Using Web Information Sources
Philip Doty, R. E. Wyllys, and Don Drumtra

Assignment Title: Using Web Information Sources to Define Three Technical Terms.

Participation: Individual, with group discussion.

Format: Formal essay, 3-4 pages in length, in APA final manuscript format.

Submission Method: Email to the course emailbox with the essay attached as a Microsoft Word document.

Maximum points: 5

Introduction: Often information professionals are asked questions that require quicker response than is normally possible using traditional reference sources. Although one can be fairly assured that traditional reference sources are credible, many Web sources may lack adequate (or, indeed, any) credibility. This assignment provides you with experience in using Web-based sources and search techniques to define three technical terms used in information technology.

Goals: The goals of this assignment are to:

• Provide you experience in using Web-based resources
  
  
• Help you think about and provide you experience in evaluating the credibility of various Web sources.
  
  
• Provide you experience in noticing and evaluating the performance of specific Web search engines.
  
  
• Acquaint you with the meaning of three important IT technical terms used in Web telecommunications and networking:"bit rate," "bandwidth," and "baud"; and to familiarize you with how source biases can cause the confusion and misunderstanding often associated with these terms.
  
  
• Provide you experience in learning from your fellow students through the use of the Discussion Board.
  

Tasks: You may show you have met the goals of this assignment by writing a short, concise essay of three to four double-spaced pages in Microsoft Word about your thoughts and experiences with Web-based resources, source credibility, Web search engines, and developing your definitions:

1. Identify several sources on the web that can help you define the terms "bit rate," "bandwidth," and "baud." You may do this using Web search engines and any other techniques you choose. You should expect to find some differences among the definitions offered for them by various sources. You should choose at least two different web search engines among your techniques.
   
   
2. On the Discussion Board, discuss your thoughts, techniques, and experiences; the credibility of your sources; and the merits of the various search engines you used.
   
   
3. Write an essay about the thoughts you had, the definitions you developed, and your experiences in finding support for them. Typical questions your readers might ask are:
   
   • What criteria should be used to determine the credibility of Web sources?
   • What criteria should be used to determine the usefulness of search engines?
   • What do the three IT terms mean?
     
   • How are they similar, and how are they different?
     
   • What is the confusion that surrounds their definitions?
     
   • Where does the confusion originate?
   • How did you find the sources you used to support your definitions?
   • What criteria did you actually use to choose among the sources on the Web?
   • What are the strengths and weakness of the search engines you chose?.
   • What criteria did you actually use to choose among the search engines?
     
   • What did you learn from this assignment?
     
   
   
4. Be sure your essay identifies clearly the sources of the information that supports your conclusions.
   
   
5. Send the essay as an attachment to an email addressed to the course emailbox.

Hint: Notes, the title page, reference list, tables, figures, and appendices are not counted when applying page limits. See Standards for Written Work, bullet 5.