Gender differences in online reading engagement,metacognitive strategies,navigation skills and reading literacy

This study examined how knowledge of metacognitive strategies and navigation skills mediate the relationship between online reading activities and printed reading assessment (PRA) and electronic reading assessment (ERA) across 19 countries using the PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) 2009 database. Participants were 34 104 fifteen‐year‐old students (female: 50.1%). The results showed that information‐seeking activity, knowledge of metacognitive strategies and navigations skills positively predicted ERA and PRA. Social reading activities negatively predicted knowledge of metacognitive strategies and PRA but had no effect on ERA and the navigation skills in most countries. Increased information‐seeking reading resulted in higher ERA and PRA as demonstrated by navigation skills and knowledge of metacognitive strategies. Gender differences in online reading engagement were not statistically significant in most countries. However, girls performed better in knowledge of metacognitive strategies, navigation skills and PRA but were not significantly better on ERA. Multiple group comparisons of gender indicated that the hypothesized model held for both boys and girls. Besides the infrastructure of information and communications technology as a tool to access the cyber informational space, students should be empowered to use appropriate strategies and navigation skills to achieve their goals. Implications for teaching and learning practices are discussed.     

Scaffolding of small groups�� metacognitive activities with an avatar

Metacognitive scaffolding in a computer-supported learning environment can influence students’ metacognitive activities, metacognitive knowledge and domain knowledge. In this study we analyze how metacognitive activities mediate the relationships between different avatar scaffolds on students’ learning. Multivariate, multilevel analysis of the 51,339 conversation turns by 54 elementary school students working in triads showed that scaffolding has an effect on students’ learning. Students receiving structuring or problematizing metacognitive scaffolds displayed more metacognitive knowledge than students in the control group. Metacognitive activities mediated the effects of scaffolding, and increased metacognitive activities supported students’ metacognitive knowledge. Moreover, students who were engaged in proportionately more cognitive activities or fewer off-task activities also outperformed other students on the metacognitive knowledge test. Only problematizing scaffolds led to more domain knowledge and metacognitive activities mediated the effects of the problematizing scaffolds. Moreover, students in the problematizing condition who engaged in more cognitive activities or whose group mates used more relational activities had greater domain knowledge acquisition than other students.     

Predicting college students’ online information searching strategies based on epistemological,motivational, decision-related,and demographic variables

This study examines the extent to which epistemological, motivational, decision-related, and demographic variables predict college students' use of online information searching strategies (behavioural, procedural, and metacognitive strategies). The participants included preservice teachers (N = 538) from 13 universities in different parts of Turkey. Stepwise multiple regression analyses were conducted to identify the variables predicting each online information searching strategy. The results revealed that online information searching strategies were best predicted by epistemological beliefs and then decision-making styles, web search experience, and goal orientations. Students who had advanced epistemological beliefs in speed of learning tended to have better behavioural, procedural, and metacognitive strategies, while students having naive epistemological beliefs in ability to learn had lower level online searching strategies. Students having more web search experience had better online searching strategies. Additionally, as the level of students’ mastery-approach goals increases, the use of procedural and metacognitive domain strategies increase as well, while the increase in the level of mastery-avoidance goals were related to the use of less behavioural domain strategies. Finally, students having rational decision styles were more likely to use higher levels of online information searching strategies, while students with avoidant styles tended to use less behavioural and procedural domain strategies.     

Every Blog Has Its Day: Politically-interested Internet Users' Perceptions of Blog Credibility

This study employs an online survey to examine U.S. politically-interested Internet users' perceptions of the credibility of blogs. The article focuses on the influence of blog reliance compared to motivations for visiting blogs in determining blog credibility. The study found that blogs were judged as moderately credible, but as more credible than any mainstream media or online source. Both reliance and motivations predicted blog credibility after controlling for demographics and political variables. Reliance proved a consistently stronger predictor than blog motivations. Also, information-seeking motives predicted credibility better than entertainment ones.     

The interplay between cognitive and motivational variables in a supportive online learning system for secondary physical education

A path model was used to test the unique and interactive effects of cognitive and motivational variables when learning in a supportive online learning system, Collaborative Inquiry System (CIS). In this student-centered learning environment, students interact with computer simulations and are assisted by online scaffolds intended to help them learn complex scientific concepts. The present study also explored the relationships between students’ motivational, cognitive, and metacognitive strategy use and online performance. In total, 178 tenth-grade students participated in the study. The statistical analyses revealed that students’ learning goals and cognitive preferences predicted metacognitive strategy use and later influenced their performance. Prior knowledge is a predictor of neither metacognitive strategy use nor learning goals and need for cognition, but is nevertheless an important determinant of online performance. Discussions on how to accommodate the different needs of students with varying levels of prior knowledge, goal orientation, and cognitive preference in a supportive learning system are provided based on the results.     

