Online Strategies - Onsite training to help people use the Internet more efficiently and effectively.
   What's Special                 

Course content is developed based on the experience levels of the audience. Courses are designed to be effective even when attendees in the same course have a wide range of levels of Internet experience.

Length of Courses: The length of courses is determined by the client’s needs. Most Online Strategies courses are presented as either a half-day or full-day course, depending upon the amount of detail and content desired and whether the course is presented in “hands-on” (computer lab) format or in lecture/demo format.
Format: Because of the enhanced learning potential, a “hands-on” (with each student having a computer) format is recommended for all courses.  
Supporting Materials: For all courses, attendees are provided with a detailed booklet and also a Web page including links for all sites covered in the course.


CUSTOMIZED COURSES

The majority of courses given by Online Strategies are designed “from scratch”, based on an assessment of client needs, covering specific topics selected by the client, and designed to accommodate the particular needs, backgrounds, and experience levels of the attendees.



EXAMPLES OF COURSES


 

Google to the Fullest 

The vast majority of Google users, even researchers who use Google professionally, do not take full advantage of Google’s research potential. This course is intended to provide attendees with the knowledge and experience to much more fully utilize Google’s full research potential.

This course will look in depth at Google as a search tool - for both generalized “webpage” search” and specialized content and topics (images, video, blogs, etc.), with emphasis on “academic” and professional research applications. Throughout, attention will be paid to Google’s potential for personalizing the tools. It will also examine associated tools provided by Google that may have incidental but occasional use by researchers as a means of improving their efficiency and productivity. These latter tools will be covered rather briefly, but with enough depth so that attendees will be at least aware of the tool and its general functions and potential applicability.

A large portion of this course will be “hands-on”, with attendees exploring and experimenting with the tools that are being covered at that point in the course. In addition, there will be frequent “exercises” where attendees will be given a specific recommended exercise aimed at their becoming acquainted with specific aspects of what was just covered.

Alerts: Tools and Techniques for Automated Delivery of What’s New on the Web

In the 21st Century, there is no excuse for not knowing “what’s happening”. This hands-on course explores the many tools and methods available for monitoring and keeping up-to-date on what is happening with regard to news, events, research, issues, etc. As well as alerts and RSS feeds purposely created by websites, the course will closely examine website monitoring software that allows one to be immediately notified when any specific website or webpage changes. Tools and resources will be examined in terms of their content, coverage, features, ease-of-use, and delivery methods, and in the context of the individual, specialized needs of each attendee. Emphasis will be placed on choosing the right tools for filtering content in order to attain the appropriate balance between exhaustivity and precision.

People on the Web: What's There About Them and How to Get to It.

The Web is a tremendous resource for quickly finding both basic, typical, information about people and also for finding more obscure, esoteric, and sometimes surprising information. It examines special techniques of use in general search engines such as Google, and a variety of other resources, including social networking and other “Deep Web" sites. It also addresses tools specifically designed for research on people, including “people search engines” such as Pipl. Spokeo and others. The half-day course covers sources for easily finding people in the news (including “local” newspapers), biographical databases, resource guides for people searching, and public records sources, both those that are free and where to go if you are willing to pay.(This can also be taught as a full-day course with hands-on included.)Back


OSINT on the Internet: Exploiting Internet Resources for Open Source Intelligence

This workshop will bring attendees up-to-date on the current capabilities of Internet search engines and other Internet tools and resources that are vital in the OSINT context. Particularly in search engines, there is constant change and enhancements. This course will provide a practical look at the current features and content of these tools, with emphasis on what is new and techniques for efficiently and effectively exploiting these resources. In addition to the general "Web page" search capabilities of the search engines, the course will cover developments in news searching (including free alerting services, and newer channels such as weblogs, RSS feeds, and Podcasts), image searching, audio and video searching, and searching of discussion groups. Web search visualization tools and the range of other OSINT-related resources will also be addressed.
(Click here to see the webpage for this course.)

Working Smarter on the Internet

Working Smarter on the Internet consists of a number of modules that can be included or excluded according to your particular situation and needs. These modules include:

The Web Research Strategies
Resource Guides
Web Research Tools - Search Engines
News Resources on the Internet
Searching for Images and Other Media
Searching for Information on People
Accessing The "Invisible Web"
Getting Information from Internet
Newsgroups and Mailing Lists
Language Issues and the Internet
Keeping Up-to-Date on Internet Resources and Tools

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News on the Internet

Without a doubt, one of the richest categories of Internet resources is "News". The richness, though, also provides a challenge in terms of understanding and sorting out the kinds of resources for different purposes and different contexts. This workshop will look at how to locate and most efficiently use the range of news resources and services, including: newspapers, radio and TV websites, audio and video news, news wires, magazines, journals, news aggregation and search services,Weblogs, podcasts, RSS feeds, free alerting services, news tickers, etc. If what appears in the news, or has appeared in the news is relevant to your work, you should find this workshop extremely helpful.

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Using the Internet to Help Understand Countries and Cultures

The aim of this course is to provide awareness of, and facility in using, the broad range of resources on the Internet that are of use in understanding the background, cultures, traditions, daily life, and issues for any particular country. Attendees will examine: tools such as country guides and encyclopedias that provide general background; media sites such as newspapers and radio stations for local news and opinions; language tools such as dictionaries and translation sites (and their limitations); and discussion groups for gathering perspectives and opinions. Attendees will learn how to locate sites that provide, for any county, valuable information on cultures, traditions, religions, politics, economics, the arts, history, the military, cuisine, etc. Internet resources will be examined that will be helpful in performing professional duties and also those that can help make daily life easier and enjoyable.

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