help seeking in electronic learning
students aren't always good at determining when they need help.
three times that learners use tools well:
• there must be an opportunity for support (some type of help is there when the user needs its)
• learners recognize that there is an opportunity; he or she knows why the tool could be of help to them
• learners need to be motivated to look for help when they need it
in general, students tend not to use help enough or overuse it (use it too much, grow dependent on it or try to use it to answer questiosn instead of thinking it through themselves)
tools that provide direct information are more used, but meta-cognitive and generalized tools that support building skills to help oneself are less used.
they are asking: when students use help does it help their learning, when they provide advice do students use tools more, and does using tools help with student variables such as goal orientation, motivation, etc..?
Groups that received advice on how to use the help tools inline spent more time with the help tools. Mastery-oriented students used help tools significantly less frequently than did others.
Talk 3: Using or not using help tools during collaborative tasks
Comments
Are you referring to the help documents that are included as part of software programs? ... or help as in tutorials or teacher help? Were the students monitored over 1 class period? I find it hard to believe that students would continue to stay in the "help" sections if they have a task to do after they find the answers they need.
Posted by: H. McLaughlin | April 18, 2008 2:16 PM
Sorry, I should have made myself clear on this post. This is just me blogging about someone's presentation at the AERA annual meeting two weeks ago.
Posted by: Jude Higdon | April 18, 2008 2:20 PM