The information use behaviors of graduate students in an online learning community
Description
TitleThe information use behaviors of graduate students in an online learning community
Date Created2012
Other Date2012-10 (degree)
Extentxiii, 211 p. : ill.
DescriptionAs online education expands, research should identify how students interact and learn online. Because of the technological, proximal and asynchronous uniqueness of online education, learners face challenges not native to face-to-face education. As such, online students may seek alternate relationships and methods of interacting, forming their own “Small Worlds.” Online students have their own “view of social reality, and ways in which they satisfy their intellectual, social, and physical needs” (Chatman, 1991, p. 438). Small Worlds allow people “to share a similar cultural and intellectual space” (Huotari & Chatman, 2001, p. 352), and members “share a repertoire of resources and sensibilities communally developed over time” (Wenger, 1998, p. 2). Chatman’s theory of Small Worlds is a spatial and social lens through which to examine information behavior; in this instance the online learning environment is a virtual space that fosters and shapes the information behaviors of its participants. The purpose of this study was to investigate the information use behaviors of graduate students in an online learning community, and to elucidate the information interactions and exchanges that occur within course threaded discussions. Additionally, this study intended to determine if and how graduate students in Library and Information Science programs created community in the online classroom, and how, if at all, the presence of community influenced information use behaviors. With respect to the learning online, the literature clearly addresses distance education, Internet communities, communities of practice, and the development of community in traditional on campus classrooms. Some of this research begins to encompass various aspects of human information behavior as applied to the online setting. However, the literature does not marry these components and does not examine nor address the specific information needs and dynamics that occur in an online graduate classroom. The goal of this research was to provide a detailed analysis of the nature and dynamics of information behaviors in an asynchronous graduate online classroom, to identify factors that shape these behaviors, and to determine their relationship to the process of knowledge construction.
NotePh.D.
NoteIncludes bibliographical references
NoteIncludes vita
Noteby Nicole Amy Cooke
Genretheses, ETD doctoral
Languageeng
CollectionGraduate School - New Brunswick Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Organization NameRutgers, The State University of New Jersey
RightsThe author owns the copyright to this work.
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