NATIONAL QUALIFICATIONS CURRICULUM SUPPORT
Scottish
Baccalaureate
The Interdisciplinary Project
Online Research
The Scottish Qualifications Authority regularly
reviews the arrangements for National
Qualifications. Users of all NQ support materials,
whether published by Learning and Teaching
Scotland or others, are reminded that it is their
responsibility to check that the support materials
correspond to the requirements of the current
arrangements.
Acknowledgement
Learning and Teaching Scotland gratefully acknowledges this contribution to the
National Qualifications support programme for Scottish Baccalaureate.
© Learning and Teaching Scotland 2011
This resource may be reproduced in whole or in part for ed ucational purposes by
educational establishments in Scotland provided that no profit accrues at any stage.
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Contents
Introduction
4
Online research
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Introduction
The Scottish baccalaureate project requires you to:
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select a topic for research
research the topic
present the project findings
evaluate the project
evaluate your skills development.
The project requires you to submit five pieces of evidence or assessments.
These are:
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project proposal
project plan
presentation of project findings/product
evaluation of project
self-evaluation of skills development.
Selecting a topic
1.
The topic needs to cover one of the following five broad contexts:
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employability
citizenship
economic development
sustainable development
enterprise.
2.
The topic must be multidisciplinary, ie involve using knowledge and
skills from more than one subject area.
3.
The topic must make links to your subject to the real world.
4.
The topic needs to involve different forms of research , for example:
 web searches
 contacting experts, companies, organisations, universities, colleges
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 carrying out surveys
 issuing questionnaires
 experimentation.
5.
The topic must provide you with opportunities to develop your
cognitive and generic skills:
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6.
application of subject knowledge and understanding
research skills
interpersonal skills
planning
independent learning
problem solving
presentation skills
self-evaluation.
Complete and submit a project proposal.
Online research
Online research will help you choose your topic, complete your project
proposal, flesh out your project plan and finally research your topic.
It is therefore a necessary skill that you will develop in carrying out your
multidisciplinary project.
Project proposal – choosing a project
It is very important that you take some time to consider your choice of
project. Do not rush in!
Before selecting a topic for your project it is vital that you do some
background research into your area of interest. If you have no idea of an area
of interest then online research will offer some inspiration.
Try researching broadsheet newspapers, journals and news programmes on
recent topics in the headlines.
Your project proposal should contain the aims and objectives of your project
and a description of how you will find out about the m.
Research ethics
When carrying out your project it is important that you take into
consideration the ethical implications involved in your research. If your
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research involves collecting information from people, you may need to obtain
ethical approval. This process can take a very long time and approval may not
be given. This particularly applies to the use of questionnaires and interv iews
in your project. Before carrying out any research involving questionnaires
and/or interviews you must check with your project tutor and teacher, who
will be able to advise you.
The following website will provide you with some guidance on this difficult
issue: http://www.open.ac.uk/research/ethics/index.shtml.
Project plan – firming up the details
Once your project proposal has been approved by your teacher or supervisor
you need to begin work on your project plan. Between the project proposal
stage and the project planning stage you will need to carry out extensive
research in your project area, as you will need to identify contacts,
companies, organisations and universities who will be able to assist you in
your research. These contacts need to be listed in the project plan.
Once your project plan has been approved you can begin your research in
earnest.
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Online research
Browser basics
What is a browser?
A browser is a software program that allows you to read web pages and
navigate between them, together with a host of other features, including
letting the user view video clips and listen to audio clips. There is a wide
range of different browsers that you can use, including the following popular
choices:
Microsoft Internet Explorer
Google Chrome
Mozilla Firefox
Apple Safari
Opera
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Searching the web
We are going to use the most popular platform Microsoft Explorer as our
example.
With the World Wide Web reported to have several billion websites available
and this number growing at an alarming rate you could be forgiven for g etting
lost in its mass of information. Despite appearances and its size , finding
information on the web can be straightforward, although sometimes time consuming, and can be achieved in three main ways:
 using the address bar
 using a search engine
 using favourites or bookmarks (other browsers may use different terms for
this).
Using the address bar
Each website has a unique address or URL ( uniform resource locator), which,
when typed into the address bar of the browser, will take you directly to that
website. Great care must be taken to type the address accurately – any error
will mean that the desired website may not be retrieved. An example of a web
address or URL is http://www.bbc.co.uk. Typing this address into the
address bar of the browser will take you to the BBC website.
