Library Instruction -- Practice with ERIC

ERIC Practice

ERIC provides access to educational literature and resources. ERIC, established in 1966 and sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education, is the largest and most widely used education database in the world—containing millions of records of journal articles, research reports, curriculum and teaching guides, conference papers, and books. Provides the full text of ERIC Documents from 1993 to present.

Click into the ERIC - Education Resource Information Center database, and let's perform some searches.

Instructions for using this guide:

ERIC Practice

First, you must select a topic. Your topic should be something that interests you, is relevant to the course assignment and can be accomplished within the time allotted and information resources available. We also want to limit search results to scholarly, peer-reviewed journal articles. Our search topic is:

Do interactive, online games help middle school students learn science?

Review the search question to identify main concepts.

ERIC Practice

Our keywords are: middle school students, games, science, representing the 3 ideas or concepts of our research question but let's brainstorm some synonyms or related terms that describe these same ideas.

Here are suggestions for each keyword/concept:

Middle school students:

• junior high school students
• middle schools

Online games:

• online video games
• games

Science:

• science
• biology?

ERIC Practice

Now that we have our keywords and synonyms we need to use search connectors to combine them in a logical, understandable way that allows the most relevant items to be retrieved.

Looking at the keywords from our search question, let's try combining them using AND or OR

Looking at the first idea: middle school students, we identified junior high school students and middle schools. Combine them using OR because they are different keywords describing the idea.

Middle school students OR junior high school students OR middle schools.

 

ERIC Practice

We looked at using OR to combine keywords describing the same idea or concept. Now let's focus on the use of AND.

From the definition, remember AND is used to combine keywords describing different ideas. Following is how our search would look using the Connector AND

• Middle school students AND online games

ERIC Practice

Using search connectors, AND, OR can be confusing so let's review again by trying these keywords with search connectors.

 

ERIC Practice

So far we have decided on a research question, identified the main ideas, identified and assigned keywords to those ideas and reviewed search connectors to combine our keywords. We are now ready to open the ERIC database.

If you did not already, open the ERIC database using one of the path previously discussed.

ERIC Practice

First, we will to a keyword search followed by a subject search using the Thesaurus. Afterward we will compare the results and relevancy of articles in both searches.

Enter the following keywords in the search boxes:

Row 1:

• Middle school students OR junior high school students OR middle schools

Row 2:

• Online games

Row 3:

• Science

Then click Search

ERIC Practice

How many results did you get searching: 

Look at the items in the results list to see how relevant they are to the research question:

Do interactive, online games help middle school students learn science?

Keep your impressions about the relevancy of these in mind so you can compare them to the results of the subject search covered next.

NOTE: Keyword searches look for your keywords everywhere in the database resulting in a higher number of results.

ERIC Practice

We searched using keywords that matched the ideas in the research question and viewed the results. Now let's try the search again but this time using ERIC subjects found in the Thesaurus.

NOTE: Subject searches using the Thesaurus result in fewer items because only the subject field is searched. When you can match your keyword to an ERIC subject you have decreased the search time but increased your ability to find items focusing on your topic.

Recall that the main ideas were:

• Middle school students
• Online games
• Science

Click on the Clear button on ERIC by the top search box to the right.

Next, click on the Thesaurus link above the search boxes.

Enter Middle school students in the Thesaurus search box and click on the Browse button.

ERIC Practice

We find Middle school students listed so it is an official ERIC subject. Click on the link for Middle school students to open a page with related subjects.

Check these boxes:

• Middle school students
• Junior high school students
• Middle schools

Make sure the OR button is filled in and click on "Add".

These are automatically entered into the 1st row of search boxes.

ERIC Practice

Next, in the Thesaurus browse search enter: Online games

You should see Online games as a subject listed. 

Check the link to Computer Games two times.  Check the boxes next to 'educational games' and 'video games' also.

Make sure the OR button is filled in and click on "Add to search".

These are automatically entered into the top search box.

ERIC Practice

Now, we are ready to look for the last keyword idea in the Thesaurus. Search the Thesaurus browse box again and this time enter: Science.

In the list of subjects you should see many specialized areas of science but scroll down until you see Science.

Click on it to open another page. You should see that the preferred subject is Sciences. Check the box to the left.

Remember, searching subjects instead of keywords retrieves fewer results so look at the related subjects in the yellow page icon.

To broaden the number of results and include relevant subjects, also check the boxes next to these subjects:

• Science curriculum
• Science activities
• Science instruction

Make sure the OR button is filled in and click on "Add to search".

The subjects representing the 3rd and final idea in our research question are now identified and entered into the search box.

ERIC Practice

You have entered the subjects from the Thesaurus into the search boxes. To make sure it looks the way you want it compare it to the image below. Your search boxes should look like this:

All of the subjects we selected from the Thesaurus are entered with SU.EXACT in front of the subject. This tells the system these are 'subjects' that should be searched exactly as shown in the subject field of each record in ERIC.

Click on the green Search button.

ERIC Practice

Now that we have completed both a keyword and a subject search on our research question let's review and compare results. Remember our research question is:

Do interactive, online games help middle school students learn science?

ERIC Practice

Looking at the results of the subject search we see a mix of different document types including journal articles and ERIC Documents.

Before viewing the results in greater detail notice the different icons to the left of the titles that represent different 'document types':

These icons are a quick visual way to recognize the different types of sources, especially scholarly journal articles.

ERIC Practice

Look at the first 10 items in the results list to see how relevant they are to the research question:

Do interactive, online games help middle school students learn science?

ERIC Practice

You have completed the ERIC Practice.  Please let your instructor know that you have finished.

Certificate

Please enter your name and email address to retrieve a copy of your completed quiz.

You can enter multiple email addresses separated by commas. If you are doing this for a class, you may need to enter your instructor's email address also.

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