Techniques and Resources for Effective Online Research

Studies show that people who spend five or more hours a week online average an astounding 71% of their time searching for information. Over two-thirds report frustration with the time they waste.

This course introduces techniques that enable learners to tap the full potential of the Internet and quickly extract relevant information from an Internet search.

Relevant for anyone who feels they waste too much time searching the Internet, whether in the course of performing their job duties or for personal reasons.

From finding suppliers to tracking down the source for an obscure statistic, the Internet has become an essential tool of the job for many people. However, the typical Internet query yields millions of results, most of low relevance. Without the skills to extract relevant content from the Internet, people experience massive wasted time and undue frustration.

Easily customizable (and scalable to a half-day if necessary), this 1-day course introduces powerful techniques that will help learners make the most of the Internet's diverse collection of research tools and shave hours off their research sessions. Participants will leave this sesssion armed with the ability to construct complex and powerful queries, and the knowledge to narrow from millions of hits to a handful in seconds.

 

Upon completing the course, participants will be able to:

• apply navigation tricks and shortcuts to speed up searching
• choose the research tool most appropriate to the job at hand
• explain how search engines, directories and metasearchers work
• constrain a search geographically
• locate government information worldwide
• identify best practices, similar programs, or other information from jurisdictions like their own
• pinpoint certain types of organizations or specific entities
• use search engines to circumvent ineffective site searches
• find specific kinds of documents
• constrain searches to certain date ranges
• demonstrate powerful advanced queries using nesting and Boolean (AND/OR) Logic
• make strategic use of jumplists and gateways and demonstrate how to find these under-utilized resources
• describe how search engines sequence results and how advertising can influence result integrity
• exploit archived discussions for a fast route to certain kinds of information
• find scholarly journal articles, essays, and other academic resources
• search the "invisible web" beyond the Internet

Note: some topics are not covered when this course
is scaled to a half day.

Instructor: Pam Blackstone

 

This course normally lasts 1 day. However, course content can be scaled and/or customized to fit specific requirements. Fees include Pam’s book Find It Fast! and access to her companion site featuring 5,000+ online research resources.

The course uses lectures, discovery learning, and demonstrations to teach concepts and to reinforce learning. Class exercises are incremental, building upon one another as learners progress through the material. As participants learn each new skill, they receive an immediate opportunity to apply it, using a variety of Internet research tools.

Challenge exercises are interspersed throughout. The mastery practice at the end of the course offers learners a choice among four tough research assignments. This activity provides an unstructured opportunity to experiment and apply the techniques taught, and affords an informal opportunity for Level 2 evaluation. Ample time is scheduled and the instructor is available for help, if needed. Suggested solutions are provided for those who need them, so no-one ends the day with a sense of failure.

Participants should possess:

• Windows familiarity
• keyboarding and mouse proficiency
• familiarity with basic Internet navigation functions
  using a web browser

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