Fostering collective and individual learning through knowledge building

The purpose of this study was to design and examine a computer-supported knowledge-building environment and to investigate both collective knowledge-building dynamics and individual learning in the context of a tertiary education course in mainland China. The participants were 102 students in four intact Year-one tertiary business classes. Two classes experienced a knowledge-building environment (CKB) and the other two were taught using a regular project-based approach (RPBL). Data were obtained from interactions in the forum, writing quality, group-learning portfolios, and surveys. Quantitative analyses indicated that the knowledge-building groups outperformed the comparison groups on academic literacy assessed in terms of conceptual understanding and explanation, and obtained higher scores on beliefs about collaboration. Within-group analyses indicated that the students’ engagement in Knowledge Forum was a significant predictor of their academic literacy. Qualitative contrastive analyses of high- and low-performance groups identified different patterns of conceptual, metacognitive and social processes, and showed that student groups engaging in more collective and meta-discourse discourse moves performed better on individual scores in academic literacy. The implications of examining both collaborative dynamics and individual learning and designing computer-supported knowledge building for tertiary students are discussed.     

Control your Facebook: An analysis of online privacy literacy

For an effective and responsible communication on social network sites (SNSs) users must decide between withholding and disclosing personal information. For this so-called privacy regulation, users need to have the respective skills—in other words, they need to have online privacy literacy. In this study, we discuss factors that potentially contribute to and result from online privacy literacy. In an online questionnaire with 630 Facebook users, we found that people who spend more time on Facebook and who have changed their privacy settings more frequently reported to have more online privacy literacy. People with more online privacy literacy, in turn, felt more secure on Facebook and implemented more social privacy settings. A mediation analysis showed that time spend on Facebook and experience with privacy regulation did not per se increase safety and privacy behavior directly, stressing the importance of online privacy literacy as a mediator to a safe and privacy-enhancing online behavior. We conclude that Internet experience leads to more online privacy literacy, which fosters a more cautious privacy behavior on SNSs.     

Developing Web literacy in collaborative inquiry activities

Although many children are technically skilled in using the Web, their competences to use it in a critical and meaningful way are usually less well developed. In this article, we report on a multiple case study focusing on the possibilities and limitations of collaborative inquiry activities as an appropriate context to acquire Web literacy skills in primary education. Four 5th grade school teachers and their students worked with collaborative inquiry activities on the subject of ‘healthy food’. The project was aimed at both the development of Web literacy skills and content knowledge building. Data from a variety of sources were collected: videotaped and written lesson observations, interviews with teachers and students, teacher diaries, student questionnaires, and student assignments. The teachers appeared to be able to carry out the program to varying degrees. Contextual factors that influenced the realization of the project’s goals and results were the adequacy of the research questions formulated by students, students’ inquiry skills, and the teachers’ teaching styles. Students’ learning results show that it is possible to teach Web literacy skills in the context of collaborative inquiry activities. All classes show knowledge gain with regard to the subject healthy food and all classes but one show knowledge gain with regard to Web literacy skills. Although many students show adequate use of particular Web searching, reading and evaluating skills after the project, inconsistency, impulsiveness and impatience are also typical of their Web behaviour. In the context of collaborative inquiry activities teachers are challenged to deal with the paradox that they want their students to be active knowledge builders with help of the Web, whereas the Web seems to invite students to be more or less passive searchers.     

Number Matters: The Multimodality of Internet Use as an Indicator of the Digital Inequalities

This study explores the multimodality of Internet use as a critical indicator of digital inequalities. Rather than relying on traditional measures of user/nonuser and information/entertainment uses, this study focuses on a broad scope of online activities and investigates them collectively. Results show that the more modes of Internet activities people are engaged in, the more advanced uses they will add to their online behaviors. Female, older, poorer, and less educated only use the Internet for very limited basic applications, which are associated with fewer political communication and participation. While previous research concludes that the type of Internet activities matters, this study suggests that it is the number of types that matters in examining potential inequalities and their social consequences.     

