Collaboration with Faculty

Competency Level

• Has difficulties articulating the information needs.
• Limited or no attempt to seek help from instructors or peers.

• If necessary, seeks help from instructors and peers to clarify the scope of the assignment tasks and determine the information needs.
• Able to formulate research questions based on the information needs.

• Has a clear understanding of the information needs.

• Formulates questions based on the information need and develop a thesis statement accordingly.
• Identifies key concepts and terms that describe the information need.

(may not be applicable)

• Demonstrates little knowledge on how to find information for the assignment task.
• Solely relies on course readings or resources recommended by instructors and popular search engines (such as Google and Yahoo!) for quick and convenient results.
• Uses very simple search strategy such as entering the whole assignment topic.

• Mostly relies on course readings, resources recommended by instructors and popular search engines.
• Some evidences of exploring potential resources in different formats or subject areas.
• Simple search strategies: entering the whole assignment topic or a single term/phrase.

• Able to identify major electronic and print resources in their disciplines.
• Selects appropriate tools (IMF for financial data, EBSCOhost for country and company reports, etc.) based on coverage, audience and limitations of various resources.
• Devises search strategies using appropriate key concepts and terms.

• Many of the sources used, such as those cited in the bibliography, are not clearly related to the task.
• Limited evaluation skills: sources inaccurate; out-dated; or too basic.

• Most of the sources used are relevant.
• Demonstrates some evaluation skills: Most sources are accurate, timely, authority and relevant.
• Body of works shows attempt to examine and compare sources for inconsistencies.

• Sources used are relevant.
• Shows effective and critical evaluation of sources: besides accuracy, currency and authority, also try to examine if sources contradict or complement each other and the suitability for their needs.
• Body of work identifies limitations of the research methodologies and/or theories, flaw in the reasoning logic, etc. of the sources.

• Has difficulties synthesizing information from multiple sources.
• Tends to quote directly from sources and restate the opinions and conclusions from various sources.

• Able to recognize appropriate concepts, models or theories from retrieved sources.
• Explains relevant concepts, models or theories from the source in his/her own words to formulate arguments.
• Attempts to derive own opinions or conclusion.

• Recognizes interrelationships between different concepts, models or theories from the sources with those taught in the course.
• Able to synthesize different findings to construct own logical arguments and derive a new and sound conclusion.

• Shows lack of understanding of the needs and principles of legal and ethical use of information, hence
• No or poor documentation of sources, e.g., bibliography tends to be disorganized, incomplete or inconsistent.
• Shows no attempt to identify if sources used are obtained or disseminated legally.

• Documents sources properly, e.g, in a bibliography, to avoid plagiarism.
• Attempts to observe appropriate laws and regulations to obtain and disseminate text, data, or multimedia files for research & study, e.g., photocopy limited amount covered by “fair dealing”, obtain permission of use from copyright holder or available under Creative Commons license.

• Good documentation of sources, e.g, bibliography in correct and consistent style.
• In-text reference, footnote or endnote to support arguments and give credits to original ideas.
• Observes appropriate laws and regulations to legally obtain and disseminate all text, data, or multimedia files for research & study.