If you know or can guess the web address of the web page you want to visit
you can type it into the address bar (see example below) and then click on the
Go to button or press the Enter key to go to that address. (Note: you don’t
have to type the ‘http://’ part of the web address as this will be automatically
added by the browser).
You can also use the address bar as a basic search engine by typing your
search terms into the address bar (as shown below) and then pressing the
Enter key. A search will be performed by the browser’s default search engine
and the results displayed.
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Using a search engine
Search engines are tools similar to library catalogues that allow you to search
or browse the web in various ways. This is illustrated in the following pages
using the popular search engine Google. Google has a wide range of different
ways to find information, news, maps, images etc , using a number of
specialist services. However, we will concentrate on the following:
 searching the web using Google’s web search
 searching the web using Google’s search images
 searching the web for images using Google’s search maps.
Web search
You can search for web pages by simply typing a search term or search terms
into the search box at www.google.co.uk and clicking on the Google Search
button below it (as shown below).
Google will then search through all the websites known to it for any mention
of your search term and retrieve a list of matching websites. It is worth taking
some time to think what search terms to use, as vague or very general search
terms will produce unhelpful search results. Also bear in mind that words and
names can have very different meanings depending on their context so make
sure, as far as you can, that your search terms are specific, unambiguous and,
when necessary, given a context. For example, if you want to find
information on Clyde football team your search terms could be:
Clyde football Glasgow, which should be specific enough to ensure that you
do not get too many irrelevant web pages that mention the river Clyde,
companies with Clyde in their name, people called Clyde or are about
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American football or some other football club with Clyde in its name that is
not based in Glasgow. However, you will still get several thousand irrelevant
websites that mention the three search terms but which are not about Clyde
Football Club. To be even more specific, you need to use search operators,
which will define your search more exactly for Google. The table below
describes some of the more commonly used search operators .
Search operator
Phrase search
“…”
AND +
NOT –
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Description
The phrase search operator
allows you to search for an
exact phrase by putting
quotation marks around your
search term. Google will then
search for the occurrence of
the entire phrase, not just the
words which make up the
phrase. This type of search is
very good for proper names,
lyrics, speeches or
complicated subjects.
Google automatically
searches for all the search
terms but ignores common
words. If you want to specify
that a particular word, phrase
or number must appear in the
web page then you should put
a + sign immediately before
your search term.
You can narrow your search
results by eliminating web
sites that mention a search
term or terms that you want
to avoid. This is useful if
your search term has
different meanings in
different contexts.
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Example
“Clyde football club”
Note: Make sure the
inverted commas go
immediately before and
immediately after the
phrase you are searching
for
BBC +one
monty -python -golf
Note: This search will
find web pages which
mention monty but not
web pages that also
mention python or golf
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Word stem *
Synonym search
~
Google automatically
searches for variants of your
search terms using stemming
technology, but other search
engines use an asterisk (*) to
allow you to search for any
words that have the same
beginning or ending.
If you want to search not
only for your search term but
also for its synonyms, place
the tilde sign (~) immediately
in front of your search term.
scot*
Note: This search term
will find all words that
begin with ‘scot’ (ie Scot,
Scots, scotch, Scottish,
Scottie etc)
~old
Note: This search term
will find words with
similar meanings to old
(eg historic, antique etc)
Once you have performed a search you will be presented with the search
results that match your search terms, as illustrated below:
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The following diagram and table describe the various main elements of a
typical Google search results screen.
1 Header
The header portion of the search screen is split in two.
On the left-hand side is the Google products bar. This displays links to
various other Google search services, including Images, Videos, Maps etc,
and a More menu for the full list of Google products and services , including
Gmail.
On the right-hand side are:
Web history – Even if you are not signed in your search results can still be
customised based on the previous search activity on the computer you are
using.
Search settings – This link allows you to access your Search settings (eg
search language, the number of results you would like to see per page and
whether or not query suggestions are provided when you type into the search
box). If you are signed in, you will be able to see your Google account
settings.
