Cognition and learner control: a literature review, 1977–1988
Journal of Computer Based Instruction
Searching on the Web (poster abstract): two types of expertise
Proceedings of the 22nd annual international ACM SIGIR conference on Research and development in information retrieval
e-Learning and the Science of Instruction: Proven Guidelines for Consumers and Designers of Multimedia Learning
Using Online Learning Systems to Improve Student Performance: Leveraging Prior Knowledge
International Journal of Information and Communication Technology Education
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This article explores the influence of prior knowledge on the setting of goals and use of content in museum website visits. Goal setting is a crucial process in organizing the activities of surfers in open environments, such as museum websites, where surfers faced ill-defined tasks. To this end, 12 graduate students were asked to surf through two museum websites in different domains (anthropology and natural sciences). Half of the participants had robust background in anthropology. Within each of these groups, half of the students had spent more than four years in graduate school, while the other half were first year students. Visited pages and concurrent comments were recorded, coded and analyzed. Results showed that domain specific knowledge influences goal setting process. Visitors with high domain knowledge tended to set larger and more consistent goal structures than first year students. Results showed also that general previous knowledge influences content use. Surfers with higher general skills tended to elaborate more on content and use more intensively the information available at the websites.