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Timeline showing the distribution of information behaviour patterns during the academic year.

Timeline showing the distribution of information behaviour patterns during the academic year.

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Article
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Introduction. This research investigates the information behaviour of undergraduate students seeking academic help via anonymous posts to a university Facebook Confessions page. While Confessions pages have gained popularity in post-secondary contexts, their use for educational purposes is largely unexplored. Method. Researchers employed a mixed me...

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... Considering this aspect, universities could pay more attention to the way students communicate on their Facebook Crush pages, and could try to use such type of collaboration with their students. In light of this matter, a previous study [13], also emphasized that universities could use the Facebook Crush pages in order to be aware of the needs and interests of students. For example, by observing the content and the type of interaction that students have on these pages, a university could tailor its communication or promotion strategy in order to meet the needs of the students. ...
... For example, by observing the content and the type of interaction that students have on these pages, a university could tailor its communication or promotion strategy in order to meet the needs of the students. However, the same study [13] also pointed out that, universities should have a cautious approach if they want to be officially involved in the Facebook Crush pages, or become administrators, because the students might react in a negative manner, and they might feel that the universities are invading the safe space they have created for themselves. Taking into account the ways in which students use Facebook Crush pages, a study conducted on the pages of Egyptian universities revealed that students mostly used the page in order to have fun, to express their feeling anonymously, or because they felt the need to talk to someone about different subject without the risk of being embarrassed [14]. ...
... Given the matter of the Unitbv Crush page being administrated by the university, both the results of the qualitative and the quantitative research showed that students did not like the idea of the page being managed by Transilvania University of Brasov. In this regard, our paper is in line with a previous study [13], which highlighted the fact that if universities were to decide to manage the Crush pages created by students, they should consider the fact that such action could determine negative reactions from students. However, even though the students did not agree with the idea that the Unitbv Crush page could be managed by Transilvania University of Brasov, we still argue that there could be some advantages for both sides if the University would pay more attention to the content posted on the page. ...
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From a simple channel through which people can communicate at a distance, the Internet has been transformed, evolved and slowly started to dominate different aspects of their lives. In this regard, people in general, and students and universities in particular, began using online platforms for different purposes. The aim of our paper is to examine students’ perception regarding the informal online platforms used in the name of Transilvania University of Brasov, in order to identify the way in which such platforms can influence the collaboration between students and the university. Students’ perception about the Facebook page entitled “Unitbv Crush” -a page created with the purpose of helping students interact and date with each other- were analyzed. A mixed method approach included interviews with 15 top fan students based on the Facebook algorithm of the same university as part of a pilot study and a questionnaire that was applied to 848 students. Results of the research showed that most students thought that the page was created with the purpose of posting fun content and of dating, and that they did not agree with the idea that the page should be administrated by the university. Therefore, the page managed to improve the collaboration between students, but by showing that students did not want for the page to be administrated by the university, the page has little to no influence on improving collaboration between the institution and its students. Universities could benefit from the results of this research, in the case in which they would like to take control over the Crush pages created by students.
... As Hayman et al. [86] stated that students use their Facebook confessions in four different ways to support their academic experiences and guide their undergraduate careers: they ask for help on Facebook, give study advice, look for useful information, and control their study habits. Broadbent and Lodge [84] compared opinions of live chat technology used for online academic help in higher education between online and blended learners. ...
Article
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Seeking academic help has a positive impact on students’ ability to handle challenges, leading to improved academic success. As the academic landscape becomes more competitive, the importance of students seeking and using academic support is widely recognized for enhancing their learning experience and achievements. The main objective of this study is to review the prior literature that has examined the academic support provided to college students, addressing the knowledge and methods required in an academic help-seeking process. Based on a systematic literature review, this study’s data were gathered from a review of 55 documents from the 11 years between 2012 and 2022. The literature was then individually analyzed using the ATLAS.ti 22 programs. The analysis shows five central themes: (1) Defining student help-seeking; (2) Academic help-seeking and academic performance; (3) Resources of academic help-seeking; (4) Factors of academic help-seeking; (5) Academic Help Seeking Online. This study also identifies potential new directions for future research that could be useful to school administrators in developing policies to assist students with help-seeking behavior, which could have significant implications for the theoretical development and practical guidance of student help-seeking behavior.
... However, many of these activities also reflect self-regulated learning that is a core part of undergraduate education, and reinforce prior findings on students' use of social media for help-seeking activities (Hayman et al., 2019). ...
