Extreme Googling.1 (online learning course)

Extreme Googling.1: Google's Way of "Thinking"

(An Infopeople Online Learning Course)

April 5, 2005 - May 3, 2005

Want to get the MOST out of Google? Many of us rely on Google when we want to find an answer fast. Extreme Googling.1 will help you apply and extend the power of Google in a library setting. Some of the things you will learn in this course are:

• How Google "thinks" in default mode and how to take advantage of - even improve upon - Google's way of thinking
• Why search term word order matters
• How and when to use limiting commands and combine them with other search options

If you use Google in any way, this course will sharpen your skills, improve your efficiency, and put you in touch with new web searching techniques.

Workshop Description: This four-week online learning course workshop is the first of two online courses on Extreme Googling. Together, the two courses cover, at a pace geared to let you absorb and experiment, what the all-day Extreme Googling course presents in a classroom. In Extreme Googling.1, you will be doing many short exercises alternating with brief explanatory readings with numerous examples, taking quizzes, and participating in online discussions.

Preliminary Course Outline:

• Module 1: Google's Default Thinking and Google Tools
• • Lesson 1: Getting ready to Google
  • Lesson 2: A close look at Google search results display
• Module 2: Taking Charge of the Driving, or Getting the Most from Google's "Fuzzy" Thinking
• • Lesson 1: Google's way of thinking
  • Lesson 2: Improving on default AND
• Module 3: Asking Google to be Fuzzy
• • Lesson 1: Making Google "think" for you
  • Lesson 2: What is field limiting in Google?
• Module 4: Limiting to Find the Hard-to-Get
• • Lesson 1: The best limit commands
  • Lesson 2: Daterange: and filetype: limiting
  • Lesson 3: Caveats: Impossible limit commands and Google's rarely useful Advanced Web Search page

Online Learning Details: This four-week course will be taught online using the web. When you register, you will receive a registration confirmation which will include the URL to get to the course, as well as a username and password. Extreme Googling.1 will start on April 5, 2005 and end on May 3, 2005

The workshop consists of four one-and-a-half to two-hour learning modules. You can work on each module at your own pace, at any hour of the day or night. However, you will be expected to log in to the course each week to do that week's assignment. We ask that you log in sometime during the first week of the course to begin the course work.

The materials will remain available to work on for two additional weeks following the official end date, but you will be expected to accomplish the majority of the course in synchronization with your peers during the first four weeks.

Who Should Take This Course: This course is for anyone in the library community who tries to hunt for information on the Web. In addition to reference staff, the skills taught in this course can be beneficial to technical services staff, library business managers, procurement officers, development officers, public information officers, systems staff, and volunteers. Prerequisites: This course is taught over the web. You must:

• Have an Internet connection and Internet Explorer 5 or higher (some of the quiz functions do not work properly in Netscape).
• Be able to save Microsoft Word .docs or Adobe .pdf files to your computer and print them out. (For .doc files, a free Word Viewer is available at http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/search.aspx?displaylang=en. Search for "Word Viewer." For .pdf files, a free Adobe Acrobat Reader is available at http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/main.html).
• Be comfortable navigating on the web and navigating back and forward on a website that uses frames.

If you are not comfortable with any of the above, please consider taking this course with a colleague who does meet these requirements.

Course Start: This 4-week-long online learning course starts on April 5th, 2005.