When I think of sources I think of citations...

So I finished my survey essay…phew. Next up my assignment is to find sources which are related to what I want to research, and enter a conversation of academic writing which has already been established. After my survey report, I decided my topic question would be some think like this:

How can universities take effective approaches to get students more involved in themed centers/programs to maximize the undergraduate experience?

To see if there were some previous research related to my topic, I went to my university’s library website and accessed some databases which I thought would be applicable. (There are so many!) I first took a look at ones which we had sources from educational journals, since I am looking for research related to programming but especially in a higher education setting.

My early searches were struggles. Database searches are not as easy as Google, and I had to refine my searches countless times. I tried combining “higher education” with “centers or programming” and tried adding “effectiveness” or “perceptions” or “involvement,” many terms that I thought could be related. I just kept going and going until I found some research papers that had titles that seemed promising.

The first one was called The Role of Project Activities in the Study of Course “Social Advertising.” Why this one? It has three key words that stood out to me: Project activities (programming?), study (related to education!), and advertising (maybe about how to reach out to students?).

So how useful was this source? Well, I could say that it was somewhat helpful. The topic was about how to create an educational curriculum for students which is program-based and hands-on. This is not necessarily exactly on topic since I want to see how specific programs could effect people and education, but nonetheless there was still some useful insights.

1) The more active, engaging, creative, and self-starting the better! By not just telling students what to do or study but letting them experience it themselves, studying becomes much more meaningful. For my case, if the centers can advertise their programs as hands-on experiences, or brought such events into classrooms, maybe they can expand their outreach on campus.

Creativity is power! (Source)

2) There are a lot of talk about educational curriculum, but not about specific institutions! As I continued my search for related articles, there were many about educational curriculum. This is understandable; you have to change the system to make education more effective. But why aren’t there more research on more specific programs, ones that have themes? Wouldn’t that be a better way to spread a specific cause, or gain actual experience in a field??

This first source led to a hint but also a big question? I am excited to see what other sources will tell me on the same topic……