Learning Outcomes for this Module 

• LO2: Critically assess information sources in pursuit of various purposes.
• LO3: Ask thoughtful questions.  
• LO5: Annotate and cite information sources accurately and ethically.
• LO6: Reflect upon your own research process. 

Tools

Note to instructors

We update the linked articles in Part 4 to keep current with the news cycle. The articles linked here are from the Spring 2025 semester.

Additionally, for Part 4 we ask student to use skills from the Understanding URLs module.

How to Credit Us

Except where otherwise noted, the lesson plans on this site are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International license. 

To credit us for this module/lesson plan, cite the following: 

Newman, J., Ward, S.K.L. (2025, July 14). Evaluating Sources Part 1 – fact-checking. LIBR 100 OER. https://lib100oer.commons.gc.cuny.edu/2025/07/14/evaluating-sources-part-1-fact-checking/

Evaluating Sources Part 1: Fact-Checking

“credibility” by flickr user Bob May, https://flic.kr/p/ruugue

Module Introduction

For this module, we will work evaluating sources, including into fact-checking habits that you can use every day, as it’s getting harder every week to separate fact from fiction in the news cycle. This module consists of the following activities:

1. Watch the embedded videos (I also included the links to YouTube in case you can’t watch them here)
2. Read a chapter from Web Literacy for Student Fact-Checkers
3. Gut- and Fact-checking Padlet Post (4 points)
4. Going upstream and evaluation Padlet (6 points)

Part 1 – Online Verification Skills

Watch the following videos. There are four that will play in order embedded below, and one additional video embedded under that. If you can’t get the embedded media to play, here’s a link to the YouTube playlist for the first four: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLsSbsdukQ8VYy88IiSJhz4NyBxxtLzsNr

One more video/skill – check the claim & find better coverage. This was clearly done during peak Covid, but the shortcut skill he demonstrates in this video is useful.

Part 2 – Check Your Emotions

Read the following chapter, “Building a Fact-Checking Habit by Checking Your Emotions,” from the online book Web Literacy for Student Fact-Checkers by Mike Caulfield: https://pressbooks.pub/webliteracy/chapter/building-a-habit-by-checking-your-emotions/

The above book is full of great tips and information for you as you are searching for materials online, so I urge you to read more than just the one chapter if you find it interesting: https://pressbooks.pub/webliteracy/

Part 3 – Gut- and Fact-Checking (4 points)

1. Find a story or post online, via any social media platform (TikTok, Instagram, X, etc) that you think is intended to provoke an emotional reaction. We’ve all seen these types of “clickbait” stories. Social media is full of them!
2. Check your emotions.
3. Fact-check the claim(s) made in the story by reading laterally (move off the site in question and search what others say about it), Google the claim, and/or use a fact-checking site like Snopes.com, factcheck.org, or politifact.com.
4. Finally, share the post on Padlet and write up briefly (1-2 sentences) what you learned about your news story. If you are unable to find anything on the fact-checking sites or via a Google search, that is important information as well – we want to know that you tried and what you did or did not find out.

Be sure to include your name on the post!

Direct link to Padlet.

Part 4 – Going Upstream and Evaluation (6 points)

Choose one of the following links to investigate: 

• America’s Fractured Trust in Science, Explained in 3 Charts
• Get DEI Out of STEM
• U.S. imports surged to record heights as consumers stocked up ahead of tariffs
• Where Will TikTok Refugees Seek Asylum?
• “Green Computing” and Woke AI Is a Gift to China
• The Most Expensive Judicial Election Ever

Then create a Padlet post under the source you chose. Briefly describe your process, what you noticed, and what you learned, addressing ALL of the questions below. This is a deeper investigation than we’ve asked you to do before, so please read and respond to all the prompts.

1. Decode the URL using the skills you learned in Understanding URLs.
2. Visit the link and observe what you can about the source.
   • Is the organization in the URL the original source of the reporting?
   • If not, where was this story originally reported?
   • What sources did the author(s) draw on for this story?
3. Read laterally, by using the Wikipedia trick for the source as you did earlier, but look a little deeper. Go beyond Wikipedia and see what else you can learn about the source of the information.
   • What can you identify about the news organization? Is the organization named in the URL the original source of the reporting?
4. Then “go upstream” to find original sources of content reported on in these stories. They all should have links out to other sources/content.
5. What can you infer about this source from all the parts of your investigation? In what context(s) might this source be useful?