Sign in/out – Clicking here allows you to sign in or out of your Google
account to personalise your search experience. If you are signed in to your
Google account, the email address associated with your account will be
shown on the top of the page. To ensure that other people cannot access your
Google account always sign out when you have finished using the computer.
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2 Search bar
You can use the search bar to perform a search of all the websites known to
Google. Simply type in a few keywords to des cribe what you are looking for
and then press the Enter key on your keyboard or click on the Search button.
(Note: On the Google home page you also have the option to click on the I’m
Feeling Lucky button, which simply takes you directly to the website that
tops your search results.)
Advanced search – For more precise searches you can click on this link to
specify your search more exactly.
Search statistics – Just under the search bar you will see the approximate
total number of results and how long the sea rch took to complete. In the
example above the search for american football found about 87,900,000
matching web pages in 0.24 seconds.
Google logo – On special occasions, you may see a new Google logo for the
day, which is suited to the special event or oc casion.
3 Search results
Typically an individual search result will look like th is:
The search result will contain the following elements.
Title – The first line of any search result is the title of the web page, which is
also a link to take you to that web page.
Snippet – Below the title is a short description of the webpage, which can
include an actual excerpt of text from the page. ( Note: Your search terms will
appear in bold to help you decide if this is a suitable web page or not.)
URL – The web address of the result is displayed in green.
Cached, Similar – If for some reason the webpage does not load, you can
click Cached to see a version of the page from when Google last indexed it.
Click Similar to see other websites that are related to that result.
Indented results – When Google finds multiple results from the same
website, the most relevant result is listed first, with other relevant pages from
that site indented below it. If there are more than two results from the same
site, the remaining results can be accessed by clicking the More results from
link.
Integrated results
Google also searches all types of Internet content and so your results can
include images, maps, videos, news articles, books etc. Clicking on the
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image, map, video etc will take you to the web page where that image, map or
video can be found.
4 Tools and filters
The panel on the left-hand side of the search results screen dynamically
shows the search modes and filters related to your search. These links are
listed in four sections according to the default setting and can be used to filter
and customise your search results as follows:
Everything – By clicking on the links under Everything (default) you can
limit your search results by the type of content (eg news, images, blogs,
videos etc). (Note: You can see the full list of content types related to your
search by clicking the More link.)
The Web – By default Google will search all the web pages known to it, but
you can restrict your results to just web pages from the UK by clicking on the
Pages from the UK link.
Any time – The links listed here allow you to filter your results according to
time (eg Latest, Past 24 hours, Past week, Past month etc).
Standard view – You can change how you view your search results from the
standard view using the links listed here. Other options include Sites with
images, Fewer/More shopping sites, Page previews (shows thumbnail
images of web pages found) and Translated search.
Note that clicking on the More search tools link will display more options
for changing or filtering your search results.
5 Sponsored links
In your search results you will normally see sponsored links at the top of the
screen, at the right-hand side of the screen or both. These links are related to
your search and have been paid for by the companies concerned. The revenue
from this advertising enables companies like Google to provide their services
of charge.
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6 Bottom of the page
At the bottom of your search results page you will see something similar to
this:
Related searches – Based on your original search terms Google will suggest
other related searches that might be helpful to you. To perform any of these
related searches simply click on the relevant link.
More results – If you cannot find what you are looking for on the first page
of search results then you might want to look at further pages , which you can
do by clicking on the Next link, clicking on any of the page number links or
clicking on any of the ooos of the extended Google (each letter corresponds
to a numbered page of search results). Notice that once you go beyond the
first page of search results a Previous link appears to allow you to move back
to previous pages of search results.
Search within results – Clicking on this link allows you to narrow your
search results using additional search terms.
Search Help – Click here to access Google’s help pages to assist you in
conducting your search.
Give us feedback – You can click here to give Google some feedback on
your search experience.
To access all the services provided by Google you need to click on the more
link in the Google products bar in the header at the top of the screen and
then click on the even more link at the bottom of the menu that appears. You
will then be presented with a web page which lists all of the services
provided by Google.
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We will now look at two of these services in more detail.
Images search
Google also allows you to search for individual images on web pages using
its Search Images facility, as shown in the example below – a search for an
image of cholesterol.
You search in the same way as you search the web in general, but your search
results will appear as a series of thumbnail pictures (as shown below) to
allow you to choose the image you want.
