“Getting Started” Modules

Understanding the Assignment 

What can this module teach your students? 

This module will prompt your students to reflect on the general requirements of assignments in a university context, including purpose and audience. It introduces your students to different assignment types and their corresponding signal words. It also fosters an appreciation of different disciplinary contexts. 

Tips on using this module in the context of your course 

Assign this module at the point in the course where you introduce your own assignment. It can be useful to explain to students how your assignment fosters your course goals. Encourage students to reflect on the questions asked in this module about assignment requirements and formats – for example, assignment details (length, citation style), research expectations and grading. Ask them to apply their answers to your course’s assignment requirements, so that they may plan their work effectively. Provide any disciplinary context of relevance to assignment requirements – for example, how your assignment requirements are affected by disciplinary norms.

Time Management 

What can this module teach your students? 

This module will help your students to develop techniques for managing their time effectively to complete your assignments. This includes setting priorities, identifying major phases for assignment task preparation, strategies for overcoming procrastination, and creating a realistic schedule. 

Tips on using this module in the context of your course 

Without guidance, students tend to severely underestimate the need to plan from an early stage. You need to give them time to prioritize, draft a realistic personalized academic schedule, and grasp the concept of applying an assignment checklist. While time required for completing readings and doing assignments clearly varies, in almost any course context it’s a good idea to introduce this module early, either in the first or second week of classes, and to revisit core concepts throughout the term. In conjunction with assigning this module, give students guidelines of how much time you expect them to spend on course readings and assignments outside of class-time, while being realistic about current students’ typical academic, personal and work obligations.

Choosing a Topic 

What can this module teach your students? 

This module will guide your students on how to develop a topic for a research assignment. More specifically, they will learn how to develop a working thesis statement, to explore connections between their personal interests and topic choices, strategies for narrowing, broadening or revising topics, and how to conduct background research to help arrive at a final manageable topic choice. 

Tips on using this module in the context of your course 

Topic formulation is a high-level cognitive task and this module can be assigned to help students come up with their own research topic but can also be used where you introduce a list of broad topics and want students to choose a more specific, narrower focus. This module outlines lots of aspects of the topic formulation process that you, as disciplinary expert, can usefully model or workshop for your students by, for example, working through facets of a broad topic. It is recommended that this module should be assigned well in advance of assignment due dates, but after students have completed the “Understanding the Assignment” and “Time Management” modules, as they will benefit from placing this module content in the broader context of assignment planning. However, given that topics evolve over time, throughout the process of conducting research, revisiting this module can be useful at a variety of points in a course.

Academic Integrity 

What can this module teach your students? 

This module provides information about the York University Senate Policy on Academic Honesty and the broader aspects of academic integrity. It is designed to help your students understand the values, practices, and conventions associated with scholarly work and academic communities. The module assists them to apply the rules and principles of academic integrity to their own work. 

Tips on using this module in the content of your course 

This module can serve as a resource for laying out the rules and procedures associated with academic integrity. In addition, the module is also a good starting point for a discussion about the origins of, and rationale for, academic integrity practices. Because the module considers many different aspects of academic integrity, it would be useful to have a class discussion to identify the particular aspects relevant to your course and assignment. Another useful class discussion would involve reviewing the tips at the end of the module for producing work with integrity – for example, learning time management skills and using on-campus academic support services.

Books, Journals and More

What can this module teach your students?

This module will help your students to understand the characteristic features of different types of information sources for assignment research including books, journals, newspapers, government information, free web resources and more. It provides guidance on choosing appropriate resources for the task at hand, including how to critically evaluate information sources, and tips on when and why to use scholarly versus popular information sources.

Tips on using this module in the context of your course

You should ask that students complete this module when you have an assignment with secondary research expectations. This module should be assigned soon after students have been given topics for research or have developed their own. You might consider showing the short videos on using scholarly books and journals in class and having a discussion afterwards noting any disciplinary nuances of relevance. Take time to explain to students any important aspects of the scholarly information landscape, specific to your discipline and your assignment, which you believe deserve more full explanation than is provided in this module. For example, perhaps you require a good deal of archival research for a history assignment, or the use of specific government documents for a political science assignment. Consider showing discipline-specific information resource examples during class, either in-print or online.