Assignment Details

Research Essay and Source Analysis

Part 1: Locate three credible sources that examine the relationship between AI technologies and student learning

Part 2: Write a 750–900-word essay that answers the following question: 

Should the use of artificial technologies like ChatGPT be allowed in post-secondary settings?

Part 1: Source Analysis (5%)

Using the source analysis template provided on D2L, summarize and evaluate three carefully selected and credible articles, chapters or web sources pertaining to the research question.

The three sources are to be of the following types:

• Two scholarly, original research studies or reviews

• One non-scholarly but credible source (example: an interview with an expert)

Note: Because the focus of the question is on post-secondary settings, as much as possible, you should aim to find sources that pertain to college and/or university. Sources pertaining to other educational settings, however, may be used with sufficient justification.

Part 2: Essay (20%)
Write a 750–900-word essay that addresses the question: 

Should the use of artificial technologies like ChatGPT be allowed in post-secondary settings?

To effectively answer this question, you will first need to develop a thesis statement which summarizes your argument. Considering the information you have gathered on the topic, as well as any personal experience you might have, what is your stance on the issue? Be specific.

Next, you will need to select and organize the information found in your sources to support your argument. How can you use your research to persuade the reader to your way of thinking? 

Note: although you are encouraged to use personal anecdotes and experiences to make your essay more compelling in the introductory and/or concluding paragraphs, these cannot stand in for evidence from scholarly work. 

Your essay should be formatted with an APA-style title page and reference page. It should be written in 12-point font, double-spaced, and edited for grammatical correctness. In-text citations should be made in APA style whenever you are quoting or summarizing information from your sources.

Your Research Question

Clear: It is easily understood by your audience/reader.

Focused: It is narrow enough to allow you to address it in your assignment.

Concise: It is expressed in the fewest possible words (not too wordy).

Complex: It cannot be answered with a yes or no, and it is not a leading question (biased).

Open: It actually can be researched - naturally, it should generate more questions.

Examples:

Your topic:

• Artificial intelligence

Rephrase your topic as a question:

• What are the opportunities and challenges associated with artificial intelligence use in university education?

Possible search concepts/terms:

• opportunities / benefits

• challenges / risks

• artificial intelligence / generative artificial intelligence / ChatGPT (or other specific GenAI tool)

• university education / college education / post-secondary education

Conducting Academic Research With Google Scholar

Google Scholar

Google Scholar is another great way to find high quality resources.

Besides providing links to resources in MRU databases, Google Scholar links to online repositories that contain articles the author has been allowed to upload.  Academia.edu and ResearchGate are among the repositories searched by Google Scholar.

By clicking on the Settings icon, you can select library links to show library access for up to 5 libraries (type in Mount Royal and click on save).  If you are logged into MRU library, links should automatically populate if you are running a Google search in another window. 

Google Scholar has a nifty citation chaining function. The Cited by function will forward you to indexed scholarly material that has cited a resource that you may be interested in. The Related articles link will direct you to similar articles that may have the same metadata or keywords. 

Helpful Search Operators to Use in Google Scholar

Google Scholar's Advanced Search is found by clicking the menu icon in the top left.

You can also add search operators to Google Scholar searches to build your own custom advanced searches in similar ways to LibrarySearch:

• Use quotation marks to keep specific phrases together:

  • "climate change"

• Avoid using AND to combine search terms with Google Scholar, as the search engine automatically creates ANDs between concepts and sometimes adding an additional AND can confuse the search syntax.

• Use OR to connect two or more similar terms:

  • "social media" OR "social networking"

• Use wild cards to substitute a letter or suffix with a symbol:

  • ethic* (in this example, the search ethic* will search for records that contain strings such as ethics, ethical, and ethically)

Figure 1

Peter Steiner's Famous 1993 New Yorker Cartoon Illustrating an Issue Central to Information Evaluation

Note. From "On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog" [Cartoon], by P. Steiner, 1993, Wikimedia (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/f8/Internet_dog.jpg).

Evaluating Information

It is good to find lots of search results, but, in order to use information skilfully, you need to know how to evaluate that information to determine whether a specific resource is appropriate to use in a specific use case (i.e. for a specific assignment).

The phrase "evaluating information" actually stands in for a wide range of judgments that we make about information in many different contexts, whether those judgments are about relevance, timeliness, quality, etc.

Librarians have developed several different acronyms to help people remember useful criteria to use in information evaluation. One of my personal favourites is RADAR!

RADAR stands for

Relevance

Authority

Date

Accuracy

Reason for Creation

We can ask the following questions to help us assess each criterion:

Relevance:

• Does this source fit my topic?

• What is this source's intended audience?

  • Is that intended audience appropriate for my use case in this assignment?

Authority:

• Is/are the creator(s) of this source clearly identified or known to us?

• How important is it in this use case to trust the source's creator(s)?

  • If it is important, why should we trust the source's creator(s)?

  • Is the source's creator credentialed or an expert in their field?

Date:

• Is the creation or publication date of this source identified or known to us?

• Is this source too old?

Accuracy:

• Do this source's facts "check out"?

• Does the source have references of its own?

Reason for Creation (take your best guess at this question using judgments from earlier criteria):

• Why was this source made?

• Was this source made to sell a product or service, to inform/educate, to entertain, etc?

Scholarly vs. Popular Sources

A scholarly publication contains articles written by experts in a particular field. The primary audience of these articles is other experts.

Many of these publications are also referred to as "peer-reviewed," academic, or "refereed." They all mean essentially the same thing and refer to the editorial and publication process in which scholars in the same field review the research and findings before the article is published.

Some Helpful Questions for Identifying a Scholarly/Academic Article

1. What are the author’s credentials? Was it written by an expert?

2. Was it published in a journal (is there a DOI?)? (If you are not sure if a source is a journal article, you can enter the title of the publication into Ulrichs Web to check.)

3. Does it use academic or more technical language?

4. Does it includes a reference list of sources that it is citing?

5. How long is it? (Scholarly articles are typically longer than popular or news articles.)

6. Does it have a "Received" and "Accepted" date on it?

7. Is it an actual article? (Sometimes other types of content are included in scholarly publications, such as editorials/opinion pieces and book reviews. Make sure you are looking at an article.)

Activity: Is It Scholarly?

To make sure we are all on the same page, let's put our knowledge to the test.

Skim the following resources available through the links keeping in mind the characteristics we have discussed in class (for example: what is this information and where did it come from? Was it written by an expert? Where was this source published?).

Vote whether you think each source is Scholarly or Not Scholarly by placing a sticky note on this Google Jamboard.

If you are feeling ambitious, write a reason why you think the source is scholarly or not scholarly on your sticky note.

Source 1

Source 2

Source 3

Source 4

Source 5

Source 6

Source 7

Source 8

Source 9

Source 10

Citation Help

• Use the "cite" feature in most search tools to get you started with most resources (you will need to review and correct the citation).

• Cite Sources: Learn the correct way to cite sources by using these guides, tutorials, and videos.

  • MRU Guide to APA Style for Referencing (2023-2024)

  • MRU Guide to APA Style for Formatting a Paper (2023-2024)

• Academic Success Workshops: Academic Success Workshops are 75 minutes long and are offered both in-person and online. Registration is required.

• Appointments: Personalized online or in-person 30-minute appointments with a Learning Strategist at Student Learning Services located on the 2nd floor of the Riddell Library & Learning Centre.

• Use the Service Desk on the 1st floor of the RLLC for assistance as well as the library chat feature on the library website for quick citation questions.