Online Search and Research Skills

• Contextualized online search and research skills are important in Empowerment Technologies.

Learning Objectives

• Learners define online search, contextual online search, and internet research.
• Learners are expected to identify helpful tips for contextual online search and internet research.
• Learners evaluate credible sources using online search techniques and tools.

Defining Concepts

• Online search is the process of interactively looking for and retrieving requested information on the Internet, especially the World Wide Web.
• Contextual online search is optimizing online search results using search strategies to find relevant and reliable information.
• Online research uses Internet-based resources.

How to Do Online Research

• First, classify the research topic.
• Decide if the topic is hard, soft, or hybrid research.
• Identify websites that are proven to be authorities of good information sources.
• Evaluating websites and choosing sources suitable for the research is necessary.
• Choose a research-friendly web browser.
• Utilizing multiple tabs, bookmarks, search history, and easy navigation are importamt in a web browser for research.
• Chrome Extensions and Firefox add-ons are two extensions from famous browsers
• Multiple search engines and keywords should be used.
• Strategies in using search engines to refine search results will improve the research.
• Words or phrases that you type on the search bar are known as keywords.
• Common keywords should be chosen first, then include modifiers to further classify search intentions.
• Bookmark sites/pages of possible contents needed for your research

Classifying Topics

• Hard research is scientific and objective.
• Hard research requires hard evidence with supporting figures and statistics.
• Soft research topics are more subjective, cultural, and opinion-based.
• Soft research is based less on facts and evidence.
• Hybrid research has broader search requirements.
• Hybrid research combines objective and subjective approaches.

Common Commands for Search Engines

• Quotation marks help find specific phrases involving more than one word.
• Adding a + sign before a word means that it MUST be included in each site listed.
• Adding a - sign before a word means that it will NOT appear in the sites listed.
• Asterisks can be used for wild-cards in some search engines.

Filtration

• Not every online information is true.
• Good judgment must be exercised in assessing the quality of information at hand.

Quotations and Citations

• Credit must be given where credit is due.
• Copying and pasting is not acceptable, plagiarism can occur.
• References must be tracked to avoid plagiarism
• Summarizing, paraphrasing, or rewording the written works also requires proper citation.
• If someone's idea is packaged differently by using your own words, it still REQUIRES PROPER CITATION.
• Pictures, digital photos, images, or videos that are not your original creation must also be properly cited.

Popular Citation Styles

• APA is author/date based, emphasizing the author and date.
• MLA is often applied by the arts and humanities in the USA.
• Harvard is similar to APA and used in the UK and Australia for the humanities.
• The Vancouver system is mainly used in medical and scientific papers.
• Chicago and Turabian are similar styles, used for history and economics.

Explore online search, contextual search, and internet research. Discover tips for effective searches and learn to identify credible sources. Enhance your Empowerment Technologies skills with internet-based research techniques.