Designing Web-Based Training: How to Teach Anyone Anything Anywhere Anytime

6.7. Guided research

In our complex world, research is a basic skill. Rote memorization of facts will not do in most fields. There is too much to learn and what is true today may not be true tomorrow. Guided research teaches learners to conduct research—how to gather, analyze, and report on information.

In a guided-research activity, learners consult various sources of information on a topic and then assemble a report, jump page, or multimedia scrapbook summarizing the topic.

6.7.1. When to use guided research

Because this type of activity works well with individuals, teams, and entire classes, make it a staple of instructor-led net-based courses. Use it to teach learners how to conduct informal research on a subject, especially if learners will frequently need to prepare reports summarizing their research efforts.

Although locating information and analyzing it are a part of guided research, these activities are not the primary focus. Use guided research when you want to teach learners to evaluate, select, and organize information. To teach just information gathering, use a scavenger hunt (p 204); and to teach analysis, use a guided analysis activity (p 211).

6.7.2. How guided research works

We never stop investigating. We are never satisfied that we know enough to get by . Every question we answer leads on to another question. This has become the greatest survival trick of ...