In today's rapidly developing learning environment, technology has emerged as a strong contender in distance learning especially in the areas of information seeking behavior. The enormous availability of information on the Internet and library databases necessitates distance learning students to prepare themselves with skills to search relevant information for their research and learning activities. This was and is still a growing concern among adult students considering their limited time and, work and family commitments, hence the library must also continuously improve their services to accommodate the needs of the students. In light of this, Wawasan Open University Library has undertaken a survey study, based on the Wilson's revised model of information behavior (1999), to profile the information seeking behavior of their distance students in using library resources in their research and learning activities. Using the stratified random sampling method, samples were selected to ensure proper representation of the population across 4 Schools of Studies and 5 Regional Centres. A total of 550 questionnaires were sent to undergraduate and postgraduate students and 435 completed questionnaires were returned with a success of 79% response rate. Findings of the study provide useful information on improving students' information search behaviour as well as the utilization and efficiency of library services.
Material type
Electronic
Funder
Institute for Research and Innovations (IRI)
Notes
Paper presented at the 29th Asian Association of Open Universities (AAOU) Conference (30 November-02 December 2015; Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia). This paper won the Silver Medal under the Best Paper Award category.
Profiling information seeking behavior of distance learning students in Wawasan Open University
.png)
Profiling_Information
(461.39KB)
Home