Link to Padlet

Learning Outcomes for this Module 

• LO3: Ask thoughtful questions.  
• LO4: Turn questions into strategies for retrieving a variety of information sources.
• LO5: Annotate and cite information sources accurately and ethically.
• LO6: Reflect upon your own research process. 

Tools

Note to instructors

The “how-to” videos are specific to our Libraries’ search tool, OneSearch. We left them in as placeholders for this module but of course we expect that you will replace them with content relevant to your institution.

How to Credit Us

Except where otherwise noted, the lesson plans on this site are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International license. 

To credit us for this module/lesson plan, cite the following: 

Newman, J., Ward, S.K.L. (2025, July 14). Search Strategies 2. LIBR 100 OER. https://lib100oer.commons.gc.cuny.edu/2025/07/14/search-strategies-2/

Search Strategies 2

Module Introduction

In Reading Strategies you considered how you might approach different types of sources as a reader and researcher. In Search Strategies 1, you practiced asking questions and developing keywords from sources you’ve read. Here in Search Strategies 2, we’ll be combining some of these concepts. You’ll be using the keywords you identified to help you find different types of information, using OneSearch, a search engine that looks through material at the Hunter College Libraries.

This module consists of the following parts:

1. Finding Reference Sources Using OneSearch (Video)
2. Finding News Sources Using OneSearch & Your Free Newspaper Accounts (Video)
3. Finding Journal Articles Using OneSearch
4. Search for Different Source Types & Share Your Results (Blog post – 10 points)

Part 1 – Finding Reference Sources Using OneSearch

Watch the following video (2 minutes, 10 seconds).

Part 2 – Finding News Sources…

Part 2.a … Using OneSearch

Watch the following video (1 minute, 34 seconds)

Part 2.b. … Using Newspaper Websites

Claim your free newspaper accounts!

Hunter students can claim three free online subscriptions with a valid Hunter email address: The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the Financial Times (London). By claiming your accounts, you gain access to both of these major newspapers directly though their websites without having to go through the Hunter Libraries site. No more paywalls for you while you’re a student!

1. New York Times: NYTimes.com/passes
2. Wall Street Journal: www.wsj.com/Hunter
3. Financial Times: www.ftt/hunter

You can use the search function on each newspaper’s website to search for relevant content.

Part 3 – Finding Journal Articles Using OneSearch

To filter your results to only material published in peer-reviewed journals, you can use the filter “Peer-Reviewed Journals” under the “Limit To” heading. This filter is circled in green in the following image. Note: filtering to “peer-reviewed journals” will eliminate all other source types (like news sources, reference sources, books, videos) from your search. You should only use this filter when the only sources you want are journal articles.

Part 4 – Search for Different Source Types & Share Your Results (blog post – 10 points)

Search Instructions

• Find your post from Search Strategies 1 and look up the research question and keywords you developed, OR use a research question and keywords you developed for a class.
• Using your keywords, search for one of each of the following source types using OneSearch (or your newspaper accounts for the news source). Use only one keyword a time when you search.
  • reference entry
  • news source
  • journal article

Blog Post Instructions

• Create a post on our site using your name in the title like this “Your Name – Search Strategies 2”, then respond to the questions below in your post.

Questions to answer in your blog post

1. What is your research question?
2. What 3 sources did you find? For each source include the following information:
   • An APA-style citation – see samples below. (You will have 3 total citations: 1 reference entry, 1 news article, 1 journal article. If you use a citation generator please make sure your citation is complete – there should be enough information for someone else to find your source again, including a permanent link)
   • What word(s) did you enter into the search box? Please be specific and include all the words you used in your search, exactly as you entered them.
   • What filter(s) did you use?
   • How could this source contribute to your understanding of the topic or help you answer your research question?
3. What is one thing you learned doing this activity, OR one thing that remains unclear to you?

