How and why do college students use Wikipedia
01 Nov 2009-Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology (John Wiley & Sons, Ltd)-Vol. 60, Iss: 11, pp 2189-2202
TL;DR: This article explored college students' perceptions, uses of, and motivations for using Wikipedia, and to understand their information behavior concerning Wikipedia based on social cognitive theory (SCT), and found that approximately one-third of the students reported using Wikipedia for academic purposes.
Abstract: The purposes of this study were to explore college students' perceptions, uses of, and motivations for using Wikipedia, and to understand their information behavior concerning Wikipedia based on social cognitive theory (SCT). A Web survey was used to collect data in the spring of 2008. The study sample consisted of students from an introductory undergraduate course at a large public university in the midwestern United States. A total of 134 students participated in the study, resulting in a 32.8p response rate. The major findings of the study include the following: Approximately one-third of the students reported using Wikipedia for academic purposes. The students tended to use Wikipedia for quickly checking facts and finding background information. They had positive past experiences with Wikipedia; however, interestingly, their perceptions of its information quality were not correspondingly high. The level of their confidence in evaluating Wikipedia's information quality was, at most, moderate. Respondents' past experience with Wikipedia, their positive emotional state, their disposition to believe information in Wikipedia, and information utility were positively related to their outcome expectations of Wikipedia. However, among the factors affecting outcome expectations, only information utility and respondents' positive emotions toward Wikipedia were related to their use of it. Further, when all of the independent variables, including the mediator, outcome expectations, were considered, only the variable information utility was related to Wikipedia use, which may imply a limited applicability of SCT to understanding Wikipedia use. However, more empirical evidence is needed to determine the applicability of this theory to Wikipedia use. Finally, this study supports the knowledge value of Wikipedia (Fallis, [2008]), despite students' cautious attitudes toward Wikipedia. The study suggests that educators and librarians need to provide better guidelines for using Wikipedia, rather than prohibiting Wikipedia use altogether. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
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19 Apr 2012
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors introduce concepts relevant to Information Behavior Models, Paradigms, and Theories in the study of Information Behavior Methods for Studying Information Behavior Research Results and Reflections.
Abstract: Abbreviated Contents Figures and Tables Preface Introduction and Examples Concepts Relevant to Information Behavior Models, Paradigms, and Theories in the Study of Information Behavior Methods for Studying Information Behavior Research Results and Reflections Appendix: Glossary Appendix: Questions for Discussion and Application References Index
1,347 citations
TL;DR: Data indicate that recency of tweets impacts source credibility; however, this relationship is mediated by cognitive elaboration, which suggests many implications for theory and application, both in computer-mediated communication and crisis communication.
Abstract: Social media are increasingly being used as an information source, including information related to risks and crises. The current study examines how pieces of information available in social media impact perceptions of source credibility. Specifically, participants in the study were asked to view 1 of 3 mockTwitter.compages that varied the recency with which tweets were posted and then to report on their perceived source credibility of the page owner. Data indicate that recency of tweets impacts source credibility; however, this relationship is mediated by cognitive elaboration. These data suggest many implications for theory and application, both in computer-mediated communication and crisis communication. These implications are discussed, along with limitations of the current study and directions for future research.
510 citations
TL;DR: Wikipedia meets the needs of college students because it offers a mixture of coverage, currency, convenience, and comprehensibility in a world where credibility is less of a given or an expectation from today’s students.
Abstract: Findings are reported from student focus groups and a large-scale survey about how and why students (enrolled at six different U.S. colleges) use Wikipedia during the course-related research process. A majority of respondents frequently used Wikipedia for background information, but less often than they used other common resources, such as course readings and Google. Architecture, engineering, and science majors were more likely to use Wikipedia for course-related research than respondents in other majors. The findings suggest Wikipedia is used in combination with other information resources. Wikipedia meets the needs of college students because it offers a mixture of coverage, currency, convenience, and comprehensibility in a world where credibility is less of a given or an expectation from today’s students.
235 citations
Cites background from "How and why do college students use..."
...Sook Lim, 2009....
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...Previous definitions have defined information utility in terms of Web behavior and ease, convenience, and usefulness of information (Lim, 2009; Rieh and Hillgoss, 2007)....
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...Lim (2009) also found that “student attitudes toward Wikipedia tended to be cautious, as they were aware that it may include inaccurate information, In other words, it seems that students did not use Wikipedia blindly,” p. 2,200....
