This article reports on a surprise finding from a larger, long-term study that explores ways to provide effective information literacy instruction (ILI) in asynchronous, online-only courses. The finding occurred during a term in which students participating in the study received no formal ILI. However, these students did not turn to the web at large when doing independent research as some literature might predict. Instead, analysis of their final research project bibliographies suggests students modeled the search scopes of select prior assignments from that same course. This finding has potential to inform parameters for adapting pedagogy for asynchronous, online-only instruction as well as ways librarians and teaching faculty collaborate to incorporate ILI into curricula, particularly in online contexts.