EFL learners’ use of online reading strategies and comprehension of texts: An exploratory study

This study investigated EFL learners’ online reading strategies and the effects of strategy use on comprehension. To fulfill the purposes of this study, a Web-based reading program, English Reading Online, was created. Thirty applied English majors, divided into a high group and a low group based on their proficiency levels, were asked to read four authentic online texts; two were appropriate to the students’ level of proficiency, and two were more difficult. Results from data analysis showed that the use of support strategies dominated the strategy use and contributed to most of the comprehension gains, but an exclusive dependence on support strategies did not successfully predict the increase in scores on main ideas and details when the students were reading more challenging texts. On the whole, the use of global strategies significantly contributed to better comprehension, especially for low proficiency students.     

Influence of participation, facilitator styles, and metacognitive reflection on knowledge building in online university courses

Understanding how to foster knowledge building in online and blended learning environments is a key for computer-supported collaborative learning research. Knowledge building is a deeply constructivist pedagogy and kind of inquiry learning focused on theory building. A strong indicator of engagement in knowledge building activity is the socio-cognitive dynamic of epistemic agency, in which students exercise a higher level of agency for setting forth their ideas and negotiating fit with those of others rather than relying on their teacher. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of (a) levels of participation, (b) facilitator styles and (c) metacognitive reflection on knowledge building in two blended, post-secondary education contexts. A study of a total of 67 undergraduate students suggest that high levels of participation, a supportive facilitator style, and ample opportunities for metacognitive reflection on the students’ own participation strategies are most conducive for fostering epistemic agency for knowledge building. Implications of these results for research and instructional design of online courses are discussed.     

Web-based undergraduate chemistry problem-solving: The interplay of task performance,domain knowledge and web-searching strategies

This study investigates the effect of Web-based Chemistry Problem-Solving, with the attributes of Web-searching and problem-solving scaffolds, on undergraduate students' problem-solving task performance. In addition, the nature and extent of Web-searching strategies students used and its correlation with task performance and domain knowledge also were examined. We recruited a total of 183 undergraduate students, all of whom are taking the freshman chemistry course, to participate in the study to solve three chemistry tasks across a semester. Mandated screen-capture software captured participants' on-screen Web-searching processes were recorded every five seconds. Results demonstrated that students' problem-solving performance was significantly improved from task 1 to 3, and students with more domain knowledge outperformed students with less domain knowledge. Students with higher problem-solving performance employed more existing knowledge and metacognitive Web-searching strategies; and students with lower problem-solving performance employed more cognitive Web-searching strategies. In addition, students' problem-solving performance was correlated with their domain knowledge, use of existing knowledge, and metacognitive Web-searching strategies. Moreover, students' use of existing knowledge was the major factor for predicting their problem-solving performance according to the regression model.     

Scaffolding information problem solving in web-based collaborative inquiry learning

This study investigated the impact of different modes of scaffolding on students who are learning science through a web-based collaborative inquiry project in authentic classroom settings and explored the interaction effects with students’ characteristics. The intervention study aimed to improve domain-specific knowledge and metacognitive awareness during online information problem solving (IPS) as part of an online inquiry project. Three experimental conditions (teacher-enhanced scaffolding, technology-enhanced scaffolding, and both forms of scaffolding) were compared with a control condition in a two-by-two factorial quasi-experimental design. Moreover, gender and prior knowledge were examined as two factors which may have a significant impact on Web-based learning. In a four-week field study in secondary science education, pretest-posttest differences were measured. In total 347 students from 18 secondary school classes were involved and the classes were randomly distributed over the 4 conditions. Our findings support the notion of multiple scaffolding as an approach to enhance both knowledge acquisition and metacognitive awareness with respect to IPS-processes and to meet a mix of students with different needs within the context of a web-based inquiry learning project.     

Students' use of web-based concept map testing and strategies for learning

Abstract The study reported in this paper developed and evaluated a web-based concept map testing system for science students. Thirty-eight Taiwanese high school students were involved and it was found that their performance on the system was not significantly related to their achievement as measured by traditional standard tests. Their views about the use of the system, in general, were positive. An analysis of students' future use of the system and their motivation and learning strategies revealed that those with more critical thinking metacognitive activities and an effort regulation management strategy showed more willingness to use the online testing system. Moreover, students with high test anxiety showed a preference to be tested through the system.     

