Using the Internet: Skill related problems in users' online behavior

This study extends the conventional and superficial notion of measuring digital skills by proposing definitions for operational, formal, information and strategic skills. The main purpose was to identify individual skill related problems that users experience when navigating the Internet. In particular, lower levels of education and aging seem to contribute to the amount of experienced operational and formal skill related problems. With respect to information skills, higher levels of education seem to perform best. Age did not seem to contribute to information skill related problems. Results did reveal that age had a negative effect on selecting irrelevant search results. Individual strategic Internet skill related problems occurred often, with the exception of subjects with higher levels of education. Younger subjects experienced far less operational and formal skill related problems, but there was no difference regarding information and strategic skill related problems.

[1]  Kimberly Merritt,et al.  AN INVESTIGATION OF SELF-REPORTED COMPUTER LITERACY: IS IT RELIABLE? , 2005 .

[2]  Hanhwe Kim,et al.  Spatial metaphors and disorientation in hypertext browsing , 1995, Behav. Inf. Technol..

[3]  Gary Marchionini,et al.  Previews and overviews in digital libraries: Designing surrogates to support visual information seeking , 2000, J. Am. Soc. Inf. Sci..

[4]  Wallace Koehler,et al.  Virtual inequality: Beyond the digital divide , 2004, J. Assoc. Inf. Sci. Technol..

[5]  Ragnar Andreas Audunson,et al.  Technology and Social Inclusion. Rethinking the Digital Divide , 2006, J. Documentation.

[6]  D. R. Danielson.  Volatility in Web Navigation: Usability Metrics and User Behavior , 2002 .

[7]  David Bawden,et al.  Information and digital literacies: a review of concepts , 2001, J. Documentation.

[8]  Yair Amichai-Hamburger,et al.  Experiments in Digital Literacy , 2004, Cyberpsychology Behav. Soc. Netw..

[9]  Jinwoo Kim,et al.  Contextual Navigation Aids for Two World Wide Web Systems , 2000, Int. J. Hum. Comput. Interact..

[10]  Ray McAleese.  Hypertext: Theory into Practice , 1998 .

[11]  David Ellis,et al.  A behavioural model for information retrieval system design , 1989, J. Inf. Sci..

[12]  Christoph Hölscher,et al.  Web search behavior of Internet experts and newbies , 2000, Comput. Networks.

[13]  Lynda Hardman,et al.  'Lost in Hyperspace': Cognitive Mapping and Navigation in a Hypertext Environment , 1999, UK Hypertext.

[14]  Jakob Nielsen,et al.  Hypertext and hypermedia , 1990 .

[15]  Moon J. Lee,et al.  Expanding Hypertext: Does It Address Disorientation? Depends on Individuals' Adventurousness , 2006, J. Comput. Mediat. Commun..

[16]  Paul Shafer,et al.  From Unequal Access to Differentiated Use: A Literature Review and Agenda for Research on Digital Inequality , 2004 .

[17]  Pille Pruulmann-Vengerfeldt,et al.  Exploring Social Theory as a Framework for Social and Cultural Measurements of the Information Society , 2006, Inf. Soc..

[18]  M. Kwan.  Cyberspatial Cognition and Individual Access to Information: The Behavioral Foundation of Cybergeography , 2001 .

[19]  José Carlos Teixeira,et al.  Information literacy: an integrated concept for a safer Internet , 2003, Online Inf. Rev..

[20]  Gary Marchionini,et al.  Find What You Need, Understand What You Find , 2007, Int. J. Hum. Comput. Interact..

[21]  J. V. Dijk,et al.  The Deepening Divide: Inequality in the Information Society , 2005 .

[22]  J. D. Haan,et al.  IT AND SOCIAL INEQUALITY IN THE NETHERLANDS , 2003 .

[23]  Valerie Njie,et al.  Internet Usage by Low-Literacy Adults Seeking Health Information: An Observational Analysis , 2004, Journal of medical Internet research.

[24]  S. Tefft.  Digital Divide: Civic Engagement, Information Poverty, and the Internet Worldwide , 2002 .

[25]  Gary Marchionini,et al.  Information Seeking in Electronic Environments , 1995 .

[26]  P. Resta,et al.  Toward Digital Equity: Bridging the Divide in Education , 2002 .

[27]  S. Hick,et al.  Inequality and the digital divide : myths and realities , 2002 .

[28]  Amanda Spink,et al.  Web Search: Public Searching of the Web , 2011, Information Science and Knowledge Management.

[29]  J. Steyaert.  Digitale vaardigheden, geletterdheid in de informatiesamenleving , 2000 .

[30]  Klaus Nordhausen,et al.  Modeling successful performance in Web searching , 2006, J. Assoc. Inf. Sci. Technol..

[31]  Susan Wiedenbeck,et al.  PATTERNS OF INFORMATION SEEKING ON THE WEB: A QUALITATIVE STUDY OF DOMAIN EXPERTISE AND WEB EXPERTISE , 2003 .

[32]  Ulla K. Bunz,et al.  The Computer-Email-Web (CEW) Fluency Scale--Development and Validation , 2001 .

[33]  Laura C. Larsson,et al.  Digital Literacy Checklist , 2000 .

[34]  Ana-Paula Correia,et al.  Disorientation in Hypermedia Environments: Mechanisms to Support Navigation , 1999 .