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Develop research skills

Developing activities linked to research skills can motivate, inspire and help learners to improve their work by using web search and creating model answers or reviewing previous work.

When you’re designing a course it’s important to create activities that develop your learners’ research skills. 

Web search activities can help learners to choose good web resources that they can use in their courses. 

Model answers and examples of previous work can help learners:

  • be motivated
  • recognise and understand what good quality work looks like
  • work with other learners
  • improve their own work by comparing it to others'
  • demonstrate they’ve met learning outcomes 

In both cases, learners can be inspired to think, self-assess and write about what they’ve learned. This is known as visible learning. 

Creating web search activities

You can help learners by inviting them to create an annotated list of links on a particular topic. Suggest a few search terms or ask learners to create their own search terms.

Ask learners to post their links (specify the number) and comment on them. They could also check another learner's links and add their own evaluation of content.

Find out more about international guidelines for promoting information literacy for lifelong learners.

Creating activities linked to model answers and examples of previous work

Write a model answer or encourage your learners to write one/solve the problem/do the calculation. Upload it to the virtual learning environment, UCL Extend. 

Give learners a task linked to the model answer – ask them what elements made the answer worth using as a model:

  • well-designed structure
  • clarity of argument
  • choice of mathematical formula
  • use of a wide range of examples
  • clear explanation
  • illustration of complex concepts 

You could also invite learners to compare their own answers with the model answer.

You can draw on previous course participants to get examples of previous work (anonymised and with learner permission). Get learners to review the work, apply assessment criteria and even award marks.