Effects of a metacognitive support device in learning environments

Successful learning is mainly based on metacognitive activities which have to be performed and constantly monitored during learning. Research reveals that many learners have difficulties in performing such metacognitive activities spontaneously, which most probably results in lower learning outcomes. The aim of this study is to experimentally analyse the effects of a metacognitive support device combined with a paper-based prompting scheme. With this support device, students are instructed to activate their repertoire of metacognitive knowledge and skills which should further enhance learning and transfer.     

Individual and team annotation effects on students’ reading comprehension,critical thinking,and meta-cognitive skills

Many students enter college without the needed skills to be successful. Colleges and universities are seeking instructional interventions to address these needs. Various classes are leveraging web-based social media to provide new instructional technologies that will help students learn. This paper reports on two studies related to the potential of online social annotation for improving teaching and learning in second-semester Freshman English classes. The approach, referred to as the Social Annotation Model-Learning System (SAM-LS), combines various instructional strategies, team-based learning, and a social annotation computer-supported collaborative learning tool, HyLighter, to increase student engagement with selected essays and with classmates. SAM-LS stimulates students to actively monitor their thoughts and compare them to both peers and the instructor (or domain experts). Study 1 showed no significant difference between the SAM-LS approach and a control; however, results appear to be related to confounding factors. Study 2 showed that students achieve better outcomes on measures of reading comprehension and meta-cognitive skill, but not critical thinking, when SAM-LS activities include small team collaborations. The two studies suggest future directions for research and development of SAM-LS and the HyLighter tool.     

Can the use of cognitive and metacognitive self-regulated learning strategies be predicted by learners’ levels of prior knowledge in hypermedia-learning environments?

Research on self-regulated learning (SRL) in hypermedia-learning environments is a growing area of interest, and prior knowledge can influence how students interact with these systems. One hundred twelve (N = 112) undergraduate students’ interactions with MetaTutor, a multi-agent, hypermedia-based learning environment, were investigated, including how prior knowledge affected their use of SRL strategies. We expected that students with high prior knowledge would engage in significantly more cognitive and metacognitive SRL strategies, engage in different sequences of SRL strategies, spend more time engaging in SRL processes, and visit more pages that were relevant to their sub-goals than students with low prior knowledge. Results showed significant differences in the total use of SRL strategies between prior knowledge groups, and more specifically, revealed significant differences in the use of each metacognitive strategy (e.g., judgment of learning), but not each cognitive strategy (e.g., taking notes) between prior knowledge groups. Results also revealed different sequences of use of SRL strategies between prior knowledge groups, and that students spent different amounts of time engaging in SRL processes; however, all students visited similar numbers of relevant pages. These results have important implications on designing multi-agent, hypermedia environments; we can design pedagogical agents that adapt to students’ learning needs, based on their prior knowledge levels.     

Reading with the eyes and under the skin: Comprehending conflicting digital texts

This study investigated the contribution of both physiological and behavioural process data to the comprehension of conflicting digital texts. We measured skin conductance level (SCL) as an index of arousal and the first-pass and look-back fixation times as indices of visual behaviour while reading. Forty-eight seventh graders read four webpages on genetically modified food, and their comprehension of the texts was measured using a short essay. Results showed that the type of webpage did not differentiate the process data. Statistical procedures for the comparison of a series of regression models revealed that SCL and first-pass fixation time negatively predicted multiple-text comprehension while also considering the control variables. The more the students were aroused while reading and the longer the processing time during the first encounter with the reading material, the poorer their comprehension of the conflicting texts. However, the interaction of prior knowledge and arousal positively predicted multiple-text comprehension. A slope analysis revealed that when participants had high prior knowledge and high arousal during reading, their postreading comprehension performance increased.     

College students' text messaging,use of textese and literacy skills

In this study, I examined reported frequency of text messaging, use of textese and literacy skills (reading accuracy, spelling and reading fluency) in a sample of American college students. Participants reported using text messaging, social networking sites and textese more often than was reported in previous (2009) research, and their frequency of textese use varied across contexts. Correlational analyses revealed significant, positive relationships between text messaging frequency and literacy skills (spelling and reading fluency), but significant, negative relationships between textese usage in certain contexts (on social networking sites such as MySpace? and Facebook? and in emails to professors) and literacy (reading accuracy). These findings differ from findings reported in recent studies with Australian college students, British schoolchildren and American college students. Explanations for these differences are discussed, and future directions for research are presented.