The
University of Minnesota Assignment Calculator is a great idea. In a public library, it could be used for popular homework topics. It could be pared down for fewer topics. We could include tips on topic organization and writing, as well as linking to some books in our catalog, some NetLibrary books, and some databases for those popular topics. In a way, it would be creating pathfinders. If we just put pathfinders on the web page, in their old format of a document listing sources, no one would probably spend more than 10 seconds looking at them. However, when you make the pathfinder into a more interactive drop-down box, it looks contemporary. You could design homework help pathfinders with a flowchart as a guide: "Do you need help on how to organize and write a paper?"; yes would take them to tips and no would allow them to select a subject. "Do you need articles?" and if the answer is yes, they would be taken into a list of databases suitable for that topic. If they say no, they would be taken to a list of books. And so on. The book selectors could be involved in notifying the person in charge of a pathfinder if book(s) appropriate to the topic were ordered so that the list could be updated and kept current. With articles, students could be linked to the databases and have search terms suggested, or linked to a kind of "shared folder" or active link that would be updated with articles on a topic. Or, staff in charge could be RSS'd with articles to evaluate for inclusion in a prepared list of articles.
The
Research Project Calculator didn't look quite as useful to me. It doesn't seem as specific to topic areas as the U of M Assignment Calculator. I would guess that students wouldn't use the Research Project Calculator quite as much as the Assignment Calculator.
- Step 1: the Student Research Planning Guide (especially the section Gather) and Narrowing a Topic Using a General to Specific Triangle.
- Step 2: the Boolean Basics tip sheet; the Google tip sheet; the 10 Questions for Evaluating Web Sites; the Summarizing Video, Audio and Magazine Articles tip sheets; and Taking Notes cards
- looks like there are too many nice areas to keep listing them!
It would have been useful to have something like this when I was back in school!
I think an online pathfinder or forms would be helpful for library managers and staff to use in planning for goals & objectives, outcome measures, etc.
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