Dialog Competency

Searching Dialog - using the ERIC database
Strategy used: Building Block Strategy

Naive question: Are there any state laws concerning distance education in the pubic schools?

Facet and Key Terms:

Facet 1: state law
term(s): state regulation

Facet 2: distance education
term(s): online learning, E-learning

Facet 3: public school
term(s): school

I logged on to Dialog. In the command box I entered "B1" which allowed me to access the ERIC database.

In the command box I entered the following commands one at a time to create my searching statement using the building block strategy. When each facet/term were entered, Dialog displays the term and the number of results. At times I used the "?" in to include other forms of the word I was searching.

ssstate law - 0 results
ssstate regulation? - 978 results
ssdistance education - 11733 results
ssonline learning - 1 result
ssE-learning - 0 results
sspublic school - 20217 results

Now that my terms were entered, I combined them to form a searching statement. I chose not to search state law because it turned up 0 results. I elected to use state regulation instead. Distance education had more items so that is why I added that next and finished up with public school.

1st statement
ssstate regulation AND distance education AND public school - 0 results

Notes: I was surprised that there were no results. I decided to add state law next and search again.

2nd statement
ssstate law OR state regulation? AND distance education AND public school - 0 results

Notes: Again, my search yielded 0 results. I entered ds in the command box so that I could see all of the items I had searched. I then combined s2 and s7 which formed my final searching statement below.

3rd statement
ssstate regulation AND distance education OR online learning OR E-learning - 22 results

Notes: I was pleased with the results of my last searching statement. I found several hits that were pertinent to my question. One titled State Policies for Distance Education: A Survey of the States dated March 1999 seemed to be the most relevant.

Conclusion:
Dialog is not difficult to use; however, it is different than what I have been using. One I know the commands, I feel that using Dialog would be easier and even less stressful than others.