Teaching and Learning Services

Integration in the Critical Thinking and Writing (CTW) courses is at the heart of the SCU Library's instruction program.

Each section of CTW 1 and CTW 2 is assigned a librarian, who works with the instructor to design learning opportunities that best support students.

In CTW 1, the library offers a short, interactive tutorial that lays a foundation for first-year students by welcoming them to the library and equipping them with search basics.

In CTW 2, the library provides a second asynchronous tutorial covering more advanced search skills, preparing students for in-person instruction sessions with a librarian that dive deeper into concepts and application. The tutorial is intended to be used with in-course instruction by SCU librarians. Librarians collaborate with faculty to design engaging class visits that support course and assignment learning outcomes.

CTW 1 Tutorial

This interactive tutorial takes about 20 minutes to complete and includes a virtual tour, videos demonstrating basic search strategies, and comprehension check questions. Students may download a certificate of completion.

Contents:

• Hours, location, and access information
• Library events, programming, and core services
• Keyword searching
• Discovering and accessing articles and books
• Options for getting research help

Learning Outcomes:

Students will be able to...

• Navigate the library homepage
• Identify library spaces and services that can support them
• Develop a basic keyword search strategy
• Discover books, articles, and more from the library homepage
• Access library materials they discover
• List ways they can get help from the library 

Links:

Handouts:

Camino Module:

To streamline student access to the tutorial, a Camino module with the tutorial as an assignment is available in Camino Commons. Instructors may customize the module's grading scheme and decide when in the course it should be available to students.

CTW 2 Tutorial

This interactive tutorial takes about 25 minutes to complete and covers advanced search strategies and concepts. The tutorial includes comprehension check questions, and students can download a certificate of completion. 

This tutorial is intended to be used with in-course instruction from SCU librarians.  Students will use the tutorial to build search mechanics and concepts so that in-class time can delve more deeply into specialized content based on each course's theme and assignments, allow for more interactive activities, and create opportunities for individualized help for students.

Contents:

• The information landscape
• Academic Search Complete and subject databases
• Boolean logic and other advanced search strategies
• Guiding questions for source evaluation
• Citation practices and tools

Learning Outcomes:

Students will be able to...

• Understand the difference between library search tools on the homepage, Google Scholar, Academic Search Complete, and subject-specific databases and choose an appropriate search tool
• Use Academic Search Complete to find materials on a topic
• Develop a search strategy using more advanced search syntax/construction (e.g., Boolean operators, phrase searching, truncation, etc.)
• Identify a subject-specific database for a research topic
• Reflect on the role of citation in research and use the built-in citation generators in library databases
• Ask evaluative questions of information sources and search tools

Links:

Links to updated CTW 2 tutorials (student and faculty preview versions) will be available here by January 2026.

Handouts:

Camino Module:

To streamline student access to the tutorial, an updated Camino module with the tutorial as an assignment will be available in Camino Commons by January 2026. Faculty may customize the module's grading scheme and decide when in the course it should be available to students.

Generative AI: The Basics Tutorial (Optional)

Faculty interested in having students learn about generative AI may wish to assign this interactive tutorial, newly developed for Fall 2025. 

This tutorial was designed by the Applied and Life Sciences librarians to introduce students to generative AI and its use in higher education and in everyday life. This tutorial is an introduction, and the library will be developing further resources about AI and research.

Contents

• Understanding generative AI basics
• Getting started with Gemini and NotebookLM (SCU-provided tools)
• Identifying bias and ethical dilemmas in generative AI

This tutorial includes reflection questions, but no identifying information is collected, and student responses remain anonymous.

Link

Students (and faculty) now have access to LibKey Nomad, a browser extension that helps students identify and download article PDFs that SCU provides access to, even when they are browsing outside the library website.

If you'd like you can connect students to this LibKey Nomad Guide.

To ensure that your students receive information literacy instruction at the needed time in the quarter, please contact a librarian as far in advance as possible (minimum 2 weeks). You can review our library instruction guidelines for more detail.

For Critical Thinking & Writing (CTW) courses, consult our list of Instructor-librarian partnerships (below), or contact Jennifer Pesek, Undergraduate Learning Librarian.

For Archives & Special Collections instruction, contact Monica Keane, Archives & Special Collections Librarian. For A&SC classes with an existing materials list and few expected format changes, the minimum amount of notice is 2 weeks, but new classes require more notice. We strongly encourage faculty to reach out as soon as possible because of limited time slots available for special collections instruction. Classes without an existing materials list should be requested before the quarter begins to arrange for consultation and curation.

2025-2026 CTW Partnerships