An Instructional Web Site for Student Research on the Internet

Abstract

A faculty member and a librarian describe their collaboration in constructing an instructional Web site that is unique in providing both a variety of links to course-relevant Internet resources as well as links to resources on how to conduct successful research on the Internet. The Web site and the procedures for instructing students and involving them in Internet research are briefly described. The results of an evaluation by seventy-three students of their experiences in learning about the Web site and conducting Internet research are summarized, followed by a discussion of instructional changes that were introduced as a result of the evaluation. Two principles contributed to the success of the project: first, attend both to the informational content of the Internet and to the research skills that students will need; and second, build evaluation into the project from the beginning so that problems can be discovered and improvements can be quickly implemented.