Norma Marion Alloway Library

UNIV 110 Online Course - Scholarly Inquiry and Research Methods

Online learning

For guidance on online learning, go to https://www.twu.ca/online-learning 

Welcome to UNIV 110

                             

 

UNIV 110 (Scholarly Inquiry and Research Methods) is your opportunity to begin developing information handling and research skills in an academic setting. Your professor has been teaching courses like this for more than 35 years (more than 24 of these online), so you are in good hands.

This course will enable you to get a grasp of today's world of academic information and the ways in which scholars (including yourself) do their work.  You will be walking with a research topic from initial problem statement through the gathering and analysis of research resources.  Right now, you should begin thinking about a research topic, which can be from another course you are taking or an area of interest in your studies (leadership, current social issues, etc.).

Start with the Syllabus and then move on to each lesson in turn.  The syllabus will explain the goals of the course and the content of the lessons. Due dates are stated in each each of the 5 assignment sections.

I will be asking you to run your topic by me early so that I can alert you to any possible obstacles.  From that point you will be turning the topic into a problem statement (research question or thesis) and doing a series of 5 assignments that will enable you to practice your skills.

The textbook for the course is William Badke. Research Strategies: Finding your Way through the Information Fog, 7th ed. Bloomington, IN: iUniverse.com, 2021. (For information on getting the book, go to http://williambadke.com/GetTheBook.htm).

My main role as a professor will be to mentor you.  That means that I will give you opportunity to resubmit assignments if they can be improved by acting on my comments.  You will have two opportunities to resubmit after the first submission.  This gives you up to three opportunities to complete the assignment.

Be sure to read the course materials and instructions carefully.  There is a lot of detail here.  

A note on generative AI (ChapGPT, Bard, Google Translate, etc.)

Artificial intelligence now allows us to have the machine do a lot of our writing for us. That may well be useful in some settings, but when you are a student, a large part of your research and writing experience requires you to develop skills. Those skills grow when you wrestle through your own research design, do your own searches, develop your own outlines and wrestle through your own writing. The more you turn any of these skills over to AI, the less likely it is that you will develop them for yourself. That is why we encourage minimal use of AI when you are in a learning task such as research or writing.

AI can be deceptive in its abilities. ChatGPT, for example, regularly invents citations to articles or books that don't exist. It also invents information if it does not have needed information at hand. Thus, if you are using AI in your work, you will need to check what it produces very carefully.

AI can sometimes be helpful in generating first drafts. It is particularly useful for English as a second language students who prefer writing in their home language and translating into English. For this course, you are permitted to use a translation program.

In any assignment you submit, you must report any use of an AI tool, explaining what you used and how you used it. Think of such AI as a co-author that must be reported. But keep AI use to a minimum while you are in the learning experience of research and writing. Do not use AI to search for book and article citations. It may find a few but will invent citations that do not exist in real life. AI is a dangerously inadequate search tool, and I always know when I see an AI-generated bibliography.

For a perspective on AI, see the following presentation (open to full screen and navigate using the arrows at the bottom):

Online courses can be a lonely prospect, but think of your professor as a lifeline. Email me whenever you have any question at all. As far as getting work done in the course, it is advisable to schedule your time and seek to meet deadlines, since it is tempting with online courses to put things off to another day.

 

If you are experiencing any difficulties, please don't hesitate to contact me at badke@twu.ca.  I want to support your success rather than be a problem to you.  So please get in touch whenever you want to.

All grades with be of the letter variety (A, B, etc.) rather than numeric scores.

Guide to Library OneSearch

In just over 7 minutes, this video walks you through the search functions of Library OneSearch, shows you our research guides, and offers options for formatting citations. [Open to full screen]

 

 

 

(Open to full screen)