About the Course
Why Should I take this Course?
If you think that Google or Yahoo! can supply all the information you need to succeed in your studies and life, you need to take this course! Although free sources on the Web can satisfy some of your requirements for general information, there is far more than that available to you. Every year, the Library spends millions of dollars to provide hundreds of high quality databases, in addition to electronic and print journals and books. These information sources are crucial for your academic success. But, learning which ones to search and use, and how best to search them can be difficult.
This course, "Eureka! Information Skills for Lifelong Learning", takes a problem-solving approach to introduce key databases and sources in different subject areas. You will learn general searching principles and particular techniques to help you find the "gold" in the information sand-pit. Each student will also choose a specific research topic (either for another course or project, or a topic of personal interest) as a final project and use several different databases and other sources to create a bibliography of sources that answer the research questions.
This course will provide you with skills that will last beyond graduation, and help you in your future jobs and personal life.
Course Objectives
It is expected that students who complete this course should be able to:
- Know how to start in different research environment
- Use major research tools
- Choose appropriate tools to find materials for their assignments quickly
- Create search strategies effectively and efficiently to find the information they need
- Tell if the resources found are appropriate to the task
- Create citations and acknowledge resources used
Assessment
This course will be graded Distinction, Pass or Fail. To pass this course, students must pass each assessment component.
Attendance & Participation:
- Students must attend at least 80% of all classes.
- Less than 80% attendance = fail.
Homework Exercises:
- 5 homework exercises, each will be marked 0-10, an average mark less than 60% = fail.
- Late submission will not be accepted.
- Each student will work on his/her own project. Project will be marked 0-10, mark below 60% = fail.
- Students will choose a specific research topic (it may be an assignment for another course or a topic of personal interest).
- Students will use access tools introduced in the course to create a bibliography of sources that help to answer the research question.
- Late submission will not be accepted.
- Presentation (optional): Up to 6 students may choose to make a 10-minute class presentation on their research topic for extra credit.
Who are teaching it?
Reference librarians at the HKUST Library
| Name | Subject Areas |
|---|---|
| Kitman Chan Kevin Ho | Business & Management |
| Victoria Caplan Catherine Kwok | Humanities & Social Sciences |
| Gabrielle Wong Eunice Wong | Science & Engineering |