Systematic review(ish) assignments

Building effective evidence synthesis researchers through targeted learning objectives and assignments

Abstract

Faculty use research projects as classroom assignments to develop students’ skills as researchers, but for systematic review project assignments, this often results in substantial workloads for librarians beyond the classroom. We sought to answer how librarians can help students gain classroom experience in evidence synthesis without compromising research integrity by developing a librarian-led workshop for faculty on aligning their student learning goals to scaffolded, “systematic review-ish” assignments. Our goal is to proactively improve the learning experience for students while encouraging more accurate recognition of the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary for evidence synthesis. This brief report explains the development of the "SR-ish" assignments workshop and how to locate and contribute to the project to support both faculty instruction and student success at your institution. All project materials, including the workshop slides, activities and assessments, sharable assignment templates, and a wiki, are available on Open Science Framework (see Additional Resources) for others to adapt or adopt to their own institutional contexts.