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 faculty 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.

This tutorial introduces students to new discovery tools following SCU Library's planned migration to a new Library Services Platform in December 2024.

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. Faculty may customize the module's grading scheme and decide when in the course it should be available to students.

*New in Winter 2025*

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.

Note that this tutorial introduces students to EBSCO database interface changes launched in December 2024.

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:

Handouts:

Camino Module:

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

To schedule a follow-up instruction session for CTW 2, reach out to your assigned librarian (see librarian-faculty partnerships list below) with as much notice as possible.

If you would like to schedule a session involving SCU's Archives & Special Collections (A&SC), please email Monica Keane. For classes that have been taught in A&SC in the past, the minimum amount of notice is two weeks. However, we strongly encourage faculty reach out as soon as possible because there is limited availability for instruction. Classes without an existing materials list should be requested before the quarter begins to arrange for consultation and curation.

2024-2025 Partnerships