Today:
Course Learning Outcomes [... ] Academic Skills*
- Learn how to navigate VIU online library functionality; more specifically, students will:
- Conduct effective academic searches
- Read academic and scientific articles
- Understand difference between empirical and non-empirical research
- Write an article summary
- Understand and reflect on own interests and experiences to select a topic
- Brainstorm, in writing, to narrow topic of interest for future thesis work or applied project.
- Contextualize topic in the literature
- Prepare an annotated bibliography on topic of interest
- Correctly use APA 7th format
* These skills also support your success in other course learning outcomes that rely on gathering, evaluating, and applying information.
Also:
Questions? dana.mcfarland@viu.ca or research.help@viu.ca
Example: (resilience OR grit) critique
Example One
Concept → | Other | Narrower | Broader | Related |
resilience → | grit | "psychological resilience" | character | "deficit thinking" |
research → | inquiry | critique | information ; literature | bias ; authority ; evidence |
education → | school | K-12 ; primary | learning | children ; culture |
Where do key terms like this come from?
(Subject thesaurus / descriptors, e.g. ERIC ; abstracts of useful articles ; author- or indexer-assigned key words ; Encyclopedia or overview works, e.g. Wikipedia...)
How to find key words?
(Watch for and note them when reading - especially from descriptor, key word, and abstract fields)
Example Two
Concept → | Other | Narrower | Broader | Related |
disability | ||||
Databases for topics in Education
Look for specialized limiters (publication type, study type, audience, age, grade level, methodology...)
→ Cited by → Search within (e.g. disability ; poverty ; children)
→ Related article
What is your information environment? What makes up the "literature?"
What roles do various types of sources have?
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LibrarySearch Content Types: |
Dissertation/Thesis |
Magazine |
Postcard |
ERIC Publication Types: Book/Product Reviews, Books, Collected Works (All), Collected Works - General, Collected Works - Proceedings, Collected Works - Serials, Computer Programs, Creative Works, Dissertations/Theses (All), Dissertations/Theses - Doctoral Dissertations, Dissertations/Theses - Masters Theses, Dissertations/Theses - Practicum Papers, ERIC Digests in Full Text, ERIC Publications, Guides (All), Guides - Classroom - Learner, Guides - Classroom - Teacher, Guides - General, Guides - Non-classroom, Historical Materials, Information Analyses, Journal Articles, Legal/Legislative/Regulatory Materials, Machine-Readable Data Files, Multilingual/Bilingual Materials, Non-print Media, Numerical/Quantitative Data, Opinion Papers, Reference Materials (All), Reference Materials - Bibliographies, Reference Materials - Directories/Catalogs, Reference Materials - General, Reference Materials - Geographic, Reference Materials - Vocabularies/Classifications, Reports (All), Reports - Descriptive, Reports - Evaluative, Reports - General, Reports - Research, Speeches/Meeting Papers, Tests/Questionnaires, Translations |
Empirical vs. non-empirical research? Or what methodology?
No helpful filter? Scan the Methods section:
...The standard empirical article would at this point present inferential statistics as results. That is not necessary here: our sampling of the relevant contents of the dictionary is complete...
Consider keeping a research journal.* In addition to recording your evolving questions and understandings along your research path, record more mundane bits that you may be glad for later.
Include:
Save and name files according to a plan.
Strategies:
Make periodic backups.
e.g.: from local drive to cloud, or cloud to local.
Use a citation management tool.
Consider: Features or functionality that you will need.
* Cooksey, R., & McDonald, G. (2019). How should I record my research journey? (pp. 55-71). In Surviving and thriving in postgraduate research (2nd ed.). Springer. Retrieved from: https://books.google.ca/books?id=_ZSfDwAAQBAJ&lpg=PR6&ots=EVg9FsuKjA&lr&pg=PA55#v=onepage&q&f=false
Engin, M. (2011). Research Diary: A Tool for Scaffolding. International Journal of Qualitative Methods: ARCHIVE, 10(3), 296-306. Retrieved from: https://journals.library.ualberta.ca/ijqm/index.php/IJQM/article/view/8069
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