Instruction for Web Searching: An Empirical Study

Abstract

Users searching the Web have difficulty using search engines and developing queries. Searches tend to be simple, and Boolean operators are used infrequently and incorrectly. Users also are unaware that search engines operate differently from other information retrieval systems. Yet, there is little research on effective instructional methods for teaching users how to search the Web. Research has looked at instructional methods for other types of information retrieval, but these systems differ a great deal from the Web. The purpose of this study was to determine what undergraduate students know about search engines and to examine instructional treatments to aid searchers in using a search engine.esearch has shown that users looking for information on the World Wide Web have a difficult time developing search queries and using a search engine. 16Searches tend to be simple, and Boolean operators are used infrequently and incorrectly. 7,8Users also appear to be unaware that search engines operate differently from other information retrieval systems they may use, such as a library online catalog, and this appears to contribute to inappropriate search queries. 911How to use a search engine has been taught primarily through examples and short procedural descriptions. In instruction by example, a learner is given a series of worked-out problems and then asked to solve a new problem on his or her own. 12A review of the help sections of six search engines (AltaVista, Excite, Go, Google, Hotbot, and Northern Lights; December 2000) showed that instruction by example is used to explain how to use the engine. This method focuses on two types of knowledge: declarative and syntactic. Declarative knowledge refers to understanding facts, in this case, facts about search engines. 13Syntactic knowledge refers to knowledge of the language units and rules when working with a computer system, in this case, how to structure a search query using terminology the search engine can interpret correctly.14 When users understand the appropriate declarative and syntactic knowledge by studying the example and procedural description, they then can develop a query to fit their information need. This may involve incorporating elements described in the help paragraph that were not included in the example or transferring the example to a completely different domain. Instruction by example presumes the learner will be able to match a new problem situation to a formerly en-

Completion strategy or emphasis manipulation? Task support for teaching information problem solving

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The impact of task phrasing on the choice of search keywords and on the search process and success

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Do two heads search better than one? Effects of student collaboration on web search behaviour and search outcomes

“…Yet, there is little research on effective web-searching instruction. Colaric (2003) examined three instructional treatments to aid searchers in developing queries (ie, planning). The results were equivocal.…”