November 2002Learning and teaching day The Xgrain project Easy entry into bibliographic searching for inexperienced users

November 2002Learning and teaching day Project Aim To enhance and promote the use and usability of: Abstracting and Indexing services Electronic Tables of Contents These services lie within the JISC Information Environment and are used in learning and teaching, as well as research

November 2002Learning and teaching day Why the JISC IE? It contains quality, reviewed resources It eases access to resources while maximising security by using Athens It allows download of information and learning resources for incorporation into learning materials and essays while protecting copyright and IPR It lets holders of resources make them widely available and demonstrate their usefulness

November 2002Learning and teaching day Project Objectives To enable Z39.50 cross-searching between abstracting and indexing and tables of contents services To provide an interface to enable a student to carry out 'shallow' cross-searching with an option to link to the native interfaces To develop a cross-searching interface for learning and teaching To make learning materials available to students and teachers

November 2002Learning and teaching day Why? To encourage students to use abstracting and indexing services –JISC studies suggest they are not widely used To minimise the number of interfaces students have to learn To save users from logging on many times to different services To encourage A & I use in Learning and Teaching

November 2002Learning and teaching day Example Sarah is a student at Heriot-Watt University studying for an MEng in Civil and Environmental Engineering Project groups are asked to devise standard procedures for flood-risk assessment of development sites They need to know what factors to consider How does she find out? Friend, library, Google, tutor

November 2002Learning and teaching day Some time later... She has 283,000 hits on Google - are they any use? She has looked at some recommended databases - the different interfaces are confusing to her It has taken a long time to get this far, re-doing her search each time

November 2002Learning and teaching day Back to the drawing board... She asks a lecturer for help The lecturer tells her about Xgrain, a cross- search tool that looks for A&I references across the IE and explains that: –Databases in the IE have been evaluated as containing good quality information –She does not need to know what databases her institution subscribes to as Xgrain knows by her Athens username –She only needs to type in her search once

November 2002Learning and teaching day Searching Xgrain Sarah types in her search, “flood risk”

November 2002Learning and teaching day

November 2002Learning and teaching day Recap on benefits One interface Only need to search once Resources are evaluated, good quality No need for student to know a list of databases A link to the native interface –This means the student can directly use a database that appeals to them

November 2002Learning and teaching day Useful URLs Xgrain – EDNER – UK PBL (Problem Based Learning) site –

November 2002Learning and teaching day Learning Materials An aim of the project was to collect a series of online learning materials. We have already received a number of these for use by students They include topics such as –Common searching problems –Why cross-search –Using information in the real world You will be able to see some of these materials now

November 2002Learning and teaching day