Faculty Toolkit

Brainstorming a Topic by Linda Miles

Learning Objective(s): Students will brainstorm about their research topics and develop promising researchable questions and search terms.

Materials: access to the video (or slides) and worksheet

Time: asynchronous

Video version of the demo:

Slide version of the demo:

Brainstorming a Topic worksheet, video, and slide deck by Linda Miles is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

If students have a topic that is too broad, their attempts to find information about that topic will be frustrating and confusing. 

What Makes an EXCELLENT Research Question (ERQ)? by Linda Miles

Learning Objective(s): Students will evaluate potential research questions according to 5 characteristics, in order to develop a strong research question for their own project.

Materials: copies of an encyclopedia article to hand out (see article document, below); Whiteboard or Smartboard and markers; projector, 5-Characteristics projection (see projection document, below)

Time: a single class period, possibly with a reading/viewing assignment prior

What Makes an EXCELLENT Research Question? by Linda Miles is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

Picking Your Topic IS Research by NC State University Libraries

Learning Objective(s): Students will consider different process models for developing and refining a topic, in order to develop a strong, researchable topic for their own project.

Materials: access to video

Time: 3:10

Contributors: Anne Burke, Kim Duckett, Daria Dorafshar, Mara Mathews, Jason Evans Groth, Andreas Orphanides, Sarah Craig, Jennifer Garrett, Adrienne Lai

Picking Your Topic IS Research is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.