Research Guides: Information Literacy: Understanding the Research Process

Understanding the Research Process Student Learning Outcomes

Students will demonstrate their understanding of the research process by:

Recognizing research as an iterative process and that as sources are found and analyzed the research question(s) may change
Understanding the role information plays in supporting arguments and determining solutions
Formulating research questions and determining an appropriate scope of investigation
Identifying multiple perspectives and viewpoints within the scholarly conversation
Synthesizing and applying ideas, data, viewpoints, information, etc. gleaned from multiple sources

Drawing the Research Process
This lesson asks students to create their own visual representations of the research process and introduces them to the idea of research as a circular process rather than linear.
Narrowing a Topic
This lesson teaches students how to use library databases and keywords in order to focus their research topics.
Using Scholarly Sources (Synthesizing Sources) by Brianne Markowski
This lesson plan allows student to practice reading scholarly articles and synthesizing what they've found in their research so far.
Teaching Synthesis Through Anti-Synthesis by Karen Craigo
This lesson plan outlines ways to discuss the process of synthesizing scholarly sources with students by highlighting common examples of student attempts at synthesis and explaining why they don't quite work.

Developing a Research Question | Arizona State University
This online tutorial walks students through developing a research question and includes ungraded activities (transcript available).
PICO: Research Questions for Health Sciences | Arizona State University
This tutorial introduces health sciences students to the PICO framework for formulating their research questions through ungraded activities (transcript available).
Analyze Your Research Strategy | Portland State University
This 25 minute tutorial for undergraduates walks through the research process and helps students develop their research strategies, including developing keywords, narrowing and broadening a topic, and selecting evidence.
From Topic to Research Question | St. Kate's
This tutorial outlines the process of developing a research question about a topic.
How Scholarly Articles Are Published (Or, What Binge Watching Can Tell You About Academic Research) | CSU Northridge
This blog post from CSU Northridge that uses TV series ecosystem to explain academic publishing.