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...…26 March 2010 A recent study surveyed a small sample of communication majors (n=134) and found more than a third (39 percent) of the sample reported being frequent Wikipedia users (i.e., had used Wikipedia more than 15 times in the prior semester) (Lim, 2009) [20]....
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TL;DR: For instance, this article found that over 60% of respondents had shared misinformation on social media, and the top reasons were related to the information's perceived characteristics, as well as self-expression and socializing.
162 citations
Cites background from "How and why do college students use..."
...In terms of the last category, most studies have focused on perception and use of social media (e.g., Kim, Sin, & Tsai, 2014; Lim, 2009; Morris, Teevan, & Panovich, 2010; Zhang, 2012), aswell as on the criteria and strategies used in evaluating the credibility of social media information (e.g., Kim…...
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TL;DR: It is argued that differences in measurability stem from properties inherent to the quality dimension (i.e., the availability of heuristics that make the assessment more tangible) as well as on assessors' reliance on these cues.
Abstract: The notion of information quality (IQ) has been investigated extensively in recent years. Much of this research has been aimed at conceptualizing IQ and its underlying dimensions (e.g., accuracy, completeness) and at developing instruments for measuring these quality dimensions. However, less attention has been given to the measurability of IQ. The objective of this study is to explore the extent to which a set of IQ dimensions—accuracy, completeness, objectivity, and representation—lend themselves to reliable measurement. By reliable measurement, we refer to the degree to which independent assessors are able to agree when rating objects on these various dimensions. Our study reveals that multiple assessors tend to agree more on certain dimensions (e.g., accuracy) while finding it more difficult to agree on others (e.g., completeness). We argue that differences in measurability stem from properties inherent to the quality dimension (i.e., the availability of heuristics that make the assessment more tangible) as well as on assessors' reliance on these cues. Implications for theory and practice are discussed. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
128 citations
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01 Jan 1997TL;DR: SelfSelf-Efficacy (SE) as discussed by the authors is a well-known concept in human behavior, which is defined as "belief in one's capabilities to organize and execute the courses of action required to produce given attainments".
Abstract: Albert Bandura and the Exercise of Self-Efficacy Self-Efficacy: The Exercise of Control Albert Bandura. New York: W. H. Freeman (www.whfreeman.com). 1997, 604 pp., $46.00 (hardcover). Enter the term "self-efficacy" in the on-line PSYCLIT database and you will find over 2500 articles, all of which stem from the seminal contributions of Albert Bandura. It is difficult to do justice to the immense importance of this research for our theories, our practice, and indeed for human welfare. Self-efficacy (SE) has proven to be a fruitful construct in spheres ranging from phobias (Bandura, Jeffery, & Gajdos, 1975) and depression (Holahan & Holahan, 1987) to career choice behavior (Betz & Hackett, 1986) and managerial functioning (Jenkins, 1994). Bandura's Self-Efficacy: The Exercise of Control is the best attempt so far at organizing, summarizing, and distilling meaning from this vast and diverse literature. Self-Efficacy may prove to be Bandura's magnum opus. Dr. Bandura has done an impressive job of summarizing over 1800 studies and papers, integrating these results into a coherent framework, and detailing implications for theory and practice. While incorporating prior works such as Social Learning Theory (Bandura, 1977) and "Self-efficacy mechanism in human agency" (Bandura, 1982), Self-Efficacy extends these works by describing results of diverse new research, clarifying and extending social cognitive theory, and fleshing out implications of the theory for groups, organizations, political bodies, and societies. Along the way, Dr. Bandura masterfully contrasts social cognitive theory with many other theories of human behavior and helps chart a course for future research. Throughout, B andura' s clear, firm, and self-confident writing serves as the perfect vehicle for the theory he espouses. Self-Efficacy begins with the most detailed and clear explication of social cognitive theory that I have yet seen, and proceeds to delineate the nature and sources of SE, the well-known processes via which SE mediates human behavior, and the development of SE over the life span. After laying this theoretical groundwork, subsequent chapters delineate the relevance of SE to human endeavor in a variety of specific content areas including cognitive and intellectual functioning; health; clinical problems including anxiety, phobias, depression, eating disorders, alcohol problems, and drug abuse; athletics and exercise activity; organizations; politics; and societal change. In Bandura's words, "Perceived self-efficacy refers to beliefs in one's capabilities to organize and execute the courses of action required to produce given attainments" (p. 3). People's SE beliefs have a greater effect on their motivation, emotions, and actions than what is objectively true (e.g., actual skill