We identified the following best practices for implementing our teaching philosophy. Effective collections-based instruction includes:

• Learning objectives that align visit goals with course goals
• Careful document selection
• Tailored prompts
• Backward designed assignment
• Carefully considered visit logistics
• Thoughtful facilitation of archival visits, including wrap-ups
• “Goldilocks” of context (not too much; not too little)
• Working collaboratively to tweak and refine

And our independent evaluators found that these techniques really work!

The pattern is clear: where our data are best, …courses taught by faculty who used [these] instructional strategies succeeded in fostering positive students outcomes – higher grades, and greater rates of course completion and course passing.