Examining perceptions, selections, and products in undergraduates' learning from multiple resources.

Area of Science:

• Educational Psychology
• Cognitive Science
• Human-Computer Interaction

Background:

• Students frequently use diverse online resources (textual, non-textual, multimedia) for complex learning.
• Learning from multiple texts and multiple (non-textual) resources (MT-MR) is crucial but understudied.
• Understanding how students engage with varied digital resources is key to effective online education.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the relationship between undergraduates' reasons for accessing multiple resources.
• To analyze how resource use patterns (log-data) correlate with task performance.
• To examine the link between students' conceptions of MT-MR learning and their writing outcomes.

Main Methods:

• 72 US undergraduates completed a task using a provided library of texts and videos.
• Log-data tracked resource access duration and supplemental data usage.
• Participants wrote a research report and described their rationale for using multiple resources.

Main Results:

• Four student conceptions of multiple resource access emerged: information quantity, multiple perspectives, corroboration/evaluation, and personal understanding.
• Students prioritizing corroboration and evaluation accessed more supplemental data.
• A focus on corroboration and evaluation correlated with superior performance on the MT-MR learning task.

Conclusions:

• Undergraduate conceptions of MT-MR learning share similarities and differences with prior research.
• Student beliefs about resource use significantly influence their engagement patterns.
• These conceptions are directly associated with both resource access behaviors and academic performance in MT-MR learning scenarios.