Internet searching as a study aid for information technology and information systems learners at a tertiary level
type: CreativeWork
description: In this thesis, the author attempted to develop a method to help information Technology/Systems learners ﬁnd relevant information on the lnternet. The literature indicated that it is essential that learners should be able to retrieve relevant information from electronic sources. However, it was also stated repeatedly that searching on the Internet using standard search engines is not an easy task. It was also noted that a move was taking place away from traditional teaching methods to those with more learner involvement, making use of new computer and communication technologies. Initial experiments were done with IT/IS learners to determine how and where they search on the Internet, and what degree of success they had. The most important data gathered from these experiments was the tack of search strategy displayed by learners; the search engines chosen by them; and their success rate. Only 32.2% of all learners in this study managed to find one piece of relevant information in 30 minutes without any assistance. The data was used to design and later improve a tool to guide them in their searching endeavours. This tool, called "Finder Of information On The Internet" (FOIOTI, at http://www.mwe.co.za), was then extensively tested by measuring searching success, with and without using it. The data was gathered by examining and summarizing the forms completed by the learners during the searching experiments. During this study the author found that most learners had little or no training on Internet usage; often worked on the Internet; could not specify their search properly; used very few of the operators offered by search engines; and had a low success rate in ﬁnding relevant data. The two final phases of experiments proved that FOIOTI, as a searching tool, was successful. During these two phases, 71.0% of the participants claimed that they found the speciﬁed information when using FOIOTI within 30 minutes. A total of 1109 learners from three continents and 20 instituti…
abstract: In this thesis, the author attempted to develop a method to help information Technology/Systems learners ﬁnd relevant information on the lnternet. The literature indicated that it is essential that learners should be able to retrieve relevant information from electronic sources. However, it was also stated repeatedly that searching on the Internet using standard search engines is not an easy task. It was also noted that a move was taking place away from traditional teaching methods to those with more learner involvement, making use of new computer and communication technologies. Initial experiments were done with IT/IS learners to determine how and where they search on the Internet, and what degree of success they had. The most important data gathered from these experiments was the tack of search strategy displayed by learners; the search engines chosen by them; and their success rate. Only 32.2% of all learners in this study managed to find one piece of relevant information in 30 minutes without any assistance. The data was used to design and later improve a tool to guide them in their searching endeavours. This tool, called "Finder Of information On The Internet" (FOIOTI, at http://www.mwe.co.za), was then extensively tested by measuring searching success, with and without using it. The data was gathered by examining and summarizing the forms completed by the learners during the searching experiments. During this study the author found that most learners had little or no training on Internet usage; often worked on the Internet; could not specify their search properly; used very few of the operators offered by search engines; and had a low success rate in ﬁnding relevant data. The two final phases of experiments proved that FOIOTI, as a searching tool, was successful. During these two phases, 71.0% of the participants claimed that they found the speciﬁed information when using FOIOTI within 30 minutes. A total of 1109 learners from three continents and 20 instituti…
author: Weideman, Melius
language: eng
date published: 2001
date modified: 2026-07-22T22:23:00Z
provider: University of Cape Town
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: Library and Information Studies Centre (LISC)

PropertyValue
property ID: Handle
value: http://hdl.handle.net/11427/8754