Important notice

We are upgrading our VLE (Moodle) installations. Most have been upgraded, but but are providing two versions of this site to support the few that haven't.

If you find that the guidance here does not match your course, you can access the other site at: http://onlinesupport-m19.conted.ox.ac.uk.

You are viewing the new (Moodle 2) support site.

To determine if you are on the correct site, compare the top of your course with these images:

  1. A horizontal grey bar above a blue area, with white text.
    Old version - Use http://onlinesupport-m19.conted.ox.ac.uk
  2. An entirely blue area, with white text.
    New version - Use this site

When the upgrade is complete, all the online support will be on http://onlinesupport.conted.ox.ac.uk/.

Updated: 2013-01-02.

Searching online

There are many search engines that you can use to find information on the web, some search the whole web, such as www.google.com, www.yahoo.com or www.ask.com while others focus on certain areas or search within specific databases such as a library catalogue.

As different search engines work in different ways it is best to go their own guidance for detailed information on using them:

General tips

However your search engine of choice works, there are several things it is always a good idea to do before starting a search.

  • Try and think of the key ideas or concepts that define the topic you are interested in.
  • Think of different words for the terms you have chosen for example United Kingdom and Great Britain are often used interchangeably.
  • Consider plurals, abbreviations and variations in spelling or terminology (especially between the US and UK).

It is always worth searching on multiple versions of the words you have chosen to ensure you are more likely to find the most relevant sites. You may want to start with a general search to give yourself an overview and then focus in on the details.

Often searching on the web as a whole produces an unmanageable number of results. To deal with this you may want to restrict your search to trusted sources, suggestions of places to start are listed on the information sources page.

Remember wherever you find information it is important to read it critically. There is more information about this on the assessing information page in the induction.