University students' online academic help seeking: The role of self-regulation and information commitments

Kun Hung Cheng*, Jyh Chong Liang, Chin Chung Tsai

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

83 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Students' online academic help seeking (OAHS) can be facilitated by the aid of technology, but improvement in OAHS may also involve personal variables such as self-regulated learning (SRL), and 'information commitments' (ICs), which are evaluative standards and strategies of online information. Accordingly, three instruments - an OAHS, an SRL, and an ICs questionnaire - were adopted to explore the role of SRL and ICs in the OAHS of 328 university students in Taiwan. The results verify that the students' perceived SRL mediates the relationships between their perceptions of their ICs and OAHS to some degree. The enhancement of learners' SRL may encourage their use of sophisticated ICs when involved in OAHS. When the students made informal OAHS queries, however, they tended to use less sophisticated strategies, and the significance of their perceived SRL was not apparent. This study contributes to a better understanding of university students' online academic help seeking.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)70-77
Number of pages8
JournalInternet and Higher Education
Volume16
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2013 Jan
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Evaluative standard
  • Information commitments
  • Information searching
  • Online academic help seeking
  • Online query
  • Self-regulated learning

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Education
  • Computer Science Applications
  • Computer Networks and Communications

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