| Sumario: | Background: Processing and comprehending information from multiple sources have been a primary means of learning and are essential 21st‐century skills to construct knowledge for a deeper understanding. Objectives: This study examined students' individual differences in search strategies and internet epistemic beliefs as well as the effect of distinct note‐taking formats on students' online multiple‐document reading about measurement scales and statistical graphs, considering students' gender and prior knowledge. Methods: Participants were 124 Taiwanese university students (79% female) taking the Educational Statistics course in three different classes. I used a quasi‐experimental design to test the effect of different note‐taking formats on online multiple document reading. Three classes of students were randomly assigned to one of the experimental conditions with sourcing cues: the individual note taking with multiple tabs, the collaborative note taking with multiple tabs, or the individual note taking in a single tab. Results and conclusion: The study showed that the uncertainty belief about Internet‐based information and note‐taking formats predicted students' online multiple document reading. A stronger belief that the internet information is uncertain and may change with time positively predict online multiple document reading comprehension. Moreover, individuals taking notes in a single tab outperformed those taking notes individually in separate tabs. Major takeaways from the study: Implications for instruction were made to foster students' uncertainty belief and teach them how to construct pre‐outlined tables with sourcing cues to collect the contextual information and reflect on the source information to streamline learners' online multiple document reading comprehension. Lay Description: What is already known about this topic?: Online multiple document reading comprehension (OMDRC) is a complex mental process, which involves locating relevant information from the Internet, evaluating the quality and credibility of the online information, and constructing and reconciling conflicting views across multiple sources.Better Internet search skills predicted higher online reading outcomes.Internet epistemic beliefs or one's epistemic processing to acquire, justify, and use knowledge during the online learning task is associated with more experienced online search behaviour and quality of argumentation. What this paper adds?: This study adds to the literature in OMDRC to investigate how Internet epistemic beliefs and formats of note taking with sourcing cues will affect OMDRC, beyond learners' online search strategies, gender, and prior knowledge.This study shows that more adaptive Internet epistemic beliefs (particularly the uncertainty beliefs) and a coherent presentation in note taking will contribute to better OMDRC. Implications for practice and/or policy: Interventions (such as modelling and collaborative discussion) targeting students' awareness of the uncertainty about the Internet information can be applied to encourage them to examine the information from different perspectives.Effective pedagogical support, such as pre‐outline note‐taking devices with sourcing cues can help learners' multiple text integration from the Internet and benefit their OMDRC.
|
|---|