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 Ratings
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| Reviewed: |
Dec 03, 2011 by Library and Information Services |
| Overview: |
This is one of five tutorials, and final part of a self-paced, interactive tutorial that provides the student with the necessary foundations and skills to find useful information, to evaluate it critically and to use it wisely for various purposes such as writing research assignments. This part actually tells how to write the paper and cite the sources used. |
| Learning Goals: |
To understand how the research process works and get guidance on how to start researching a paper. |
| Target Student Population: |
undergraduate students |
| Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills: |
Would work best for retention purposes if students already have been a research paper assignment. |
| Type of Material: |
Tutorial |
| Recommended Uses: |
Individual, in class, or homework (with a research project) |
| Technical Requirements: |
Flash, HTML |
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| Strengths: |
A basic introduction to the research process. It tells how to use the information found on the topic to put the paper together into a final form, and why and how to cite the sources. It is self-contained and can be used without an assignment. |
| Concerns: |
* More detailed, fleshed-out information would be useful on several pages (e.g., the Working with Results module instructs students to add synonyms to their search terms with OR, but this is not a sufficient explanation of how Boolean search strings are created/used; doesn't explain why evaluating sources for currency, authority, etc. is important; the "Writing Your Research Paper" page provides only the most basic, bare-bones information on how to create an outline, etc.) |
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Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool |
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| Strengths: |
Identifies learning objectives on first page of each module of the tutorial and summarizes information learned on last page of each module. No prerequisite knowledge identified, but none is required. Builds upon each of the prior modules in a step-by-step fashion. |
| Concerns: |
Concordia-specific information on several module pages (e.g., "citing sources", "CLUES", "databases") lessens applicability to instructors outside the university. It has not been updated since 2007. Citation styles are sometimes changed every year. |
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Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty |
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| Strengths: |
Very easy and straightforward to use, with added content in the form of examples and built-in mini-quizzes. |
| Concerns: |
It is not very interactive, like having a quiz at the end to reinforce what was learned. |
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| Other Issues and Comments: |
This tutorial should be fleshed out more in order to reach its full potential as a learning object. As it is, it is a high-quality, basic overview of the research process. |
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