Process Within a Discipline - Guidelines for Instructor

Step 1: Instructor Reflection

Reflect on various ways information is disseminated in your discipline, both formally (conference presentations, scholarship), informally (social media, chats with colleagues), and in between (university public relations statements, journalism). If you are able, think of an area of scholarship, concept, or method within your field that you recently learned about and how you learned about it.

Step 2: Class Discussion

Hold a class discussion about different ways information is disseminated in your discipline, bringing in your reflection from step 1. Talk about why different information might be disseminated in different ways.

Step 3: Intention

Intention Prompt for Students

Think about your class discussion on information dissemination in [discipline] and [topic X in step 4 below]. What are some places you might look for information on this topic? Why? What would you expect to see from the types of sources you’ve identified?

Step 4: Applied learning exercise in which you ask students to locate information on a topic of your choosing within your discipline. You can decide whether to leave the format open-ended (e.g. allow them to search social media or news sources or scholarship) or whether you would like them to locate specific types of information.

Step 4: Reflection

Reflection Prompt for Students

How and where did you locate the information on [topic X]? Why was it formatted in the way it was? What purpose was this information intended to serve?

Potential Student Learning Outcomes:

Students will be able to identify different ways in which information in [discipline] is disseminated.
Students will understand some of the reasons behind why researchers and writers in [discipline] might choose to disseminate information in various ways.