While we still don’t know much about Gen Z, we know a lot about the environment they are growing up in. This high-tech generation lives and grows in an overwhelmingly digital environment that often emphasizes technological over critical thinking skills. We use the online ResearchReady tool to teach these tech-savy students a 21st-century research process that trains them to evaluate both print and digital sources. By integrating ResearchReady into our Freshman Writing program, we are able to provide our students a hands-on, interactive learning platform for mastering information literacy skills outside of the traditional classroom experience.

Technology has taken over our lives today and so it has become difficult to perform our daily duties without a digital device. But imagine to what extent it has absorbed the lives of the new generation, Generation Z. The impact is tremendous, even all-pervasive! And this is what urged us to look for new ideas and solutions on how to overcome the barrier between the traditional and online training of fundamental research skills for our Freshman Writing Program.

The aim of our presentation is to inform you how we have overcome our struggle with teaching AUBG students basic information literacy skills. Using the online ResearchReady platform, we have been able to teach a various and comprehensive number of skills that we usually do not have time to cover during class sessions. ResearchReady teaches and assesses students’ critical thinking and research skills through its standards-aligned content. It provides the tools to support students as they apply them through their research process.

ResearchReady is an innovative tool that gives instant feedback in the multiple-choice questions so that whenever you make a mistake you can go back and reflect on it. Ready-made lessons and exercises facilitate librarians and faculty to teach important reading, writing, and research skills for the 21st century such as source evaluation, ethical writing, and synthesizing information and ideas. Students learn online how to access and evaluate information and to use that information responsibly. ResearchReady’s dashboard helps us clearly see the effectiveness of research instruction and also helps us identify where students may need additional intervention.

ResearchReady is an accessible and modern tool that has helped us make a difference in our Freshman Writing Program at AUBG.