5 Tips to Improve Your Online Research for Studying

The book A Mind of Numbers describes the brain as an organ with amazing capabilities that did not come with an instruction manual. Consequently, we have to consistently identify, evaluate, and implement skills and techniques for cracking various challenges encountered while studying.

Despite the internet presenting a vast collection of study resources for scholars, finding relevant material you need for your study online has never been easy. An excellent online research strategy demands patience, adept detective skills, a sound search strategy, and much more.

So, how to enhance your internet research
for studying?

1) Build Concept Groups from Your Research Topic

Research topics are based on reasonably independent concepts that, when combined, define them. They are a category of knowledge which forms part of the larger picture constituting a study. Let’s take an example of the study theme: Estimating the size of Australia urban populations using remote sensing.

We can break down our topic into the
following concept groups:

• Estimating the size of urban populations using remote sensing
• Size of Australia urban populations
• Australia urban populations
• Remote sensing

Formulating concept groups dissects a
study topic into sections that will ensure the subject matter is unbiasedly
covered when coming up with search terms.

2) Develop a Set of Search Terms for Each Concept Group

Search terms are keywords used when
discussing the concept. They can be found in the title of the discussion or
abstracts of literature covering your topic of study. For instance, we can
derive keywords from our study theme above as follows:

Topic: Estimating the size of Australia
urban populations using remote sensing

Concept group	Search Terms
Estimating the size of urban populations using remote sensing	Estimating, size of the urban population, remote sensing, size
Size of Australia urban populations	Australia, urban populations
Australia urban populations	Australia, urban, populations
Remote sensing	Remote, sensing

Search terms make it easier for search
engines to mine out content relevant to your queries from millions of readily
available databases. On a different note, while comping up with search phrases,
always considered the synonyms to these terms as they are also critical in
identifying relevant content on the web. For example, the word ‘urban’ in our
topic is synonymized by built-up, town, city, and non-rural.

3) Always Judge the Reliability of Web Pages

Don’t just take the first search results
you get without questioning the legitimacy of your web source. A typical case
is when exploring the web for Australian professional essay service.
Out of the hundreds of pages that will pop-up for the essay writing service
results, you must assess the reputation of each site you consider to avoid
trusting the wrong entities with your assignment.

Several critical factors to consider
while gauging the authenticity of web pages include:

Objectivity	– What is the nature of the organization behind the web page? – Is the text an advertisement? – Does the site seem to only present one side of a controversy?
Currency	– When was the page written? – When was the information from any graphs or charts gathered? – Is the information kept current?
Reputation	Some organizations, such as the UN and NASA, have a reputation for reliability in terms of the technical content they publish on their websites.
Control	– Be cautious of sites with many contributions and little or no editorial control as they potentially contain a blend of reliable and unreliable information. – For example, Wikipedia has not considered a good online research source as it has no reliable editorial control.
Accuracy	– Based on your knowledge of the subject matter, is the information published on the site correct? – Are there errors such as grammatical mistakes characterizing the information?
Authority	– Who sponsors the webpages? – What are their qualifications?
Documentation	– Did the authors cite their sources? – Are they cherry-picking citations to support their arguments?

4) Cultivate Good Browser and Search Engine Utilization Research Skills

The good browser and search engine utilization techniques are part of how to research effectively. Familiarize yourself, especially with Boolean Logics and Operators, which are search commands that easily retrieve records relevant to your study.

Know when to use brackets and combine
concepts using the boolean operators AND, NOT, and OR. For example, we can
search our previously mentioned topic as ‘Estimating the size of Australia
urban populations AND remote sensing NOT growth OR greenspace OR weather.’ Such
a search delivers more specific results.

5) Leverage on Multimedia Sources

Another significant consideration that
will help you with how to do research is utilizing multimedia sources.
Sometimes, concepts such as mathematical derivations can be involving to grasp
when expressed in written words, symbols, and numbers. Consequently, multimedia
sources such as those, including video tutorials can be a fun and easy way to
learn facts.

6) Do Not Let Distractions Stand in Your Way

Finally, despite one having all the research tips at hand, the internet presents
multiple hurdles detrimental to useful research. Therefore, you need to be
objective in your online explorations and avoid distractors, such as watching
irrelevant videos on Youtube or chatting with friends on social media platforms
that are just a few clicks away.

source http://wtf.telenor.com.np/2019/12/12/5-tips-to-improve-your-online-research-for-studying/