Billy Kavalos

SLM 521

Jona French

Internet Course Module

Research/Reference Sites

Objective Students will be able to find and access high quality and useful reference/research Internet sites.

Objective Students will learn to effectively use the Internet to research information.

Introduction The Internet is an excellent resource and can often make our lives much easier, allowing us to complete tasks more efficiently and faster that before. There are many excellent websites that are especially useful to students. Student can use these sites to perform fast research and find information on just about any topic. In addition there are numerous reference sites that combine the functions of a dictionary, thesaurus, encyclopedia, and more in one site. Rather than doing a time consuming search through a variety of large books to find the information desired, we can now enter a search term on many Internet sites and quickly find all the information needed. Learning to effectively use such resources can be a great benefit for students and people in general.

Activity Visit the research/reference links listed below. Browse the sites to become familiar with them and their various resources. Do a search on each site to become familiar with its abilities.

MSN Encarta - http://encarta.msn.com/

iTools - http://www.itools.com/

Ref Desk - http://www.refdesk.com/

Library Spot - http://www.libraryspot.com/

Each of the sites above has different benefits. Some have more tools and resources then the others, depending on the information being sought. After reviewing each site, you will determine how useful each site is and how it can be used to conduct research. Think about the different functions of the site. What different tools does it have? What can it do? How could it be better? How fast is it in returning the information you need? Is the site easy to navigate? These questions should help you assess the site and its usefulness.

The next part of this assignment is learning to find useful reference sites such as the ones listed above. Do some various searches using your favorite search engines. Find two research sites other than the ones listed.

Assignment After visiting each site, as well as the two you found, write a brief 250 word description of each site. In your paragraph, you should discuss the usefulness and quality of the site, the tools it offers, the ease of use, and the organization of the site. After your description, make three specific commendations and three specific recommendations about each site.

In addition to your descriptions, write a short paragraph (two to three sentences) explaining which search terms and search engines worked for you.

Submission Send your assignment as a WORD document to your instructor through email as an attachment.

Rubric

	1	2	3
Description of Website	Insufficient or vague description. Less than required length.	Minimal description.	Thorough description of sites, its functions, quality, and usefulness.
Recommendations	General statements that something could be better. Less than three recommendations.	Three general recommendations.	Three well described specific recommendations.
Commendations	General statements about sites quality. Less than three commendations.	Three general commendations.	Three well described specific commendations.