A novel approach for assisting teachers in analyzing student web-searching behaviors

  • Authors:

  • Gwo-Jen Hwang;Pei-Shan Tsai;Chin-Chung Tsai;Judy C. R. Tseng

  • Affiliations:

  • Department of Information and Learning Technology, National University of Tainan, 33, Sec. 2, Shulin St., Tainan City 70005, Taiwan, ROC;Graduate School of Advanced Study, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, #43, Sec. 4, Keelung Rd., Taipei 106, Taiwan, ROC;Graduate School of Advanced Study and Graduate School of Technological and Vocational Education, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, #43, Sec. 4, Keelung Rd., Taipei 106, Taiwan, ...;Department of Computer Science and Information Engineering, Chung-Hua University, Hsinchu 300, Taiwan, ROC

  • Venue:
  • Computers & Education
  • Year:
  • 2008

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Abstract

Although previous research has demonstrated the benefits of applying the Internet facilities to the learning process, problems with this strategy have also been identified. One of the major difficulties is owing to the lack of an online learning environment that can record the learning portfolio of using the Internet facilities in education, such that the teacher can analyze and evaluate the learning performance of students, and hence the teaching strategies can be adjusted accordingly. In this paper, we propose a web-search learning environment, called Meta-Analyzer, which is able to assist the teachers in analyzing student learning behaviors of using search engines for problem solving. Two-hundred and twenty students and 54 teachers contributed to the trial of the system. The results have shown that the novel approach is able to gain a better understanding about students' learning processes and searching strategies in technology-enhanced environments, as well as to assist the teachers to acquire more about the learning status of students, and hence more constructive suggestions can be given accordingly.