Module 5: Researching Your Research Question

You have begun the writing process using assigned journal articles.  Now it is time for you to find research on your own and analyze it.

You have been researching all of your life. Some of it has been turning over the rock in the back yard and some has involved extensive time spent on your computer Googling information about new ideas and concepts. But researching involves more than typing nouns and phrases into the Google box.

The DaVinci Code author, Dan Brown, once pointed out that 'Google' is not a synonym for 'research'.  Google is a tool that can be used for research but it needs to be accomplished in an organized and strategic manner. This module will be the first of a series of modules that will provide information about researching.

Any craftsperson is only as good as her tools. The search tools that we will be addressing in this course will include UNI's OneSearch and Google Scholar.

OneSearch provides access to articles from journals, magazines, and newspapers; books; government publications; and other resources such as DVDs. These resources are customized to fit those available through UNI.
Visit this OneSearch Video Tutorial page. You should watch all 8 videos, but at least the Overview, Scholarly Article, Full Text, and eBook. (You may run into some problems running these videos in Google Chrome on a Mac.  It has something to do with the Microsoft SilverLight extension. Running them through Firefox seemed to work better but I had to reinstall Silverlight again before it ran.)


Google Scholar is a tool that you can use to research resources. It's easily accessible and has ever-expanding capacities for finding articles and organizing them. Google Scholar should be used more deliberately than your typical Google search. It isn't difficult but there are multiple levels of complexity. Tutorials for Scholar were not available through Lyndia.com or Atomic Learning so spend some time reviewing the tutorials that are on the Rod Library website about Google Scholar.  There are multiple videos and links.  Please review them all.  The most important part that you need to get from the videos is that you need to change the settings so that Scholar knows that you have access to the Rod Library resources.  The beauty of this is that it will take you directly to all of the databases to which we subscribe.  You probably won't have to pay for any of your articles.

Using UNI Rod Library from a Distance

Let me begin by directing you to the Distance Learners link from the Library. I believe that this has been mentioned in previous classes, but perhaps it hasn't been explained deeply enough for your use.

Go proceed to the Rod Library opening page. Down the left column of the page, you will find Distance Learners in the Information For: section. Click on the Distance Learners option. This will take you to the Distance Learners page adorned by Ellen Neuhaus. Click on her YouTube video to enjoy her introduction.

KNOW YOUR REFERENCE LIBRARIAN. Ellen and her team of reference librarians are a researcher's best friend. Call them up and they will help you find or direct you towards finding the resources you need to use for your research. Remember that you are not bothering them when you call. They are employed to help you with your searches. Their phone number is 319-273-2838 or 800-207-9410.

This week you will only be looking for good and not-so-good articles to compare, but this is the beginning of the research journey that you will experience for the rest of your cohort life and hopefully for the rest of your professional life.

Remember to read Galvan's Chapter 5.

Module 4: Taking Notes Using an Idea-Based Strategy

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How are you doing on your research?  Although identifying your topic, searching databases for relevant articles, and finally selecting your articles can be a grueling process, the toughest part can be taking notes in a way that will facilitate simplify that actual act of writing.

Note taking is often organized by articles.  This means that all of the information from a single document is written on the same piece of paper or in the same document or in a notetaking table.  This is an Article-Based Strategy towards taking notes.

A more effective strategy is to organize your notetaking document by content area.  Open a document, create headings that are relevant to your research, and, as you find new information in your reading, enter specific facts under the appropriate headings.  This is an Idea-Based Strategy. 

I have created a 6-minute video to teach you about using the Idea-Based Strategy.  

Caveat: I realize that I am talking about emphasizing writing Literature Reviews and am using a subject-based research topic.  I plan to redo that part of the video using a more literature review-ish topic.  I am interested in your opinion of how I created this video.

I hope that this is useful in your harvesting important ideas and research from your selected articles.

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