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Sample search in an education database

Link to video: Sample search in an education database

Begin transcript

Visual:  EBSCO Advanced search page

Narration: This short video will demonstrate a search in one of the Library education databases.   For this example we’re using Education Source, a good place to start your education research. 

Before you begin your search, look at your topic and identify the main concepts.

Visual:  Word document with topic

Narration:  In, “How is collaborative learning effective in online higher education?” we have the main concepts of “collaborative learning,”  “online” and “higher education.”

Visual:  EBSCO advanced search page

Narration:  When we go back to our search, we want to include just one concept per line … collaborative learning … online … and higher education.  Below you’ll have search options.  In this particular database, full text is already checked for us.  We can also limit our results to scholarly/peer reviewed journal articles.  If you like, you can also limit your publication date by month and year, with beginning and end dates, or just a beginning year if you prefer.  When we go ahead and click on search

Visual:  Results list

Narration:  We get 97 results.  When you look through the results, be sure to scan the subject lines to see if there are any other terms that you might want to be searching.   For instance, distance education is another term for online education. Separate synonyms with the word OR.  Other terms found for collaborative learning would be cooperative learning.  When we re-run our search with the synonyms, instead of 97 results we get 140.  Synonyms can broaden a search quite a bit.

As you go through the results list, you can see that PDF full text is available for many of the articles, and sometimes there will be HTML available as well.  Sometimes you will see a Find at Walden button, which when you click will attempt to find the full text in a different database.

If you forget what limiters you’ve used, you can always review them on the left-hand side, and modify your search if you want.