Applying social bookmarking to collective information searching (CIS): An analysis of behavioral pattern and peer interaction for co-exploring quality online resources

With the advancement of Web 2.0 applications, this study aims to advocate that social bookmarking (SB) applications could support mutual exchange of finding information in a manner of collective information searching (CIS). A social bookmarking system, namely ‘WeShare,’ was developed, and conducted with 127 junior high school students for performing the given assignment in this study. The participants’ activities of collecting and reviewing relevant information were traced by log data for later analysis. To initially unveil the participants’ behaviors in the use of social bookmarking for co-exploring the Internet resources, this study proposed some quantitative indicators to represent students’ personal contributions (‘Bookmarks from the Internet,’ ‘Bookmarks from WeShare,’ ‘Annotations on personal bookmarks,’ ‘Comments on others’ bookmarks’) and peer feedback (‘The number of bookmarks collected by peers,’ ‘The number of bookmarks commented on by peers,’ ‘The number of comments from peers’). By the method of cluster analysis, some behavioral patterns regarding how participants collectively search the Internet by use of WeShare were identified. Furthermore, the findings suggest that personal contributions to citing and commenting on peers’ bookmarks are important to the advancement of collective information searching activities for finding quality information on the Internet.     

Surveying the extent of involvement in online academic dishonesty (e-dishonesty) related practices among university students and the rationale students provide: One university’s experience

This study reports data from a Midwestern university, investigating the extent of involvement in online academic dishonesty practices (e-dishonesty) among students and the rationale they provided. Involvement in and rationale for e-dishonesty was studied across individual variables including academic level, primary field of study, taking the university’s academic integrity tutorial, and taking online and hybrid courses. A total of 1153 students participated in the study by completing a 44 item questionnaire. The findings indicate that the extent of involvement in e-dishonesty practices was significantly greater among freshmen than graduate students in most of the subscales of the survey. In addition, the primary field of study demonstrated a significant relationship between involvement in e-dishonesty and the rationale for e-dishonesty. Students in education and the social sciences reported of the least involvement in e-dishonesty; engineering and physical sciences the most. Completing the university’s academic integrity tutorial did not significantly affect e-dishonesty practices while taking online or hybrid courses had some significant effect on e-dishonesty. The results highlight the need for early intervention concerning academic integrity followed by an ongoing and consistent effort throughout students’ undergraduate and graduate experience.