Discovery and Research
Discovery tools enabling users to easily identify relevant teaching and learning resources by either browsing the repository or learning communities’ collections or searching the repoaitory using various engines including (1)Simple Search d, (2) advanced searching, (3) federated search of more digital libraries. Access to thes search tools can be gained by going to the MERLOT Homepage and locating the search field in the upper right corner. The MERLOT SEARCH ENGINES (link on the right panel) takes you directly to the location
Simple Search
The text box at the top-right of every page is used to search for words in the Title, Description, Author, and Subject.
Type in your first search term. You will see the number of item matches at the top of the page. You will then find links to the objects, arranged ten per page. Click on the first title link. This will take you to a Detail View of the material. Notice that on the Detail View you can find a detailed description of the learning material and you can perhaps read a peer review of the material done by two content experts. You can also add the material to your own personal collection of learning materials or write an assignment based on the material by clicking Add Assignment.
Browsing the Repository
The MERLOT Homepage provide users with a Browse interface. Browsing organizes learning materials by subject classification. Subject categories are displayed with their number of items.Clicking on a subject will display the materials in that category.
- Sub-categories for the displayed subject are shown in the box in the upper left of the page.
- A description of each item and other information is shown. Clicking on the title of the material brings up more information
Advanced Search
Materials in MERLOT/Physics are cataloged under the the following metada: Title of the resource , URL , A Short Description , Type of Resource , Audience Grade Level(s) , Subject(s) , Author's Information , Technical Information , Additional Information (Peer Reviews, Comments, Assignments), language, etc. (See MERLOT ADVANCED SEARCH link on the right panel).
Advanced Search can be used to search for information specific to any of the catalog fields. These searches can also be limited to materials recently submitted or updated.
Federated search
Search More Digital Libraries or FEDERATED SEARCH enables user to search for learning materials from multiple partner repositories (GLOBE Alliance Repositories) instead of
searching each one separately.(See FEDERATED SEARCH link on the right panel)
GLOBE (Global Learning Object Brokerage Exchange) is an alliance established among five international global repositories including MERLOT in the U.S, ARIADNE (Alliance of Remote Instructional Authoring and Distribution Networks of Europe) in Europe, Education Network Australia (EdNA Online) in Australia, LORNET (Learning Object Repository Research Network) in Canada and National Institute of Multimedia Education (NIME) in Japan. Federated community search is provided through the MERLOT repository that enables users to query GLOBE for educational resources that faculty can use to design learning experiences.
