Issues Online is a database created by Independence Educational Publishers, the company that has published Issues, a series of books which provide material for the discussion of social and ethical issues on post-16 courses. It contains:
- articles
- statistics
- videos
- e-books
- teaching resources
- a glossary
- a list of websites
Academics have written the articles and processed the statistics on the basis of research undertaken in top social, economic and political research centres and relevant organisations. Issues Online has acquired the videos from prominent media organisations (e.g. the BBC and the Guardian), charities and organisations of other kinds. All of the e-books are publications in the Issues series.
SGS students and staff can gain access to Issues Online from the Databases page of the SGS LRC website. In order to do this, please click either on the phrase “Issues Online” or on the image-icon immediately below it.
Then follow the instructions given on the Issues Online page. On the Issues Online homepage, scroll downwards to view links to the different areas of the database. To browse information sources apart from the Issues series, click on the phrase “subject areas” at the top or in the middle of the window (or on the image adjacent to the phrase in the middle).
You see a menu of the subject areas covered by the resource. Click on one of the icons (e.g. “Environmental and Global Issues”). You then see a menu of topics. (The topics indicated in the lower half of the window may be ones which are related to the subject area, rather than ones within the area – this is signposted on the screen.)
Click on a topic icon. You see a list of sources on the topic you have chosen. You can filter that list, selecting sources of a certain type (e.g. multimedia) – check the appropriate boxes on the left-hand side of the window.
On the left-hand side of the window there is also a list of terms derived from a glossary. (To view the glossary, click on the word “glossary” near the top of the window.)
Click on the terms to open boxes which contain concise explanations of them.
Below the glossary term list, there is a link to a page of key facts about the topic. Those facts have been derived from sources collected within Issues Online. Below the key facts link is a link to a sub-collection of learning prompts which have been designed for group teaching. Click on the word “assignments” to access that sub-collection. (To view the larger collection of learning prompts, click on the phrase “help and resources” near the top of the window.) Below the “assignments” link is a list of links to websites which relate to the topic.
In order to view the Issues e-books, click either on the phrase “e-books library” (near the top of the window) or on the phrase “e-books” (or the image adjacent to it), in the middle of the homepage window.
You see thumbnail images of the e-book covers. Click on any one of those to view an e-book in PDF format.
You can filter the collection of e-books, selecting e-books which have been categorised (e.g. as ‘economics and welfare’ e-books) – on the left-hand side of the window, click on a phrase from the “Filter E-Books” menu.
The Independence Educational Publishers Blog discusses contemporary social issues and promotes its publications. To view it, click on the link in the middle of the homepage window.
You see the most recent post. You can view other recent posts – click on the post titles displayed on the left-hand side of the window.
You can also filter posts either by month or by subject category – use the other links on the left-hand side.
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