Resources for First Year & Transfer Seminar (UNI 101/201) INSTRUCTORS

Welcome UNI instructors!  On this page, you will find everything you need to help your FYS students with library and information literacy resources.

(Looking for HON 110? Visit the new HON 110 resource page.)

Jump to:  

• What do I (the instructor) have to do?  
• What are the FYS Library Components? 
• Where do I find the materials?
• Optional Library Offerings
• Questions?

Beginning in the Fall of 2023, UNI 101 & 201 classes will use a series of 4 information literacy lesson plans. These lessons, developed by UNCW Library faculty experts in information literacy, instructional designers, and veteran UNI instructors, are mandatory for all UNI 101/201 instructors. It replaces the previous information literacy lesson plan. You will be delivering this content in your course. Although this is a lot of content, all of the materials are prepared for you – you just need to set aside your 4 class periods to deliver them!

We have included information for you, as the instructor, to understand what content should be covered in this lesson, why this is the content we are asking you to cover, and when this content should be delivered. We highly encourage you to schedule these lesson in conjunction with their group project assignment and complete them within a month, as the content should help your students with the confidence and skills for their research. While we also encourage you to make this lesson your own, using your own style, the core concepts and learning outcomes should remain the same.

These lessons will walk students through the research process up to the point where they would start writing a paper, but the research paper is no longer a required element of UNI 101 or 201. Students who are concurrently enrolled in Writing Intensive courses may find the scaffolded approach to research useful in applying to other classes, so you may wish to consider offering flexibility in assignment topics.

Questions? Email Brittany O’Neill, Information Literacy Librarian at UNCW Library at oneillb@uncw.edu.

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What do I (the instructor) have to do?

Below is a breakdown of the steps you must complete in order to integrate the library components into your class. 

Early in the semester: Schedule your 4 information literacy lesson plans and assign the pre- and post- class assignments in Canvas before and after those class sessions.

1. Deliver lesson #1, Inquire & Explore.
2. Deliver lesson #2, Examine.
3. Deliver lesson #3, Identify & Analyze.
4. Deliver lesson #4, Citations & Plagiarism.
5. Assign your students the Research Reflection in Canvas.

What are the FYS Library Components?

1) INFORMATION LITERACY LESSON PLAN

For Fall 2024, there are 4 updated plans created for you by librarians, instructional designers, and UNI instructors. Each lesson plan includes:

1. Pre-class assignments for students to complete ahead of the session
2. A small group activity with worksheets
3. A large group discussion
4. A mini-lecture
5. A slide deck to accompany the lesson plan
6. Post-class homework assignments
7. Options for asynchronous online classes.

The lesson plans cover each step of the research process and are carefully scaffolded to build on one another and enable student learning. The lesson plan topics are:

1. Inquire & Explore: developing research questions, building effective search strategies, and learning to navigate library resources

2. Examine: evaluating information, exploring popular sources, and fact-checking the web (this is the updated version of last year’s lesson plan)

3. Identify & Analyze: exploring scholarly sources, identifying what’s important in a scholarly article, and understanding peer-review

4. Citations & Plagiarism: understanding scholarly conversations, practicing citations, and avoiding plagiarism

There is no longer face-to-face information literacy instruction for UNI courses. Please refer to the list of supplemental offerings at the bottom of this page for other opportunities to connect your students with the library and librarians.

2) FINAL INFORMATION LITERACY RESEARCH REFLECTION

A final homework assignment (linked below) that asks students to reflect critically on their research process as they complete the final module or finish a research project. After completing this reflection, students will be cognizant of...

• which types of sources they used and why.
• how the information they found was used in their project.
• how they would change their research process in the future.

We recommend that you assign this reflection after students complete the Citations & Plagiarism module, or if you are connecting their research to their group projects, after they have completed their presentations.

• Research Reflection Assignment

Where do I find the materials?

All of the materials are created for you. To facilitate easier location of materials, they are centralized in two places, based on audience:

• Instructor-facing documents, such as the facilitator guides and lesson plans, are in UNI Instructor Resources on Teams (see 2024-2025 Information Literacy Lesson Plans, and contact Kelsey Axe if you have questions about access to Teams.) Not affiliated with UNI but still want to see the lesson plans? You can find the most up-to-date materials by searching for "Explore. Prepare. Succeed." in the Canvas Commons. If your campus does not use Canvas, this link will give you access, although may not be updated as frequently.
• Student-facing materials, such as the pre- and post-class homework and slides, are now integrated directly into your online textbook in Canvas. You will see them at the end of the book under ‘Information Literacy Portfolio.’ The textbook can be found in Canvas Commons by searching for the book by title: “Explore. Prepare. Succeed."

If you're not finding something, or want to know how best to deliver these lessons in your class, reach out to Brittany O'Neill, Information Literacy Librarian - don't hesitate to ask questions!   

Optional Library Offerings

Library Resources Guide

• A subject guide is available to offer additional tips and resources for students in First-Year Seminar courses as they complete their information literacy portfolios. The guide also includes teaching resources for instructors! You can find this linked directly in your UNI Canvas course in the Library Resources tab of your course navigation, or by clicking the 'Find Subject Guides' button on the library's homepage.

Journal Prompts

• Two optional journal prompts you can assign to your students to scaffold information literacy throughout the research process.

DIY IL in-class activities

• A collection of individual in-class activities that cover different aspects of information literacy, designed to be inserted into your course syllabus wherever they would be most relevant

Plagiarism tutorial

• An asynchronous plagiarism & citation tutorial from UNCW Library and UNCW DEeL

Media literacy tutorial

• An asynchronous "fake news" and media literacy tutorial from UNCW Library

MLA and APA Canvas modules

• APA Crash Course in Canvas - 7th Ed.
• MLA Crash Course in Canvas - 9th Ed. 

UNCW Library Tours

• A new, interactive virtual tour is included in the Inquire & Explore module in Canvas. If you would like your students to tour UNCW Library, we are providing a script for instructors to guide their students through the spaces, resources, and services that are most relevant to them. If you have a Seahawk LINK, please have them deliver the tour as we have found students share valuable insight into how they use the library! Library staff-led tours for individual tours are currently on pause, but please feel free to send students on a tour as part of 30 Days of Discovery until September 25.
  • First-Year Seminar Tour Script

Questions?

Contact Brittany O'Neill, Information Literacy Librarian, at oneillb@uncw.edu.