University Library Article Search

GEN105 Week 3 Assignment

2. Assignment: University Library Article Search

 Resources: Appendix E, University Library

 Due Date: Day 7 [Individual] forum

 Review Appendix E to recognize article characteristics.

 Locate the University Library by logging on to your student website, selecting the Library tab and clicking the University Library link.

 Find two articles in the University Library about any one topic or combination of topics listed below. One of your articles must be a peer-reviewed article, which is an article that has been reviewed by a group of experts in a certain field.

o Distance learning at college

o Ensuring academic honesty

o Effective personal goal setting

o Time management skills for college students

 Take time to choose the best database for your chosen topic(s), and use a different database (such as EBSCOhost or Thomson Gale PowerSearch) to find each article.

GEN 105 Skills for Learning in an Information Age Course Syllabus Page 12

Whenever applicable, practice using the Boolean and wildcard search strategies you learned about in the University Library Interactive Tutorial.

 Provide the following information for each article:

o What keyword search did you use to find the article?

1)      Time management skills for college students

o What is the title of the article?

1)      Cengage Learning Survey Reveals College Instructor Views on Challenges Facing First-Year Students

2)      Defining College Readiness from the Inside out: First-Generation College Student Perspectives

o Who is the author(s)?

1)      PR Newswire (April 22, 2008)

2)      Kathleen L Byrd, Ginger MacDonald

o When was the article published?

1)      April 22, 2008

2)      Fall 2005

o Was the article peer-reviewed?

1)      No

2)      Yes

o In what database did you find the article?

1)      Gale PowerSearch

2)      EBSCOhost

 Summarize what each article is about in 2 to 3 sentences per article. If there are specific opinions or facts in the articles, be sure to document them.

This article documented surveys given to several four-year university and community college professors on challenges that first-year college students face.  It had several quotes directly from the professors themselves and a list of statistics from both university professors and community college professors.

This article documented a national study by R.H. McCabe on first-generation college students using placement tests to determine college readiness.  The article documented all steps the study took in order to get their statistics, and results of the study. 

 Post the article information and summaries for both articles to the Individual forum.

For both articles I used keyword "time management skills for college students” search. 

First article I found in the Gale PowerSearch database and is titled “Cengage Learning Survey Reveals College Instructor Views on Challenges Facing First-Year Students” published by PR Newswire on April 22, 2008.  This was not a peer-reviewed article.  This article documented surveys given to several four-year university and community college professors on challenges that first-year college students face.  It had several quotes directly from the professors themselves and a list of statistics from both university professors and community college professors.

Second article I found using the boolean/Phrase search mode in EBSCOhost database and is titled “Defining College Readiness from the Inside out: First-Generation College Students Perspectives” written by Kathleen L Byrd and Ginger MacDonald, published in the fall of 2005.  This was my peer-reviewed article.  This article documented a national study by R.H. McCabe on college students transferring from a community college to a university that were older than 25 and were of the first generation in their families to attend college.  The first-generation students took placement tests to determine college readiness.  The article documented all steps the study took in order to get their statistics, and results of the study.