Developing Online Research Skills in Digital Media

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ASSIGNMENT 2
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Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
LO3..................................................................................................................................................3
Develop online research skills.....................................................................................................3
LO4..................................................................................................................................................5
Develop digital communication skills.........................................................................................5
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................7
References........................................................................................................................................7
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Introduction
Development of research skills and communication skills is essential to search for any
information or to communicate over the internet.This assessment process is going to include the
development of online research skills this will get done through comparing and contrasting two
different email providers and how they are useful and suitable in any business operation. And
also will describe how to develop communication skills which require in digital technology and
how these skills can be utilized to evaluate online resources (Lee and Messerschmitt, 2012).
LO3
Develop online research skills
Research skills are those skills which are needed to search the information on digital media.
Today rapid expansion of digital technology requires critical thinking to search for any
information online this will help in knowing that what sources should be used and how to search
for information from various resources (Leu, et.al, 2015). To develop research skills there should
be a clarification of the information is to be searched. Use different websites to search the
relevant data by simply putting keywords on Google. Compare the data of different websites and
choose the one relevant to your information. Look for the best domain to obtain information.
You need to be more specific type the complete sentence on Google to get reliable information.
Seek for time specific and fact-based information for your research. Make an evaluation of the
information you have collected (Ladbrook and Probert, 2011). Summarise all the information in
your own words and stay organised through all the research process. Get help from others if you
face any problem in the research process
Gmail and Yahoo are two email providers, comparison and contrast will be made between them
to know their features and how much useful and suitable they are in any business activity
Gmail is popularly known for its professionalism it has various features which are suitable for
the business and Yahoo is also one of the email providers which has many features to operate a
various business function. The main work of these email providers is to transfer the data from
one device to another device.in any business operation there is requirement of sending files,
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folders or any another document to any other business or any authorized party and this
requirement get fulfil through these email providers which takes few minutes in transferring the
data from one computer to another using internet connection
Integration of IM and email
The main advantage of Gmail over Yahoo is that it provides the facility of instant messaging to
your contacts which cannot be possible in yahoo. Yahoo has its IM but it is separate from the
mails and a person cannot send a quick message while using yahoo and this service is given by
Gmail. In business operation, this is beneficial for the management to contact with the clients
using Gmail which facilitates mail an as well as quick and faster chat
Flexibility and attachment
Gmail provides a facility to send a number of attachments at the one time. Once you are done
with your mail you can easily add your attachment (Gmail, 2019 ) and when you use yahoo it
opens a separate page to attach any file and you can put up only 4 attachments at once. So in any
business numbers of documents or files are requires to be sent at one time only than Gmail is
beneficial for that.
Organisation of folders
Yahoo is helpful in better folder organisation (Yahoo, 2019). and creation while Gmail facilitates
to label folder it is difficult to find out a folder in the Gmail and making organisation with a large
number of folders is also difficult and in business, it requires to organise a large number of
folders in an appropriate manner so here yahoo would be beneficial.
Size of attachments
On more another important advantage of Gmail is that it provides the facility of large size of
attachment up to 20 MB on its free version while Yahoo is only providing its attachment size up
10 MB on its free version (Yahoo, 2019). So in business activity when it is needed to send large
size attachment than Gmail is more useful
Impact of the brand
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The Gmail is considered as the more professional of the email services and people believe that
Gmail is more credible and reliable than any other email providers and in the business world
reputation is very important so it is highly used in the businesses
Gmail is providing POP access for free while Yahoo is taking a fee for it(Gmail, 2019 ). Gmail is
better screening spam than yahoo mails. Gmail offers email forwarding for free while Yahoo
mail provides the services for a fee. Hence Gmail has more benefits and it is more suitable than
yahoo for any business.
LO4
Develop digital communication skills
Identification of the right resources is necessary to complete your research process. Today, many
people are uploading content online it became difficult to find out which content is reliable for
any research process. When you have searched for any information online it is essential to
evaluate that information to know if it is trustworthy, accurate, reliable and good quality enough
or not (Larson and Miller, 2011). Fake news sites publish erroneous data people do believe on
those sites because of its believable and persuasive nature if you are looking for a credible
resource than you must evaluate these resources using the following criteria.
