Professional Development

Research Guides

Librarians serving on the communities of practice designed research guides for faculty to learn more about the competencies in relation to designing assignments and courses. Each research guide contains information about the competency, books/articles/databases aligned to the competency, and assignment/activities aligned to each competency learning outcome that faculty could use in class.

Ethics and Integrity Research Guide

Critical and Creative Thinking Research Guide

Scientific Inquiry and Research Skills Research Guide

Civic and Global Responsibility Research Guide

Information Literacy and Technological Agility Research Guide

Class Activity Examples

Communication Skills

  • Pre-Writing Context Analysis Worksheet
    This worksheet guides students to consider their audience, purpose, genre, and special circumstances before writing or speaking, fostering strategic communication planning.
  • Situational Analysis Worksheet
    Students assess various communication situations by examining audience, purpose, content, role, tone, organizational context, cultural context, medium, and constraints, promoting effective communication strategy development.
  • Communication Breakdown Exercise
    Students explore common communication breakdowns and develop strategies to overcome them, improving their adaptability in various communication situations.
  • Audience Analysis Worksheet
    This worksheet guides students in analyzing audience demographics and psychographics to inform their communication strategies, ensuring messages are effectively tailored.
  • Communicating an Idea Effectively
    This handout lists three key features of a well-explained idea and strategies for building these into one’s communication.

  • Inclusive Language Worksheet (Page 3, Activity #1)
    Students identify and revise examples of gendered or discriminatory language, fostering awareness and application of inclusive communication practices.
  • Building Awareness Around Language and Inclusive Communication (Page 3, Activity #2)
    Through reflection and discussion, students examine the impact of language on inclusivity, enhancing their ability to communicate responsibly.
  • Tips for Inclusive Communication Handout
    This handout provides guidelines for engaging in inclusive conversations, encouraging students to practice respectful and inclusive communication.
  • Finding Reliable Communication Sources: Worksheet
    This worksheet prompts students to differentiate between primary and secondary information sources, recognize implicit bias, and critically assess the reliability of various sources. It encourages reflection on personal experiences with unreliable information and strategies to identify trustworthy resources.
  • Evaluating Communication Sources: The Matrix
    Students analyze different types of information sources—such as scholarly articles, news pieces, and social media posts—using a matrix that assesses relevance, timeliness, and authority. This comparative approach helps students discern the most credible sources for their research needs.
  • Evaluating Sources of Information
    This activity presents a checklist that prompts students to examine the creator, content, and context of a source. Questions focus on the author's credentials, the balance and accuracy of the information, and the purpose of the message, fostering critical evaluation skills.

  • Trading Places Worksheet
    The Trading Places worksheet takes your student through 10 steps to help them imagine a situation from another’s perspective. These steps can be especially useful when a client is struggling to move forward following a disagreement with someone in their life.
  • Choosing Communication Channels Worksheet
    Students assess various communication channels and match them to specific audiences and messages, developing skills in selecting appropriate mediums.
  • Listening Accurately Worksheet
    This handout presents five simple steps to facilitate accurate listening and can help establish some basics for training in effective communication.
  • Making Eye Contact Exercise
    This exercise is a fun way to kick off a group training day by warming up people’s non-verbal communication skills.
  • Active Listening: Small Group Activity
    In this structured exercise, students engage in group discussions where one person speaks on a topic while others practice attentive listening. Participants then ask follow-up questions or provide comments, promoting active listening and information gathering skills.
  • Just Listen Exercise
    Students participate in an activity where they focus solely on listening without interrupting, enhancing their ability to gather information and understand the speaker's message fully.
  • How to Improve Communication in Relationships: 7 Essential Skills
    This simple leaflet details seven approaches and frameworks to better understand how we communicate and develop our skills in relating to others.
  • Communication Styles Identify Questionnaire
    This questionnaire helps students identify their preferred communication styles and provides insights into how different styles can be effective or ineffective depending on the situation and audience.
  • Communication Styles Identify Self-Assessment
    Through self-assessment, students identify their communication styles and learn how to adapt them to different contexts and audiences.
  • 500 Years Ago
    In this worksheet, students attempt to describe modern-day phenomena to their partner, who pretends they have no knowledge of the modern world because they are from long in the past. In each round, the speaker must practice empathic communication and perspective taking by tailoring their language to their old-timey listener.

  • Providing Effective Feedback Checklist
    Students learn to give and receive feedback constructively using a structured checklist, enhancing their responsive communication skills.
  • Feedback Practice Activity
    This is a activity to help you give an overview of effective and ineffective feedback the activity is helpful in practicing giving effective feedback.
  • The Communication Effectiveness Profile
    This 84-item inventory provides a comprehensive assessment of seven factors contributing to good or bad communication, including empathizing and the ability to read nonverbal cues.
  • Communication Skills Performance Review Phrases
    Students examine various feedback phrases used in performance reviews, learning to interpret and apply feedback effectively.