1. Education Databases -- ERIC

2. What is ERIC? Sponsored by the Dept. of Education (U.S.) A primary electronic database for education research ERIC stands for the Educational Resources Informational Center Includes indexing for journal articles and documents (unpublished reports, dissertations, government studies, conference proceedings, etc.)

3. Start at the OCLS homepage Click on: Education (under Article Databases)

4. Click on: ERIC (EBSCOHost)

5. Enter your last name and the 14-digit number supplied by OCLS or on your student ID card.

6. ERIC Search interface

7. Use the Thesaurus The Thesaurus is the controlled vocabulary or descriptors or subject headings. Descriptors are assigned to each article when there is enough content to warrant that descriptor. E.g. An article about academic achievement and parental involvement with middle school students will have at least the following descriptors: academic achievement; middle school students; parent participation. The best way to get the most relevant citations in ERIC

8. One article may have several subject headings to cover the content of the article. Using the Thesaurus will usually generate results that are more likely to be relevant to your topic than just keyword searching. Use the Thesaurus

9. Using the Thesaurus, let’s search for articles on authentic assessment for elementary education. The Thesaurus tells us that the “controlled vocabulary” or ERIC language for this topic is,

10. Keep clicking until you get to the screen with the Scope Note, Broader, Related Terms and Used For terms.

11. From the list of related terms, you decide to select portfolio assessment, scoring rubrics

12. Interpreting this page: Scope note tells how this term is used in this database. Broader terms are more encompassing terms than alternative assessment Related terms are other ways to look at your subject >> sometimes they trigger a different direction with your research

13. Once you have check marked the terms you want to search, go to the top and click on Search

14. Repeat the same steps through the Thesaurus so you can get results for elementary level students.

15. Thesaurus Search for elementary

16. Note that the last search you did is still showing in the search box. (2) In the 2 nd box, type: S1, representing the first search that you did, (3) click Search. Now, to review your searches, click on (1) Search History.

17. You have done a Boolean search Results = S1 2,910 Results = S2 97,932 Overlap of 2 circles = 323, including both terms. 323

18. The resulting set of citations, includes both articles (EJ######) and ED documents (ED######).

19. What is the difference? ED = ERIC Documents (usually are texts that have not been printed in a journal, e.g. dissertations, conference proceedings, technical reports, etc.) EJ = ERIC Journals (education related articles from a wide variety of journal titles).

20. Continue on to Education Databases -- ERIC Part 2