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General Education and Information Literacy Learning Outcomes

NMHED General Education Essential Skills for Critical Thinking

The New Mexico Department of Higher Education's Critical Thinking outcomes from the General Education Curriculum Essential Skills are listed below.NM Higher Education Department (NM HED), General Education Curriculum, https://hed.state.nm.us/resources-for-schools/public_schools/general-education

And DACC provides a rubric Critical Thinking Skills Assessment on page 6 of the General Education Assessment Plan.

Examples of Assignments and appropriate Library Support

How we help:

DACC Librarians can host a class visit to the library, visit your class in-person or online, or embed via Canvas to provide point of need instruction and assistance to DACC students with finding and evaluating information from trusted, authoritative sources. The library can also provide worksheets for the research process that can serve as artifacts of student learning.

Additionally these introductory Research Guides can assist your students in essential skills in finding and evaluating information.

Introduction to Library Research

Types of Sources.

Please find below suggestions for where and when library content and a Librarian can help.

Component Skill Example Assignments Library Support
Problem setting
  • Research question/thesis statement formulation
  • Academic Journal article with summarization
  • Topic exploration
  • How to narrow or expand topic
  • Effective Search Techniques
Evidence acquisition
  • Search statement construction
  • Search result evaluation
  • Database selection and use
  • Keyword Search construction
  • Author's credentials evaluation
  • Source authority evaluation
Evidence evaluation
  • Speech or debate
  • Annotated bibliography
  • Research paper or argumentative essay
  • Author's credentials evaluation
  • Source authority evaluation
  • Identifying resource bias
Reasoning/ Conclusion
  • Speech or debate
  • Annotated bibliography
  • Research paper or argumentative essay
  • Identify personal bias
  • Synthesizing sources
  • Citation formatting

Schedule a Library Instruction Session: in-person, online, or embedded

Schedule Library Instruction

DACC Librarians can create information literacy instruction tailored to your assignment and/or learning outcomes, and content can be delivered in-person, online, and via Canvas.

We teach students how to:

  • define their topic and formulate a research query
  • distinguish various information sources
  • search for information across knowledge platforms
  • evaluate sources for credibility and authority
  • incorporate their research into their assignment
  • cite their research properly
  • avoid plagiarism
  • find important library resources in the discipline