Instructional Design and Technology

The following search strategies can be used in our library catalog, Library OneSearch and in our library databases.

AND, OR, NOT:

• Use AND to narrow your search. For example, using "environmental analysis" AND "blend learning" will find articles with both terms, giving your more specific results.
• Use OR to broaden your results, such as using "educational technology" OR EdTech will find articles with either term, giving you more results.
• Use NOT to filter out results with terms you don't need. For example "mobile technology" NOT tablet* will filter out articles with the terms tablet or tablets. Note: This search strategy has mixed results, so use it with caution.

Phrase Searching: Put quotation marks (" ") around search terms to search for them as a phrase. For example: "higher education".

Truncation (*): The asterisk (*) replaces any number of characters and will find all endings for a word root. For example, instruct* will find instruct, instructor, instruction, instructing, etc.

Grouping Keywords: Use parentheses ( ) around your search terms to group them together. For example, the search ("online learning" OR "e-learning") AND chemistry will search for resources that mention the terms online learning or e-learning and chemistry.

Lynda.com offers an excellent selection of online courses and tutorials for the working professional and for a wide range of careers. Courses are broken down into short segments, so you can focus in on the skill sets and instruction you need.