LSCI 106: ONLINE RESEARCH 1:
INTRODUCTION TO ONLINE RESEARCH

Syllabus

Content Outline
Online Requirement
Policies: Grading, Attendance, Late Assignments
How This Course Works
Directions for Completing & Submitting Assignments


Content Outline (approximate):

Week 1:

  • Course Intro.; How this course works
  • Beginning topic selection
    • General periodical databases: example: InfoTrac Expanded Academic ASAP Database

Week 2:

  • Research process models
  • How is information organized? Database elements; Database types
  • Online catalogs: example: Peninsula Library System (PLS) online catalog

Week 3:

  • Search preparation & search strategy: Research questions, Combining search terms
  • Boolean searching on Gale databases

Week 4:

  • Search strategy continued: truncation, field searching
  • Newspaper databases:
    • premium examples: Gale newspaper database, Ethnic Newswatch
    • free Web newspaper archives examples: SF Gate, web newspaper directories
  • Subject-specific databases

Week 5:

  • General Web search tools & search strategies
    • selective directories (e.g. Librarians' Internet Index)
    • general directories (e.g. Yahoo! ),
    • search engines (e.g. Google )
    • Web databases

Week 6:

  • Evaluating sources
    • questions to ask about any web page
    • finding author information

Week 7

  • Citing sources/Creating a linked webliography webpage

Week 8

  • Research Report-Back: Show Final Projects
  • Quiz


Online Requirement:

  • You must have access to the World Wide Web and have an e-mail account that you can access at least 3 times a week, either:

a) through an account with an Internet service provider or

b) by accessing the Web at a public-access site (e.g. Skyline's Microcomputer Lab or Library or other public library) and having a Web-accessible e-mail account (see Links to Popular Web E-Mail Services). If you choose option B, be sure that you will be able to spend at least 3 hours/week working at a public-access computer.


Grading:

Optional: Letter grade or Credit/no-credit.

Based on:

  • a) weekly assignments (65%),
  • b) final project/research report-back (25%) and
  • c) final quiz (10%).


Attendance: You must attend the following two required class sessions, which are Tuesday evenings from 6:30 - 8:30 pm in the Skyline College Library demonstration area (Building 5, Second Floor):

  • Orientation Meeting: October 11
  • Research Report-Back & Quiz: November 29

Two other meetings that are optional but strongly recommended are scheduled on the following Tuesday evenings from 6:30 - 8:30 pm:

  • October 25 and
  • November 22


Late Assignments: If you fall more than two days behind on any assignment, you must contact me. Assignments more than two days overdue will have credit deducted unless there is an acceptable excuse. The number of points lost will increase the later the assignment is submitted. Multiple late assignments with no excuse may result in your being dropped from the class.


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last revised: 10-10-05 by Eric Brenner, Skyline College, San Bruno, CA

These materials may be used for educational purposes if you inform and credit the author and cite the source as: LSCI 106: ONLINE RESEARCH 1: INTRODUCTION TO ONLINE RESEARCH. All commercial rights are reserved. Send comments or suggestions to: Eric Brenner at brenner@smccd.net