This process often takes place aloud, as students exclaim after observing their 2.5 million hits narrow down to 4,372. The correction of spelling errors and other mistakes enhances the learning experience and reinforces the importance of using accurate syntax. Immediately after the lecture and hands-on section of the workshop, students take a quiz to test their newfound skills. As students are answering the questions, they are actively beginning to test the new ideas they have learned. The quiz is corrected online and immediately returned to each student s desktop.
Students can resubmit until they get the correct answer.
We then review the quiz, with an emphasis on how AltaVista interprets the Boolean concepts illustrated by the quiz questions. At this point, we conclude our first workshop. At the end of the workshop, term paper topic assignments are discussed, and each student makes a choice from a list provided by the economics instructor. To prepare for the second workshop, students are asked to apply some of the strategies they learned to find five Web resources relevant to their topics. Our second workshop instructs students on how to locate and use academic databases focusing on InfoTrac Expanded Academic Index.