Effects of Individual Differences and Visual Information Seeking

Effects of Individual Differences and Visual Information Seeking on Learning Strategies in Essay Writing Nathan Laan Athabasca University School of Computing and Information Science

MSc in Computing and Information Science Thesis 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. Mini Proposal Detailed Proposal and Literature Review Thesis Proposal Defense Experimental Protocol Experimental Tools Development Research Ethics Application and Approval Experiment Analysis (In progress) COMP 676 COMP 677 COMP 678 COMP 679 COMP 680

Supervisory Committee • Dr. Dunwei Wen • Associate Professor, School of Computing & Information Systems, Athabasca University • http: //scis. athabascau. ca/scis/staff/faculty. php? id=dunweiw • Dr. Dragan Gašević • Professor, Schools of Education and Informatics, University of Edinburgh • http: //www. inf. ed. ac. uk/people/staff/Dragan_Gasevic. html • Dr. Phil Winne • Associate Dean, Graduate Studies in Education, Simon Fraser University • Professor, Faculty of Education, Simon Fraser University • http: //www. sfu. ca/education/faculty-profiles/pwinne. html

Effects of Individual Differences and Visual Information Seeking • Exploring Individual Differences: • Achievement Goal Orientation • Need for Cognition • Prior Knowledge • Visual Information • Term-net (Concept Map) • Investigate how users explore topics • Explore how users construct search queries

Experiment Overview 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. Informed consent. Provision of anonymous login account for the participant. Structured tutorial. Pre-experiment Achievement Goal Orientation questionnaire. Pre-experiment Need for Cognition questionnaire. Pre-experiment Knowledge Assessment questionnaire. Participants provided with topic ("security technology“). Graph-based Term-net and Search tool. Participants use tools to research topic and write 200 -300 word essay. Post-experiment Search Tool Evaluation Perceived Usefulness questionnaire. Post-experiment Term-net Perceived Usefulness questionnaire.

Term-net

Research Ethics Approval • The Chicken and the Egg! • Research conducted at Kings University and NAIT in Edmonton. • Athabasca required Research Ethics Approval from NAIT and Kings.

Data, and more Data • 78 Variables per Participant • Pre-Test Achievement Goal Orientation: • AGO 01, … , AGO 18, AGOG 1, AGOG 2, AGOG 3, Total. AGO • Pre-Test Knowledge Assessment: • KA 01, … , KA 06, Total. KA • Pre-Test Need for Cognition: • NFC 01, … , NFC 18, Total. NFC • Post-Test Perceived Usefulness Search Tool: • PUST 01, … , PUST 06, Total. PUST • Post-Test Perceived Usefulness Term-Net: • PUTN 01, … , PUTN 06, Total. PUTN • • • Total. Terms, Total. Term. Links, Average. Term. Links. Per. Term Total. Searches, Total. Search. Links, Average. Search. Links. Per. Search Total. Pages (Total. Views) Min. Page. View. Time, Max. Page. View. Time, Average. Page. View. Time Elapsed Time Exploring

Essay Scores 25 20 15 10 5 0 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15

Achievement Goal Orientation Scores 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70 75 80

Prior Knowledge Scores 14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21

Correlation Analysis (y = Essay Score) Dependent (x) Spearman’s Correlation AGO 1 0. 7176 AGO 2 0. 7083 AGO 3 0. 6705 AGO Total 0. 6911 Prior Knowledge 0. 1626 Need for Cognition 0. 0733 Number of Terms 0. 5749 Number of Searches 0. 3203 Total Elapsed Time 0. 7396 Number Searches < 66 0. 6018 Elapsed Time < 1500 0. 8740

Multiple Linear Regression Analysis Dependent (x) R Squared AGO 1 AGO 2 AGO 3 0. 7152 AGO 1 AGO 2 AGO 3 Prior Knowledge 0. 8507 AGO 1 AGO 2 AGO 3 Prior Knowledge Total Elapsed Time < 1500 0. 9275

Next Steps • Multiple Linear Regression Analysis • Beta and Statistical Significance Values • Akaike Information Criterion (AIC) • Iterative method to select the model with the best predictor. • Measures quality of statistical models. • Hypothesis – Essay Score Predicted by: • • AGO Prior Knowledge Total Elapsed Time < 1500