Premium
Exploring novice users' training needs in searching information on the WWW
Author(s) -
Lazonder A.W.
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
journal of computer assisted learning
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.583
H-Index - 93
eISSN - 1365-2729
pISSN - 0266-4909
DOI - 10.1046/j.1365-2729.2000.00145.x
Subject(s) - computer science , world wide web , training (meteorology) , information needs , information retrieval , multimedia , meteorology , physics
Searching for information on the WWW involves locating a website and locating information on that site. A recent study implied that novice users' training needs exclusively relate to locating websites. The present case study tried to reveal the knowledge and skills that constitute these training needs. Fourteen pre‐university students, classified as novice ( n = 7) or experienced WWW‐user ( n = 7) performed three web search tasks. Their actions and verbalisations were recorded. Between‐group comparisons showed minimal performance differences. However, qualitative analyses of novice users' search performance suggest that their ability to locate websites could be enhanced by instructing monitoring skills and advanced system knowledge.