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To see the image you want in its original context within a web page , simply
click on the relevant thumbnail image to retrieve that web page , as shown
below:
You can click on the thumbnail image at the top of the page (or the See fullsize image link) to display it as a full-size image on its own.
You can right-click on the image to bring up the following menu , which
allows you, amongst other things, to copy or save the image to be reused
elsewhere (Note: You should make sure that you have permission to re -use
any images taken from the web.)
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The search results screen for an image search is pretty similar to that for a
general web search, with the following exceptions:
 The tools and filters on the left-hand side of the screen are relevant to
images, allowing you to restrict your search by the size of the image, the
type of image (eg those featuring faces, photos, clip art etc) and the
colours used in the image (eg full colour, black and white, or specific
colours from palette displayed).
 The snippet describing the web page in the search results is replaced by a
description of the dimensions, size and format of the image .
 At the bottom of the page you have a link that allows you to report
offensive images, instead of the other links that you see in a general web
search.
Other search engines
As well as Google there are a number of different search engines. Some of
the better known ones are:
You may also use a meta-search engine, which performs your search across
several search engines at the same time, for example:
One important point to remember with search engines, meta or otherwise, is
that none of them cover all of the World Wide Web. Also , they all have their
strengths and weaknesses regarding coverage, presentation, ease of use, speed
and so on. Try out a few before settling down with two or three tried and
trusted search engines. Remember, if you cannot find what you are looking
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for with one search engine then try another one. There are also search engines
that specialise in particular types of search (eg business, careers, medical,
legal, people and so on).
Using Favorites
The Favorites facility provided by your browser, allows you to store links to
websites that you have previously visited and found useful. You can also
organise your favourite sites using folders to store links to related websites.
You can access your favourites list by clicking on the Favorites menu from
the Menu bar:
Alternatively, you can access it by clicking on the Favorites button, which
will open the Favorites Centre (shown below). Using the appropriate tab, the
Favorites Centre will also allow access to your history (of previously visited
web sites) and any RSS feeds that may be available.
If you want to keep your favourites visible at all times then click the Pin the
Favorites Centre icon, which is to the right of the Add to Favorites button.
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Adding a link to a web page using Favorites
To add a web page to your list of favourites follow these steps:
 Make sure your browser is showing the web page you want to add.
 Click on the Favorites menu or the Favorites button.
 Select the Add to Favorites … option or click on the
button;
 From the Add a Favorite dialog box make your choices as to how you
want to save the link to this web page:
If you want to add this link to your list of favourites without putting it into a
folder then simply click on the Add button.
If you want to save the link to an existing folder then click in the Create in
box to display the available folders, then click on the fol der you want to add
it to and finally click on the Add button.
If no suitable folder exists for this link then firstly c reate a folder by clicking
on the New Folder button, then type in a name for this folder and click on the
Create button to create this new folder. You can now save the link to this
folder by clicking on the Add button.
Note also that you can also edit the name given to the web page to shorten it
or make it more memorable.
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Organising your favourites
To organise the links which you have already added to your favourites follow
these steps:
 Click on the Favorites menu or the Favorites button.
 Select the Organize Favorites… option (if you have clicked on the
Favorites button this option is available by clicking on the arrow to the
right of the Add to Favorites… button).
 Use the Organize Favorites dialog box (shown below) to create new
folders, move favourites to different folder(s), rename favourites or
folders, and delete folders or favourites. Make sure that you select the
folder or favourite you wish to rename, move or delete before clicking on
the appropriate button.
Being familiar with the Favorites facility can save you a lot of time and
effort searching for websites that you use frequently.
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Tasksheet 1: Searching the web
A very useful website for learning and practising your web search skills is
provided by Intute in its Virtual Training Suite. Here you can undertake
tutorials related to your chosen subject:
To access the Intute Virtual Training Suite type the following ad dress into the
address bar of your browser: www.vts.intute.ac.uk.
On this page you will be presented with a wide range of internet tutorials
developed for different subject areas. Click on the link for the tutoria l for
your preferred subject area and then follow the instructions to complete the
tutorial, which comprises four sections:
When you have completed your chosen tutorial print out your
Links Basket as a record of useful websites for your chosen
subject area.
