NoteStar

The two consecutive sessions I attended were hands-on-workshops--NoteStar: An Online Approach to Systematic Research.

NoteStar is a free online utility designed to assist both teachers and students in the preparation of research papers. NoteStar can help students conduct collect and organize their notes, and prepare materials for their papers.

During the workshop, what mostly impressed me was several things that instructors can do with NoteStar, including:

- create, assign, and manage students research projects
- track students’ progress
- check their sources for authenticity
- send messages (e.g., assignment, guide, comment, etc.) to students
- teach them how to organize their notes and references

NoteStar is available for free at http://notestar.4teachers.org

In order to use it, you must first register by creating your account.

In my guess, it will take about an hour for first-time users to learn main features of the software. But the only (and main) problem is that instructors have to learn it not only for themselves as teachers but also for students because instructors need to teach how to use NoteStar. Luckily, the website provides a good help page, available at http://notestar.4teachers.org/help.

In my experience, the main functions and user interface of NoteStar are very similar to EndNote, which is most popular among reference management software. Different from EndNote which is more individual research oriented, however, NoteStar is directed toward instructors in classroom environments.

Another feature provided along with NoteStar is ThinkTank (http://thinktank.4teachers.org). ThinkTank is designed to help students develop their research projects. Based on the main subject assigned by the instructor, the students can refine it by choosing from a variety of suggestions on ThinkTank which generates random subtopics and possible research questions. It can help them learn how to refine their research topic and plan before actual research and writing begins.

I tested it for myself by assigning a subject in my teaching area and seeing how the random subtopic generator works. The software produced diverse subtopics and questions. Frankly, some of them were not that much great. Nonetheless, students can learn some basic logic and skills organize their own research questions (because I saw many students often have trouble with creating their research questions).

During the workshop, participants had a 30 mins discussion to share their experience with students writing. We all agreed that wrongful citation and plagiarism bring lots of challenge teachers as well as students. As NoteStar provides a good tracking tool, the software , when used adequately, can help teachers guide valid and ethical ways of knolwedge acquisition and creative writing.