18 Assignment Guidelines: Validity Checklist Workshop

Assignment Guidelines: Validity Checklist Workshop

In this workshop, you will practice applying the validity criteria on our checklist–Currency, Relevance, Authority, Accuracy, and Purpose–to two resources related to your field of study and its associated professions.

Assignment Guidelines:

1. Perform a quick internet search of your critical inquiry question using key search terms.
2. Select any two resources from the first page of your results that are NOT peer-reviewed, scholarly articles.  (It’s helpful to choose two resources that seem the most straightforward for you to apply the C.R.A.A.P. test to).
   • If you have trouble with this, ask your colleagues, or read this piece from Thought.co. We will see in the coming weeks however, that not all blogs and social media make for bad sources, so think carefully about resources based on the validity checklist.
   • Don’t worry too much about which sources you choose or how well it passes the C.R.A.A.P. test.  The goal is to be able to evaluate the validity of all kinds of information.

3. Write a post in which you provide us with the context for the resources you selected by identifying your field of study and specifying an associated profession if relevant. Explain in two separate sections how you applied the criteria on our validity checklist to determine the validity of each resource. Try to be as thorough as you can with the questions listed under each heading on the checklist. If you’re unable to make a determination about any of the criteria, be sure to explain that, too.

4. Read all of your classmate’s posts to see how others applied the validity criteria.

5. Respond to at least one post. Because this is a practice exercise to prepare for several subsequent assignments, asking a clarifying question or commenting on the effectiveness of an explanation would be helpful responses.

Resource Management Tip: Later in the course, you will be asked to research resources directly related to the focus of your critical inquiry question. You will summarize and categorize these resources in your exploratory essay and include them in your annotated bibliography. As you’re doing this week’s practice assignment, if you find any resources that you think may be relevant to the two later assignments, be sure to save them and categorize them in your personal resource manager (Evernote, Google Keep, or OneNote).