Adolescent information behaviour in everyday life decision making

Purpose. Within the field of information science, adolescent information behaviour as a part of the general decision making process is a relatively under-examined area. The way adolescents interact with information when making decisions influences decision outcomes and consequently affects their lives. Therefore, the study of information behaviour in the decision making process is an important area for research development. The goal of this paper is to take a step to advance research in this direction by reviewing what has been learnt and offering directions for future work. Methodology. The existing publications reporting the research on adolescent information behaviour related to making everyday life decisions within the information science field were investigated using content analysis methodology. Twenty articles were selected and analysed in the following aspects: information behaviour, including information seeking, passive information acquisition and information avoidance, information sources, barriers to information seeking, information use and affective experiences. Findings. It was found that the research on the topic of decision making within the information science field is scarce. Few studies focus specifically on adolescent information behaviour for making everyday life decisions and they consider only one specific decision situation. The existing work reveals that adolescents employ a wide range of information behaviour when making decisions in everyday life, both active and passive: information seeking, passive information acquisition which encompasses passive search and passive attention, community approach, deferring information seeking and information avoidance. They use a variety of information sources, and source selection depends on internal and external factors. They face barriers which impede information seeking and use information to increase knowledge on decision situations and therefore help the decision making process. Adolescent information behaviour in this context proved to be accompanied with affective experiences. Limitations. Some limitations of the study refer to the coverage of the literature from the information science field, to the selection of the relevant literature and to summarizing of the findings given the limitations of the form, i.e. a single chapter. Originality. This study tackles one of the barely touched areas in information science and youth information behaviour research and raises some important questions which need to be addressed

Developing e-assessment using the quiz activity within Moodle: empowering student learning

Using formative assessment within Moodle has been shown to encourage self-directed learning (Bromham & Oprandi, 2006). Our experience of using formative assessment quizzes as stand alone entities, as well as within Moodle lessons, has been used to introduce Moodle assessment quizzes over the past year in Level 1 and Level 2 Life Sciences courses. This experience has been distilled to inform the content of this workshop. Some advantages of incorporating assessments in the form of Moodle quizzes are that they allow for quick, reproducible and flexible assessment with a relatively small initial set-up cost, and substantial long-term staff and administration savings. One significant advantage is that staff and room pressures can be reduced as students can attempt the assessment at a time and location of their choice within a specified time period. This flexibility can help to reduce student stress associated with completion of a continuous assessment for their course. It is also a relatively simple process to account for students entitled to extra time during assessments. Providing clear instructions beforehand and at the start of the quiz ensures that students understand their responsibilities for completion of this assessment and ultimately the course. There are some disadvantages and limitations to the system as it currently exists, for example there is the perceived ability for students to “cheat” by completing the assessment as a group, accessing books and the internet. Strategies to account for these can be put in place and will be discussed in detail during the workshop. This workshop aims to take the participants through the initial set up of a quiz, highlighting the various question types and how these can be used to create a challenging assessment that can be quickly graded and prove informative for staff and course development. Reference Bromham L. & Oprandi P. (2006) Evolution online: developing active and blended learning by using a virtual learning environment in an introductory biology course. Journal of Biological Education 41 (1): 21-25

Preparing Information Literate Teachers: A Review of the Literature

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