Teaching critical thinking skills through commonly used resources in course-embedded online modules

ABSTRACT

The University of Louisville Quality Enhancement Plan focuses on integrating critical thinking into the undergraduate curriculum while using the Paul-Elder Critical Thinking Framework. In an effort to expand information literacy and outreach opportunities, the Social Sciences Librarian created online learning modules using SoftChalk, a program that enables the modules to be embedded into any Blackboard course shell. Originally created for an Introduction to Psychology course, the Critical Thinking & Information Evaluation Module Series maps information evaluation concepts to the Paul-Elder Framework's Elements of Thought through an examination of commonly used resources: Wikipedia, Google, and scholarly journal articles.

KEYWORDS:

• Campuswide initiatives
• course management systems
• critical thinking
• embedded librarianship
• information literacy
• online modules
• Paul-Elder Critical Thinking Framework