Changing the Way Students Perform Online Research

Google and other search engines have changed the way people locate information. The problem is that online students think of Google as a proper tool to use to perform research for assignments. Google Scholar may provide access to some scholarly research. However, most online schools prefer that students use the school’s library search feature. It is important that students consider the reliability of the type of content that is available on traditional websites.

Pew reported that the majority of students are not able to recognize bias in online content. This has become frustrating for professors because these skills should be taught in first-year college courses. Turnitin’s white paper titled What’s Wrong with Wikipedia, reported that in over 37 million papers submitted by students, there were 156 million matches to content found from the Internet. This means that students use sites like Google Books, May Clinic, Yahoo Answers, Wikipedia, etc. These are unacceptable sources to use for college-level courses.

According to Turnitin’s research, the following problems exist with student’s research behavior:

Problem: Students value immediacy over quality – Students use sites like Wikipedia to find quick answers. Wikipedia may offer some valuable resources at the bottom of their site to support the content. Solution: These sources are usually available through the school’s library search feature. Schools’ search engines are quite easy to use. They access some of the best material available for free. Students can easily mark a box for peer-reviewed studies. This will ensure that their research contains quality information.
Problem: Students often use cheat sites – Students may find sites that offer to write their papers for a fee. Most of these papers are captured within Turnitin’s plagiarism detecting software. Therefore when students buy the paper and submit as their own, the software will detect it as plagiarized. Solution: The time it takes to find and buy a paper on the Internet could have been used to simply write an original paper. Nothing is gained from submitted plagiarized work. Students risk getting expelled. Most assignments are not that long or difficult. The point of writing them is to gain knowledge. Students who attend school just to obtain a piece of paper will not be prepared for the working world. They will spend money on a degree that will not help them if they have not learned the information.
Problem: Research is not synonymous with search – Students may put a lot of faith in the information found on the Internet. Just because a site allows people to ask and answer questions, does not mean that the answers are correct. Searching for answers on the Internet does not mean that the answers are based on actual research. Solution: Using peer-reviewed sources that are available through the school’s library ensures that the information in the article has been reviewed by the author’s peers. These studies are actual research.

There are times when assignments allow for students to use websites like Apple.com, or other corporate or news sites. If this is allowed by the instructor, students must be able to recognize if the site is highly regarded. An example might be The New York Times. If students are in doubt, they should direct questions to their instructor for guidance.

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