FCCJLIS2004: Introduction to Internet Research

Course Information

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Course Information Course Prefix/Number: LIS 2004 Course Title: Introduction to Internet Research Florida Community College at Jacksonville Credit Hour: 1 Instructor: Dr. Judith J. Johnson, South Campus Library, Florida Community College at Jacksonville. South Campus. Phone (904) 646-2434. Best hours to contact by phone are Mondays through Thursdays 11:00 AM to 12:20 PM and 1:30 PM to 4:00 PM. E-mail jjohnson@fccj.org. You should get an e-mail response within 2 working days.

Course Goals Students in the Information Age are increasingly challenged by the explosion of digital information, and are particularly overwhelmed by the wealth and diversity of Internet resources. This course enables students to develop the necessary search skills for locating relevant information on the Internet, and evaluating the credibility of these resources. These skills are a crucial factor in students' achievement of academic, professional, and lifelong learning goals. Upon the successful completion of this distance education course, students will be able to: Devise effective search strategies to effectively utilize Internet resources in the research process. Use the Internet to locate relevant research materials. Demonstrate competence in using keyword and Boolean search techniques as appropriate for Internet search tools. Use Internet utilities including Internet communication tools, web search engines, meta-search engines, specialized search engines, subject trees, and distributed subject trees. Demonstrate an understanding of Internet terminology. Judge the relevancy and authority of Internet materials. Document Internet resources.

Course Materials and Course Access There is no required textbook for this course. Each lesson contains the required readings. Each lesson includes links to supplemental reading and source material. The course will be available to registered and paid students on the first day of the term. The course is a text file and requires no special security such as passwords and ID. It is best to access the course with Internet Explorer. Note that use of the College's Library Subscription databases requires that you be a currently enrolled student and that you use your Social Security Number with no spaces or dashes as your ID. There are also four databases, SIRS, Newsbank. Facts.com and Electric Library that require special user Ids when used outside the Library. If you need to use these databases see Lesson 3, Fee-based Resources Available via the Internet, for these Ids.

Attendance/Withdrawal Policies Within the first week of the semester, you must provide your instructor with your e-mail address or you will be dropped from the course. Work at your own pace but don't wait until the last minute. Lesson 4 takes some time to complete, as does the project. Each exercise should be sent to your instructor as soon as you complete it. They may also be sent as an attachment or cut and pasted into an email. Your instructor will confirm receipt of exercises with an e-mail message. Be sure to save or print a copy of your answers to each lesson, since technology glitches sometimes occur, and an occasional e-mail message may not make it through to your instructor. Please do not hesitate to e-mail or call your instructor, Dr. Judith J. Johnson, at (904)646-2434 with any questions or problems. All work must be submitted to your instructor by the due dates indicated at the end of each assignment. The Course Schedule provides due dates for all course materials.

Methods of Evaluation

The final grade is based upon the satisfactory completion of the following activities:

Research exercises	65% (65 points)
Project	25% (25 points)
Final examination	10% (10 points)
Total	100% (100 points)

Grading Scale A = 90 - 100 B = 80 - 89 C = 70 - 79 D = 60 - 69 F = 59 and below

Course Content The course consists of seven lessons, a Course Project, and a Final Examination. Each lesson requires readings from the course web page and the completion of a related exercise. Each exercise is weighted by its relevance to the performance objectives for the course. The course project consists of an annotated list of 5 sources of information on a single topic of interest retrieved from the Internet. The list of citations must be presented in MLA citation format. Annotations must contain an evaluation of the Internet resource. Resources may include World Wide Web pages, Internet journal or newspaper articles, or discussion group postings. See the Course Project page for sample citations and annotations. The final examination covers all aspects of Internet research.

Student Academic Dishonesty Policy "Academic dishonesty is considered a serious offense and is expressly prohibited." The acts covered by the term "academic dishonesty" and the punishments for such acts are described in the current college catalog. Any student in this class who is found guilty of cheating or plagiarism will receive a zero (0) on the assignment/activity in question, and may fail the course depending on the severity of the offense.

Note This Important Information

Beginning fall semester 1997, according to guidelines established by Florida HB 1545, all students may enroll in a specific college credit course only twice at the regular tuition rate. If the first two attempts are unsuccessful (all grades will count as an attempt including audit, IW, AW, W, and NP), the third time a student enrolls in a course he/she must pay the full cost of instruction. This cost is equivalent to the out-of-state tuition rate; approximately four times the cost of regular tuition. Only "drops" submitted by the advertised deadline date (during the first week of a term) will not count as being enrolled