The questions ask students about their major, possible jobs they might want to work at, the types of people they admire, whether they have strong opinions about local, regional or work issues, and other questions. From that survey, students select a topic based on what they have to offer others in the new society they're creating. Evans Greenwood said students have selected a wide range of topics with some as predictable as traditional and herbal medicine, gardening, teaching and cooking, and as serendipitous as snowboarding, shamanism, beer-brewing, and making string instruments. Students are required to critically evaluate the source's credibility, based on eight criteria provided to them, and justify why the source will be useful to their research. For example, Evans Greenwood says students often have to evaluate whether a 1965 science journal article is still valuable or whether subsequent research has rendered that information obsolete.
Students also learn how to logically formulate searches for different databases.
They learn how much information is available beyond the books they find in the library. And they learn how to find appropriate sources for the information they' re seeking. About 2,000 Fort Lewis College students have taken the course since its inception in Fall 1996. This year, about half of the 400 students enrolled are taking the courses as a self-study program with only a few class meetings during the semester. The rest meet once a week with their instructor on a regular class schedule.