Finding my way around: the information process of distance students when searching for free online resources

dc.audienceAudience::Religions: Libraries and Dialogue Special Interest Group
dc.conference.sessionTypeReligious Libraries in Dialogue Special Interest Group
dc.congressWLICIFLA WLIC 2013 - Singapore
dc.contributor.authorNg, Siong Ngor
dc.contributor.translatorAnonymous
dc.date.accessioned2025-09-24T08:02:36Z
dc.date.available2025-09-24T08:02:36Z
dc.date.issued2013
dc.description.abstractAs distance learning continues to develop and evolve, this research report surveys the way distance students seek information. This study was conducted on New Zealand theology undergraduate distance students’ and focuses mainly on how technology contributes to their information seeking process. Based on a mixed methods methodology, it aims to find out where students seek information, what kind of information they are looking for, and explores how technology and social networking sites change or contribute to the information seeking process. The main aim was to find out how students access free online resources such as Google books, open source journals and websites. The findings from this research revealed that there are a number of ways undergraduate theology distance students look for information, and use information. For example some students’ main focus is to seek resources to complete an assignment and thus have no intention of learning from the experience. Their aim is to seek resources to meet the requirements of the assignment. On the other hand, there are students that have experience either through their work or from other study. This group of students have the knowledge in hand and simply seek resources to support their argument. The research proposes a new information seeking model which is based on a cyclic process. The proposed information seeking behaviour model, supports the many ways students behave when seeking for information. The characteristics “starting/chaining, evaluation, browsing and writing” are not steps and it can be overlapped or interrelated. On some occasions, a step might even be missed due to the time frame and the availability of resources available to distance students. The research ends with a number of recommendations that library could possibly employ when serving the needs of our distance students.en
dc.description.abstractDado que el aprendizaje a distancia sigue desarrollándose y evolucionando, este informe de investigación analiza la forma en que los estudiantes a distancia buscan información. Este estudio fue realizado tomando como base a los estudiantes a distancia de teología de Nueva Zelanda y apunta principalmente a la forma en que la tecnología contribuye a su proceso de búsqueda de información. En base a una metodología de métodos combinados, apunta a descubrir los lugares donde los estudiantes buscan información, qué tipo de información buscan y el modo en que la tecnología y los sitios de redes sociales modifican el proceso de búsqueda de información. El principal objetivo era saber cómo hacen los estudiantes para acceder a los recursos en línea gratuitos como Google Libros, publicaciones de código abierto y sitios web. Los resultados de esta investigación revelaron que existen muchas formas en que los estudiantes de teología a distancia buscan y utilizan la información. Por ejemplo, algunos estudiantes se dedican principalmente a buscar recursos para completar una tarea y por lo tanto no tienen intención de aprender a partir de la experiencia. Su objetivo consiste en buscar recursos para hallar los elementos que exige la tarea. Por otra parte, hay estudiantes que cuentan con experiencia ya sea por su trabajo o por otro tipo de estudio realizado. Este grupo de estudiantes tiene el conocimiento en sus manos y sólo busca recursos para respaldar su punto de vista. La investigación propone un nuevo modelo de búsqueda de información que esté basado en un proceso cíclico. La conducta propuesta en cuanto a búsqueda de información respalda las distintas formas en que los estudiantes actúan cuando buscan información. Las características “inicio/secuencia, evaluación, observación y escritura” no son pasos y no pueden ser superpuestas o interrelacionadas. En algunos casos, podría omitirse un paso debido a los límites de tiempo y a la disponibilidad de recursos para los estudiantes a distancia. La investigación finaliza con varias recomendaciones que la biblioteca podría utilizar al dar respuesta a las necesidades de nuestros estudiantes a distancia.es
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dc.identifier.relatedurlhttp://2013.ifla.org
dc.identifier.urihttps://repository.ifla.org/handle/20.500.14598/5171
dc.language.isospa
dc.rightsAttribution 3.0 Unported
dc.rights.accessRightsopen access
dc.rights.urihttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
dc.subject.keywordDistance
dc.subject.keywordinformation seeking
dc.subject.keywordtheology
dc.subject.keywordopen source
dc.titleFinding my way around: the information process of distance students when searching for free online resourcesen
dc.titleEncontrando mi camino: el proceso de información de los estudiantes a distancia durante la búsqueda de recursos en línea gratuitoses
dc.typeArticle
ifla.UnitSection:Religions: Libraries and Dialogue Special Interest Group
ifla.oPubIdhttps://library.ifla.org/id/eprint/212/

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