Moreover, there are some skills a person needs to assess a resource such as skimming and speed
reading. To evaluate any information a person should be familiar with the different referencing
and citation styles. And also a person should use critical thinking while evaluating such online
resources journal, newspaper, or any other article.
You should check the following things to evaluate the information
 Who is the author of the information? (Authorship)
 Where was it published? (Publication)
 When was it published? (Date of published)
 The accuracy and truthfulness of the facts (trustworthiness)
 How was the information presented? (Purpose and objectives)
 What references are cited in the article? ( references and citations)
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The author of the content should be knowledgeable about the subject matter he should be an
expert of a particular subject. The name of the author can be easily found out below the title of
the information page. The publication of the information should be checked for authority. Take a
look at the publisher name and check its credibility. Reliable websites publish content that is
relevant check how often they publish content and check the relevant content as well.
Information changes through time and data became obsolete as time passes. When you search for
any information online check the date of the information and find if its relevance or not. Writer’s
correctness using a language system should be focused to determine the accuracy of the data.
The grammar and vocabulary used in information should be correct (Hewson and Stewart, 2014).
Online resources can be easily verified using the online tool and reference list. An online
resource should clearly describe its purpose and objectives to distribute the information. It should
inform, teach and persuade. By reading an article carefully you can easily understand the aims of
the information. References should be there in the form of links for evaluating the resource you
can go through the links and can check the truthfulness and reliability of the information
published on online resources (Van Deursen and Van Dijk, 2011).
To evaluate any online material it requires a set of skills to evaluate the material. An individual
must be able to speed reading and skimming of the content along with this citing of references.
You can effectively evaluate any information by possessing these skills. an individual need to go
through the whole content and read it quickly as much as possible. He must be able to read 400
words in a minute for speed reading. The citations and references are helpful in checking the
fact. An author should present all the references in the standard referencing style. There are
several ways to convert all the information in your own words like summarizing, paraphrasing
and quoting. And at the last be critical of any information you find on the web page and compare
it with other sites to use the best content. You can also crosscheck the information you are
applying in the research (Bradshaw, 2013).
For improving digital communication skills an individual must have good writing and designing
skills and that should be creative enough (Roy, 2012). Use of CRM software is also helpful in
improving customer relationship management. Along with this the social media and many other
technologies are also helpful in developing good communication skills while using digital media.
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Conclusion
Development of research skills and communication skills is necessary to evaluate online
resources that help in checking the credibility and reliability of the resources. The difference
between Gmail and Yahoo has shown the evaluation between 2 email providers to know that
which one is more applicable in the business. hence, From the above discussion, it is determined
that individuals should possess effective research skills to verify the information as well as good
communication skills are also helpful in conducting good research and present great impact on
others.
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References
Bradshaw, P., 2013. The online journalism handbook: skills to survive and thrive in the digital
age. Routledge.
Gmail 2019, Gmail features online available at
https://support.google.com/mail/answer/7677724?hl=en last accessed on 26april2019
Hewson, C. and Stewart, D.W., 2014. Internet research methods. Wiley StatsRef: Statistics
Reference Online, pp.1-6.
Ladbrook, J. and Probert, E., 2011. Information skills and critical literacy: Where are our
digikids at with online searching and are their teachers helping?. Australasian Journal of
Educational Technology, 27(1).
Larson, L.C. and Miller, T.N., 2011. 21st century skills: Prepare students for the future. Kappa
Delta Pi Record, 47(3), pp.121-123.
Lee, E.A. and Messerschmitt, D.G., 2012. Digital communication. Springer Science & Business
Media.
Leu, D.J., Forzani, E., Rhoads, C., Maykel, C., Kennedy, C. and Timbrell, N., 2015. The new
literacies of online research and comprehension: Rethinking the reading achievement gap.
Reading Research Quarterly, 50(1), pp.37-59.
Roy, S.R., 2012. Digital mastery: The skills needed for effective virtual leadership. International
Journal of e-Collaboration (IJeC), 8(3), pp.56-66.
Van Deursen, A. and Van Dijk, J., 2011. Internet skills and the digital divide. New media &
society, 13(6), pp.893-911.
Yahoo, 2019, Yahoo features online available at https://help.yahoo.com last accessed on
26april2019
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