing sources
How to Recognize Plagiarism: Plagiarism Test (Indiana University Bloomington) - feedback is provided.
Downloadable Plagiarism Quiz in Plagiarism: The Crime of Intellectual Kidnapping (tutorial from San Jose State University)
The Cite is Right - a fun quiz in a game from the Video on Plagiarism (Rutgers University Library)