COURSE DESCRIPTION

Teaches the student how to access, utilize, and evaluate information on the World Wide Web using a variety of search tools. Also teaches the student comparative analysis of search tool architecture and how to select the most appropriate tool for their information need. Lecture 1 hour. Total 1 hour per week.

GENERAL COURSE PURPOSE

Designed to teach the student how to access information on the World Wide web using the appropriate search tool and how search tools work to retrieve and display information. The student will also learn how to critique search strategy and evaluate web sites.

ENTRY LEVEL COMPETENCIES

Satisfactory score on the English proficiency examination.

COURSE OBJECTIVES

Upon completion of this course, the student will be able to:

A. understand the history, current state, and future of information options of the WWW
B. analyze an information need and differentiate between online databases and Internet search tools
C. identify and compare the major features of search tools and their methods of indexing, retrieving, displaying and ranking sites
D. select and effectively us the most appropriate search tool to access information
E. evaluate web sites retrieved for both content and presentation

A. Online environment
B. Types of search tools
C. Search tool architecture
D. Applied searching
E. Web site evaluation

A. Meta tags
B. Personalized library pages
C. Submitting web pages to search engines

Revised 03/00