Understanding student information behavior in relation to electronic information services: Lessons from longitudinal monitoring and evaluation, Part 1

Abstract

This two-part article establishes a model of the mediating factors that influence student information behavior concerning electronic or digital information sources that support their learning. The first part reviews the literature that underpinned the development of the research methodology for the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) User Behavior Monitoring and Evaluation Framework, as well as the literature that has subsequently helped to develop the model over the 5 years the Framework operated in the United Kingdom, in five cycles of research that were adjusted to meet the emerging needs of the JISC at the time. The literature review attempts to synthesize the two main perspectives in the research studies: (a) smallscale studies of student information behavior; and (b) the studies that focus on the quantitative usage of particular electronic information services in universities, often including implications for training and support. As the review indicates, there are gaps in the evidence concerning the browsing and selection strategies of undergraduate students and the interaction of some of the mediating influences on information behavior. The Framework developed a multimethod, qualitative and quantitative methodology for the continued monitoring of user behavior. This article discusses the methods used and the projectmanagement challenges involved, and concludes that at the outset, intended impacts need to be specified carefully, and that funding needs to be committed at that point for a longitudinal study. A research project on information behavior, intended to inform current policymaking on infrastructure provision, is inherently difficult as behavior changes lag behind provision.

Understanding student information behavior in relation to electronic information services: Lessons from longitudinal monitoring and evaluation, Part 2

“…Part 1 of this article (Rowley & Urquhart, 2007) discussed the methodology for the Framework study of the way students used electronic information services in colleges (i.e., community colleges) and universities in the United Kingdom. The methods were adapted as the Framework evolved to meet the needs of the sponsors, the Joint Information Systems Committee of the Funding Councils in the United Kingdom.…”

University libraries and the postgraduate student: physical and virtual spaces

“…There is a considerable body of research on library use, and on information needs and behaviour, for undergraduate students, and for faculty; for overviews, see Case (2012) Bawden and Robinson (2012, chapter 9) and Rowley and Urquhart (2007). Postgraduate students (graduate students in US terminology), whether on taught Masters courses or on research degree programmes, are a relatively neglected, though important group.…”

Examining academic Internet use using a combined method

“…Finally, a longitudinal study using repeated cross-sectional data from Korean collegians will give valuable insight (Buente and Robbin 2008;Rowley and Urquhart 2007;Urquhart and Rowley 2007). Through a long-term approach, researchers might discover some hidden patterns in the use of the Internet to perform academic tasks and some possible determinants to facilitate the research use of the Internet among undergraduate students.…”

“…This model implicitly assumes that students are inactive receivers during the transmission of knowledge via newly networked technologies. The approach taken here clearly differs from prior research in that it focused on how the Internet is being used by ordinary collegians, rather than on the effect of e-learning in terms of instruction and education outcome (Carr-Chellman 2004;Rowley and Urquhart 2007;Urquhart and Rowley 2007), or economic efficiency (Bramble and Panda 2008). This focus was chosen because one of the less studied areas in e-learning research is how Internet usages are embedded in students' various academic activities, such as information gathering, search engine use, researching, information evaluation and writing-up.…”