Information access and retrieval with hypermedia information systems

Abstract

Students' success with interactive information systems (11s) such as those found in many CD-ROM applications depends to large degree on their capacity accurately to choose and apply search strategies in response to information needs. 11s systems provide many ways to retrieve information, with some methods being more efficient and effective than others. The purpose of this study was to investigate the search strategies employed by novice users of an 11s system and to analyse the problems and issues that were impediments to successful use. A class of 12 year old students was instructed in the use of an electronic encyclopaedia. The students used the encyclopaedia as an information source for individual projects and on completion their information skills tested and analysed. The study found that students tended to employ inefficient search strategies and experienced difficulty in creating search requests for information related problems. IntroductionThe rapid development, application and uptake of interactive multimedia technologies appears to have vast implications for schools and school curricula. These technologies include the capability for the storage and retrieval of large amounts of information. They are rapidly becoming attributes of the configuration of most entry level desktop computer systems. There are now many specific applications of interactive multimedia for educational applications, the most common of which are electronic books. Richards, Barker, Giller, Lamont and Manji (1990) describe three discrete form of electronic book:

Cognitive Effects of a Structural Overview in a Hypertext

“…However, as the number of links goes up, the structure of a hypertext becomes more fragmentary. The consequences of a fragmented structure are: cognitive overload, navigation inefficiency and disorientation (Conklin, 1987;Gärling and Golledge, 1989;Oliver and Oliver, 1996;Van Nimwegen et al, in press). To avoid these negative effects, researchers recommend-among other thingsan interface with a structural overview of the links between sections (Jonassen, 1986;Halasz and Conklin, 1989;Heller, 1990;Thüring et al, 1996).…”

Screen design for children’s reading: some key issues

“…They are likely to under-specify the problem, be distracted by irrelevancies, be unsure how to evaluate the information they find, over-generalise from specific instances, be unaware of incompleteness, or fail to recognise inconsistencies (Laurillard, 1995). Teacher input will be needed in the form of preparation, supervision and de-briefing (Kobayashi, Sasaki and Takeya, 1997;Oliver and Oliver, 1996). This observation was confirmed in the IMPS project ± by one teacher who found it particularly helpful to have large group sessions that introduced pupils to computer conventions and procedures, and by another who found that her most effective worksheets were those that combined navigational prompts with those about content.…”

“…using contents pages and indexes) are taken for granted and should be made more explicit by those concerned with improving children's literacy skills.' (p. 144) Oliver and Oliver (1996) noted that 12-year-old children's previous levels of computer experience and computer confidence affected the range of search options and features that they chose to use. The more experienced children also tended to experiment more and to devise short cuts, while others tended to continue to re-apply a strategy that had worked before.…”

A comparison of youngsters' use of CD‐ROM and the Internet as information resources

“…Marchionini (1989a) also comments on youngsters' entry of actual sentences and natural language to query the system, and Large, Beheshti and Breuleux (1998) found that their youngsters often merely employed words used by their teachers to describe their topics. In several studies a browsing approach has been seen to predominate (Marchionini, 1989a; Oliver & Oliver, 1996; Large, Beheshti, & Breuleux, 1998), yet Bland's (1995) teenagers recognized the need to combine keywords to increase search effectiveness. Users scrutinized by Large et al (1994) readily experimented with the search routes offered by the system.…”

“…Youngsters of various ages sampled by Marchionini (1989a, b) readily accepted basic system settings and ignored more sophisticated search options. A further recurrent theme appears to be the tendency of inquirers to employ a favored strategy repeatedly, even if it is not delivering the desired results (Oliver & Oliver, 1996; Large, Beheshti, & Breuleux, 1998).…”