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Evaluating and referencing websites
Evaluating websites
As with any publication it is important to assess the reliability of information
provided. This is even more important when considering web pages as anyone
can publish a web page.
Web pages can be evaluated using five main criteria:
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authority
accuracy
objectivity
currency
coverage.
Authority
 Is there an author (ie has the web page been signed or attributed to a
particular person)?
 Is the author qualified in the subject area covered by th e web page? Are
the author’s credentials and/or additional information about the author
listed anywhere in the website?
 Is the author well known in the subject area covered?
 Which organisation or institution, if any, is responsible for publishing the
web page? How reputable is this organisation or institution?
 Did you link to this web page from a website that you trust?
Accuracy
 Is the information reliable with few or no factual errors?
 Are you able to contact the author or webmaster to correct errors or
discuss the content of the web page?
Objectivity
 Is the web page actually an advert for some product or service while
masquerading as a source of unbiased information?
 What are the objectives of the author of the webpage?
 Is there any direct advertising on the web page?
 Which organisation or institution, if any, is responsible for publishing the
web page? How reputable is this organisation or institution?
 Did you link to this web page from a website that you trust?
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Currency
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When was the web page originally created?
When was the web page last updated?
Are all the links on the web page up to date?
Did you link to this web page from a website that you trust?
Coverage
 Is there an author (ie has the web page been signed or attri buted to a
particular person)?
 Is the author qualified in the subject area covered by the web page? Are
the author’s credentials and/or additional information about the author
listed anywhere in the website?
 Is the author well known in the subject area covered?
 Which organisation or institution, if any, is responsible for publishing the
web page? How reputable is this organisation or institution?
 Did you link to this web page from a website that you trust?
Referencing websites
A convention of formal writing is that all references t o other sources are
acknowledged, including online resources such as websites. References add
weight to what has been written and provide common ground between writer
and reader. There are two main methods for making references to any sources
that you have drawn upon in the preparation of a piece of writing, namely the
numeric system and the name and date system (known as the Harvard
system). There are advantages and disadvantages to both systems but you
should stick with whichever system you choose; consistency is the key to
good reference and bibliographic practice. It is important when making
references to ensure that you supply sufficient detail to allow the precise
resource cited to be identified. For web pages it is important that you include
the date when you accessed the web page as very often it will change over
time or be deleted altogether.
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Numeric system
Web page
Author’s surname, initials. Title (in italics) [online]. Available from: (give
the URL/web address of specific item) date of work (if given), [date
accessed].
eg
Priestly, J.B. Smoking in a Hot Bath [online]. Available from:
http://www.atlcom.net/-drlathem/pipes/ephem8.html 11.10.1996
[accessed 19 Nov 1998].
Electronic journal
Author’s surname, initials. Article title. Journal tit le (in italics) [online].
Volume (in bold) (part/issue), date published, page reference. Available from:
(give the URL/web address of specific item) [ date accessed].
eg
Rogers, M. Smoking gun. Library Journal [online]. 131 (4), 2006, 64.
Available from: http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6308663.html
[accessed 31 Mar 2006].
Harvard system
Web page
Author’s surname, initials (year of publication) Title (in italics) [online].
Available from: (give the URL/web address of specific item) [ date accessed].
eg
Priestly, J.B. (1996) Smoking in a Hot Bath [online]. Available from:
http://www.atlcom.net/-drlathem/pipes/ephem8.html [accessed 19
November 1998].
Electronic journal
Author’s surname, initials (year of publication) Article title. Journal title (in
italics) [online]. Volume (in bold) (part/issue), page reference. Available
from: (give the URL/web address of specific item) [ date accessed].
eg
Rogers, M. (2006) Smoking gun. Library Journal [online]. 131 (4), 64.
Available from: http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6308663.html
[accessed 31 March 2006].
A useful website to help you create a bibliography using the Havard
referencing system is the Harvard reference generator, which is available
from Neil’s Toolbox at www.neilstoolbox.com.
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Tasksheet 2: Evaluating and referencing websites
Print out and complete the following table by visiting each website and
evaluating it according to the five criteria described in the previous section.
Finally reference each website according to both the Harvard and numeric
systems.
Website 1
http://www.bhf.org.uk/
Authority
Accuracy
Objectivity
Currency
Coverage
Harvard
reference
Numeric
reference
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