This interactive flash tutorial divides the complexities of the research process into seven discrete steps, providing basic information on how to approach the process.
Type of Material:
flash
Recommended Uses:
This tutorial stands alone for students to view as homework. It could also be used as a springboard for discussion topics for the entire class, or within teams. Students could easily be asked to come up with examples to the research process and discuss its relevance to their own research papers.
Technical Requirements:
Flash
Identify Major Learning Goals:
How to: 1. Brainstorm a topic; 2. Find background information on a topic; 3. Brainstorm keywords; 4. Search websites; 5. Search for books; 6. Search for articles; Evaluate search results.
Target Student Population:
This guide is appropriate for two types of searchers: 1. Novices, 2. those who are unaware of their lack of expertise. Consequently it provides a great introduction or refresher to the process of bibliographic research. This guide is appropriate for high schoolers and college freshman, but can also be recommended to advanced students with limited knowledge of how to approach the search process.
Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:
none
Content Quality
Rating:
Strengths:
Strengths: the tutorial is short and sweet; learning objectives are clearly defined and succinctly explained. Imagery is clever and engaging. The menu of the seven steps is especially engaging and creative. To reinforce the image of “ancient knowledge” and archeology, an oroborus (ancient symbol of a snake swallowing its own tail) is used as a menu on the explorer’s journey. This circle rotates, and offers the seven steps for viewers to choose for further elaboration. Besides providing visual interest, the oroborus (a strong symbol for self-reflectivity) subtly and effectively conveys a non-hierarchical process to research that this reviewer seldom sees in other tutorials. Yes, the steps to research can be linear, as evidenced in the menu items being numbered from 1 to 7. But expert searchers know that research often follows a spiraling path, and this menu speaks to this phenomenon. Views may click on the menu items in any order of their choosing, and are thus invited to make their own meaning from lessons conveyed. This is the constructivist pedagogy of engagement. Visual learners will benefit from the cyclical nature of the menu; those needing text will benefit from the text-based elaborations of the seven steps.
Concerns:
Little content is covered. Useful basic introduction, links to more information on each step of the process would assist in this module.
Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool
Rating:
Strengths:
This tutorial on the search process does what many others fail to do: it introduces the process clearly and succinctly, and then gets out of the students’ way. Unlike other tutorials on the search process, this one is not a fire hose of information. it deos not overwhlem. Instead, it stands as a basic introduction. The designers have successfully resisted the temptation to be all things to all people. The learning objectives are clearly stated and defined. The explorer analogy reinforces the concept of the searcher-as-explorer. Initially, the “Indiana Jones” concept might seem hokey to some students, but the brevity of this tutorial is such that the explorer character is not forced or labored. These designers conform to the soundest of pedagogy: they capture the viewer’s attention, get their point across in an entertaining way, and then exit the field, before the viewer gets antsy or bored. Bravo.
Concerns:
none
Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty
Rating:
Strengths:
This tutorial employs an explorer theme to discuss the steps involved in conducting research. It’s a clever theme with visual appeal.
Concerns:
more interactivity might help its appeal
Creative Commons:
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