UGS 302 - Digital Media Technology and Learning - Liu

Single articles on a topic are found in our library databases.  The UT Libraries pay to have access to these databases and the articles they contain.

You can search in databases that are multidisciplinary or subject-specific.

• Multidisciplinary databases contain articles on many topics/from many areas of study. A good place to start for a multidisciplinary search is the main search bar on the library homepage which searches lots of databases or Academic Search Complete.
• Subject Specific databases contain articles from specific disciplines like Medicine, English, or Psychology. See your list of suggested databases below.  

Searching databases is different than searching in Google. You have to distil what you're looking for into a few key terms or phrases, rather than whole sentences. You also have to think of different ways to say those key terms, because different writers will refer to the same concept using different terms. To turn your topic into keywords or search terms, use this tool, or:  

1. Write down your topic and underline the main concepts (ex. the educational effectiveness of using iPads in the classroom?)
2. For each main concept, brainstorm a few synonyms and related terms that get at that concept:

   • Key Concepts	effectiveness	iPad	classroom
     Related Terms	assessment outcomes performance	tablet handheld device bring your own device (byod) mobile technology	school curriculum pedagogy  teaching

3. Combine key terms using AND and OR:​​
   • ​AND narrows your search by looking for articles with all of the words (your two or three key concepts should be connected with AND, because you need all of them represented in useful articles). 
   • OR broadens your search by looking for articles with any of the words (synonyms and related terms should be separated by OR - they get at the same key concepts, so any of them are useful).
4. Try different combinations of your keywords to get better results as you search:​