APA style samples

Your citation must include all the information needed to find the source again. Use the APA style site for reference: https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/references/examples

AuthorLastName, AuthorFirstInitial. (date, or n.d. if no date is available). Entry or article title. Title of the publication. permanent link (if available)

News article:

Carey, B. (2019, March 22). Can we get better at forgetting? The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/22/health/memory-forgetting-psychology.html

Reference entry:

American Psychological Association. (n.d.). Just-world hypothesis. In APA dictionary of psychology. Retrieved January 18, 2020, from https://dictionary.apa.org/just-world-hypothesis

Learning outcomes for this module

• LO3: Ask thoughtful questions.
• LO4: Turn questions into strategies for retrieving a variety of information sources.

Tools

How to Credit Us

Except where otherwise noted, the lesson plans on this site are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International license. 

To credit us for this module/lesson plan, cite the following: 

Newman, J., Ward, S.K.L. (2025, July 10). Search Strategies 1. LIBR 100 OER. https://lib100oer.commons.gc.cuny.edu/2025/07/10/search-strategies-1/

Search Strategies 1

Module Introduction

For this module, we use the sources we looked at in Reading Strategies to generate questions and keywords to search for more information 

We frequently encounter students who think they must come up with their search terms (keywords) all on their own. In reality, most researchers use sources they have already read to find more related sources. This strategy works when you have assigned readings for a class, or when you encounter a news story or social media post you’re curious about. 

The module consists of the following parts: 

• Padlet for asking questions – 2 activities (3 points)
• Padlet for identifying keywords/search terms from the actual readings (3 points)
• Blog post: developing a preliminary search plan (4 points)

Part 1: Asking Questions Padlet (3 points)

There are four questions on the Padlet below that relate to the sources you read in Reading Strategies. There are two activities below that we are asking you to post on this Padlet. Be sure to do both to get full credit for this module.

Part 1.1 – Asking sub-questions

A sub-question is a question you’d need to explore or answer in order to form your answer or understand some aspect of the larger question/topic. Use the four main questions on this Padlet as a starting point for asking sub-questions.

Activity:

• Write and post 2 sub-questions on this Padlet under any of the main questions you choose. Be sure to include your name on your posts for credit.

Link to Padlet

4.1.2 – Identifying Open and Closed-Ended Questions

Different types of questions can be used for different purposes in research and in life. Questions are often categorized as open-ended or closed-ended questions.

A former student offered this explanation of the main difference between open- and closed-ended questions:

Closed-ended questions are for when you want an answer. Open-ended questions are for when you want to start a conversation. – Dezwon, LIBR 100 student, Spring 2020

Sometimes we need an answer; sometimes we need to explore and engage in conversation. Some questions don’t fit into either category and instead fall somewhere in between. A few things to look for:

• Closed-ended questions often have a single answer, or they can be answered with a single source of information
• Open-ended questions often require a complex or nuanced answer, or may require engaging with multiple sources of information

Activity:

• Identify one open-ended question and one closed-ended question by commenting under the relevant Padlet post. They can be your own questions or a classmate’s questions. Be sure to include your name in your comments for credit.

Part 2: Using readings and questions to identify keywords (3 points)

Now we are going to use your questions and the related readings to identify keywords to search for new information. The Padlet below has sections for each of the readings from Module 3.

For this activity, choose one reading and pick out just one or two new keywords (with no “repeats”). Remember that we are talking about strategies here, so use the readings to identify these new keywords.

Post your keywords (be sure to include your name) under the reading you chose. You can drag/drop your post under the correct reading if it appears in a different location.

Link to Padlet

4.3: Developing a preliminary strategy (4 points)

Choose a question from the Part 1 Padlet you are interested in – this can be one of the top-level questions, or any of the sub-questions. Select several keywords related to that question that you want to test out. These can be keywords from the Part 2 Padlet, or new ones that you come up with. Identify what kinds of information you want to find that will help you explore this question.

Write a blog post titled “Your Name – Search Strategies 1.” The post should include the following information

• The question you chose
• 3-5 keywords that you want to test out to find more information
• What kind of information you think will help you explore/understand more about this topic.

When listing types of information, be specific – don’t say “articles” but tell us what kind of articles: news articles, peer reviewed articles/research studies, magazine articles, etc.