After you have selected keywords and synonyms, it is important to link them together into a search statement so the library databases will understand how to search the terms properly.
For the research question:
What are the effects of using social media in the online classroom?
Some of the concepts and related terms are:
social media (Facebook, Twitter, social networks)
online classroom (online courses, distance learning, web-based learning)
When you create a search statement, link these terms with Boolean operators to create a search statement the database can use to retrieve the most relevant results. Databases use different search algorithms than web search engines. Understanding how to search them will save valuable time in the long run.