The object of our workshops is to teach students how to locate appropriate academic sources on the Web and in library databases, how to create an effective search strategy, and how to use the retrieval features in InfoTrac. This article introduces an active learning approach for instructing undergraduates on how to search electronic databases in the library. The librarian leads the class in two workshops during the semester. The economics instructor is always present, participating in the workshop and assisting with hands-on instruction. During the workshops, students learn how to navigate the Web and the electronic library Web pages, and learn how to find and use the online academic databases.
Online quizzes are an integral part of our active learning approach.
The online quizzes are written in PERL script. It is this template that we are able to customize for our classes. For example, after a lecture and hands-on session about a particular search engine, we administer an online quiz. It is immediately graded and returned to each student s desktop. We conclude with a discussion of the search strategy and syntax for each of the questions.