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Undergraduate students' interaction with online information resources in their academic tasks: A comparative study

He, D and Wu, D and Yue, Z and Fu, A and Vo, KT (2012) Undergraduate students' interaction with online information resources in their academic tasks: A comparative study. Aslib Proceedings: New Information Perspectives, 64 (6). 615 - 640. ISSN 0001-253X

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Abstract

Purpose: This paper aims to identify the opinions of undergraduate students on the importance of internet-based information sources when they undertake academic tasks. Design/methodology/approach: Based on a set of identified typical academic tasks for undergraduate students, three research questions were designed around the students' usage and views of information resources for completing these tasks. Web-accessible questionnaires were used to collect data from participants in two universities in the USA and China, and the data were analyzed using quantitative methods, which included several statistic methods. Findings: The results confirm that undergraduate students use different information resources for various academic tasks. In their tasks, online electronic resources including search engines are the most commonly used resources, particularly for complex academic tasks. Social networking sites are not used for the students' individual academic tasks, and traditional resources still play equal or more important roles in certain specific academic tasks. Students in collaborative tasks look for resources that make it easy to share documents. Participants from the two countries also exhibit interesting and important differences in their usage of information resources. Originality/value: This study examines undergraduate students' usages and views of different information resources in their various academic tasks, and pays special attention to the impacts of being from their different countries. The study also considers both students' individual academic tasks and collaborative tasks. This study is an invaluable addition to the information seeking behaviour literature. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

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Details

Item Type: Article
Status: Published
Creators/Authors:
CreatorsEmailPitt UsernameORCID
He, Ddah44@pitt.eduDAH440000-0002-4645-8696
Wu, D
Yue, Z
Fu, A
Vo, KT
Date: 1 November 2012
Date Type: Publication
Access Restriction: No restriction; Release the ETD for access worldwide immediately.
Journal or Publication Title: Aslib Proceedings: New Information Perspectives
Volume: 64
Number: 6
Page Range: 615 - 640
DOI or Unique Handle: 10.1108/00012531211281715
Institution: University of Pittsburgh
Schools and Programs: School of Information Sciences > Library and Information Science
Refereed: Yes
ISSN: 0001-253X
Date Deposited: 17 Jun 2013 15:10
Last Modified: 08 Jun 2019 14:55
URI: http://d-scholarship.pitt.edu/id/eprint/18965

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