A Citation Analysis of Psychology Students’ Use of Sources in Online Distance Learning

Source Use by Second Year Psychology Students in Online Distance Learning

“…Participants were recruited from OPNZ students enrolled in 73212 Thought, Memory & Language in the years 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2017. Based on previous research (Weaver & Barnard, 2015), this course was chosen for two reasons: (1) It is a higher-level course (OPNZ Level 6 is equivalent to second-year study at a university) than the beginning-level course (73195 General and Applied Psychology) studied previously; and (2) its prerequisite is 73195. These 73212 students therefore resemble those studied earlier, having themselves been students in that beginning level course at one time, and were considered to be a good comparison sample.…”

“…Building on these reports, the researchers' 2015 study aimed to extend the literature by filling some gaps: Many published studies looked at only one writing example from each student so could not test whether source use changed with experience in the course; sample sizes were often quite small; and students studying by ODL were often not included in the study. In the researchers' first study (Weaver & Barnard, 2015) two successive assignments were collected from students; a course with large enrolment was studied to provide a larger sample; and ODL students were the focus. Main results included that the most referenced sources for these beginning-level students were relevant to the assignment and provided by the instructor (echoing the findings of Davis, 2003;McClure et al, 2011, as well as what Jones & Allen, 2012, found in their discussion groups).…”

“…It's a second-level course focusing on cognitive psychology. The prerequisite for this course is 73195 General & Applied Psychology, which is the course studied earlier (Weaver & Barnard, 2015). All of the currently tested students had therefore successfully completed the course last examined.…”

“…In this section the new Level 6 data is compared with the data collected earlier on Level 5 students. (For full details of the previous research, see Weaver & Barnard, 2015. )…”

“…builds on earlier work by the same research team (Weaver & Barnard, 2015) to measure source use by psychology students at the Open Polytechnic of New Zealand (OPNZ).…”