level). Therefore, SE beliefs are immensely important in choice of behaviors (including occupations, social relationships, and a host of day-to-day behaviors), effort expenditure, perseverance in pursuit of goals, resilience to setbacks and problems, stress level and affect, and indeed in our ways of thinking about ourselves and others. Bandura affirms many times that humans are proactive and free as well as determined: They are "at least partial architects of their own destinies" (p. 8). Because SE beliefs powerfully affect human behaviors, they are a key factor in human purposive activity or agency; that is, in human freedom. Because humans shape their environment even as they are shaped by it, SE beliefs are also pivotal in the construction of our social and physical environments. Bandura details over two decades of research confirming that SE is modifiable via mastery experiences, vicarious learning, verbal persuasion, and interpretation of physiological states, and that modified SE strongly and consistently predicts outcomes. SE beliefs, then, are central to human self-determination. STRENGTHS One major strength of Self-Efficacy is Bandura's ability to deftly dance from forest to trees and back again to forest, using specific, human examples and concrete situations to highlight his major theoretical premises, to which he then returns. …
46,839 citations
01 Jan 1986
TL;DR: In this article, models of Human Nature and Casualty are used to model human nature and human health, and a set of self-regulatory mechanisms are proposed. But they do not consider the role of cognitive regulators.
Abstract: 1. Models of Human Nature and Casualty. 2. Observational Learning. 3. Enactive Learning. 4. Social Diffusion and Innovation. 5. Predictive Knowledge and Forethought. 6. Incentive Motivators. 7. Vicarious Motivators. 8. Self-Regulatory Mechanisms. 9. Self-Efficacy. 10. Cognitive Regulators. References. Index.
21,686 citations
TL;DR: Social cognitive theory distinguishes among three modes of agency: direct personal agency, proxy agency that relies on others to act on one's behest to secure desired outcomes, and collective agency exercised through socially coordinative and interdependent effort.
Abstract: The capacity to exercise control over the nature and quality of one's life is the essence of humanness. Human agency is characterized by a number of core features that operate through phenomenal and functional consciousness. These include the temporal extension of agency through intentionality and forethought, self-regulation by self-reactive influence, and self-reflectiveness about one's capabilities, quality of functioning, and the meaning and purpose of one's life pursuits. Personal agency operates within a broad network of sociostructural influences. In these agentic transactions, people are producers as well as products of social systems. Social cognitive theory distinguishes among three modes of agency: direct personal agency, proxy agency that relies on others to act on one's behest to secure desired outcomes, and collective agency exercised through socially coordinative and interdependent effort. Growing transnational embeddedness and interdependence are placing a premium on collective efficacy to exercise control over personal destinies and national life.
11,235 citations
TL;DR: Self-efficacy represents an important individual trait, which moderates organizational influences on an individual's decision to use computers, and is important to the successful implementation of systems in organizations.
Abstract: This paper discusses the role of individuals' beliefs about their abilities to competently use computers (computer self-efficacy) in the determination of computer use. A survey of Canadian managers and professionals was conducted to develop and validate a measure of computer self-efficacy and to assess both its impacts and antecedents. Computer self- efficacy was found to exert a significant influence on individuals' expectations of the outcomes of using computers, their emotional reactions to computers (affect and anxiety), as well as their actual computer use. An individual's self-efficacy and outcome expecta- tions were found to be positively influenced by the encouragement of others in their work group, as well as others' use of computers. Thus, self-efficacy represents an important individual trait, which moderates organizational influences (such as encouragement and support) on an individual's decision to use computers. Understanding self-efficacy, then, is important to the successful implementation of systems in organizations. The existence of a reliable and valid measure of self-efficacy makes assessment possible and should have implications for organizational support, training, and implementation.
5,717 citations
05 Jun 2008
TL;DR: Theories of human behavior differ in their conceptions of human nature and what they regard as the basic determinants and mechanisms governing self-development, adaptation, and change as discussed by the authors, which is rooted in an agentic perspective.
Abstract: Theories of human behavior differ in their conceptions of human nature and what they regard as the basic determinants and mechanisms governing self-development, adaptation, and change. Social cognitive theory is rooted in an agentic perspective ( Bandura 1986, 2006a). To be an agent is to influence one's own functioning and events that affect one's life. In this view people are contributors to their life circumstances, not just products of them.
Keywords:
Information Processing and Cognitions;
Psychology
3,306 citations