To prepare for your discussion, you are asked to conduct some research on your own to find additional best practices in online learning or instruction that were not included in your Learning Resources this week.
Below is a sample search in the Library for articles on the topic in academic journals.
1. Go to the Library Home Page
2. Look for the Select a subject drop-down:
3. Click on the link to Education
Hint: The education research page is a good one to bookmark so you can save a few steps in future searches
4. There are many databases to choose from. A good one to start with is Education Source.
5. From the search page enter the main concepts of your topic into the search boxes - one concept per line. Below is an example of a search for motivational strategies in the classroom:
First search box: online OR virtual OR web-based
Second search box: instruction* OR teach*
Note: the * allows you to capture different forms of the same word, e.g. instruction/instructional
Third search box: "best practice*"
Note: Choose the AB Abstract option from the drop-down to the right of the search box to add focus
6. Look for the Scholarly (Peer Reviewed) Journals option below the search boxes and make sure it is checked
This is what it will look like:
As you look through your results, see if there are any other keywords that might work for your query. The titles, subject lines and abstracts are all good places to find additional vocabulary to search as you fine-tune your search to get better results.
You can then re-run your search based on what you've found to get more focused results. You can also try searching for the other keywords in the abstracts and/or subject lines. How does each adjustment affect the results list?
You will rarely get what you need on the first try; be ready to re-run your searches until you get a results list that works for you.
You can access the full text from the results page:
Or click on the article title. From here you can read it online or download:
You can use the tools to print, email it to yourself or download the full text:
When your assignment requires you look at recent research there are a couple of ways to limit your results.
You can specify the Published Date from the main search page below the Scholarly (Peer Reviewed) option:
Or look for the Publication Date option on the left side of the results page:
You can also sort the results with the most recent on top:
For additional help you can look at these guides:
Or you can always Ask A Librarian.