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This research addresses an identified need to further understand digital literacies (DL) and whether undergraduate students view DL as being important in their lives and in their learning. Using a cross-sectional survey sent to a stratified random sample of 2500 undergraduates representative of the overall student population at a medium-sized Canadian undergraduate university (survey response rate of 19.8%, N = 496), we explored the relationships between social media and digital literacies, particularly in different disciplinary contexts. We also explored the ways in which students report using social media in their university learning, showing that students value social media for collaboration, discussion, information finding and sharing, and practise activities related to their learning. Additionally, we examined the importance students place on DL, and how they perceive and rate their own abilities with digital literacies across three domains: procedural and technical, cognitive, and sociocultural. Findings illustrate an observable gap between the high importance that students place on digital literacies (including DL for social media) in their learning and their lives and the lack of coverage students reported receiving about these topics in their undergraduate education. Based on the study’s findings, we discuss the specific ways that those in the higher education community can address this gap by engaging with and fostering development of digital literacies within specific disciplinary and professional contexts, and in interdisciplinary or transdisciplinary learning settings across the curriculum.
... On the other hand, this paper [9] examined how undergraduate students use Facebook confessions pages for educational purposes. The critical findings are that many confessions on these pages relate to academic experiences and challenges. ...
Conference Paper
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Facebook confession pages have become a popular platform in numerous universities in the Philippines, enabling college students to share experiences, thoughts, and emotions anonymously. However, the vast content on these pages makes understanding the underlying themes and patterns in the posts challenging. This study collected textual contents from the Facebook confession pages of (14) local universities in the Philippines from 2018-2022 using Scrapestorm. After collection and several preprocessing techniques, Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA), a topic modeling algorithm, was applied to analyze the themes in the collected dataset. The results of the analysis revealed (2) general topics related to the social relationships and personal experiences of college students. On the other hand, (5) underlying issues were discussed in the discourses and posts from the confession pages, including:' confessing vulnerabilities,' ranting about daily struggles,' opinions on political events," sharing success stories,' and even' sharing sensitive topics.' Also, the analysis revealed (5) terminologies that frequently co-occurred, such as' shout-out,' 'crush-kita,' 'wanna say,' 'mental health,' and 'face-face,' which depict different topics discourses of college students in the Philippines.
... Our research examines one subset of SNSs-Facebook Confessions pages-with a view to determining their utility for academic skills advisors in particular, and university staff more generally. In the past decade, these public fora have grown in popularity among students at secondary and postsecondary educational institutions (Birnholtz, Ross Merola, and Paul 2015;Hayman, Smith, and Storrs 2019). Their popularity has surged despiteor rather becauseof their position outside of institutions' corporate Facebook space and locus of control. ...
... Original posters (OPs) are anonymous, but any subsequent comments and/or 'reactions' display the poster's public Facebook identity. Owing to the ease of posting, students' familiarity with Facebook, and the anonymous nature of the original posts, several researchers have shown that such pages frequently feature valuable and distinctive student insights (Birnholtz, Ross Merola, and Paul 2015;Barari 2016;Hayman, Smith, and Storrs 2019). Moreover, their popularity among students, and public visibility, renders them a rich and highly accessible source of data. ...
... Notably, a majority were opposed to university staff contacting them directly for 'teaching, marketing, pastoral or administrative purposes' (Madge et al. 2009, 151). Subsequent studies have drawn similar conclusions (Gettman and Cortijo 2015;Hamid et al. 2015;Smith 2016;Hayman, Smith, and Storrs 2019). As a result, researchers have warned that overzealous interventions would likely be counter-productive (Madge et al. 2009;Hayman, Smith, and Storrs 2019). ...
Article
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University students frequently use campus Facebook Confessions pages to engage with their peers about their university experiences. This article explores the utility of Confessions pages in providing novel data to aid the development of student services generally, and academic skills support in particular. Through a qualitative thematic analysis of five universities’ Facebook Confessions pages over five years, our research demonstrates that these platforms provide valuable insights. Confessions data complement traditional research and evaluation approaches and enable academic skills advisors to tailor their practices in response to students’ expressed needs. Additionally, these pages offer valuable insights into student learning and engagement styles, with the shift toward active and group pedagogical styles clearly evident. Yet overt interventions are likely to be unwelcome and counterproductive. We therefore suggest that while some limited participation can be beneficial, ultimately university staff should remain passive users of data, rather than active participants.
... Existing pedagogical practices in the digital environment need to be enriched with personality-oriented non-linear educational technologies, providing students a sufficient freedom of learning actions and a possibility of personally understood educational results with satisfaction in the learning process (Laptev and Noskova, 2013). Digital environment instructional design should take into account students' information behaviour models, because the larger part of current learners are digital natives (Noskova, Pavlova and Yakovleva, 2016;.Hayman, Smith and Storrs, 2019;Smith, 2017). Such practices require both technological and methodological restructuring of resource equipment for students' autonomous work. ...
Article
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The digital learning environment comprises various resources - didactically transformed and untransformed information, and mediated communication. Students’ information behaviour combines both actions characteristic of the traditional educational process and specific for the digital environment, based on digital tools and user interactions. Students’ information behaviour in the digital environment is considered as an indicator of their engagement in various educational activities that contribute to the personalisation of learning. The results of a survey on students’ preferences of information resources in the digital environment show that learners use a variety of information sources, but they mainly apply the methods of work in the “traditional” learning paradigm. They insufficiently use the digital environment potential of collaboration, knowledge exchange, and knowledge extraction from authentic sources. Obtained data indicates problems in students’ information culture and shortcomings in the methodological support of students’ autonomous work. Based on the results, recommendations on creating conditions for developing students’ prospective strategies of interaction with digital resources are proposed. These recommendations include a gradual increase of the authentic digital learning resources, an account of students’ information preferences, and a particular attention to the management issues in the digital learning environment.
... Despite the wealth of research using social media as a window into youth attitudes, behaviors, and perceptions, few studies (e.g., Hayman et al., 2019;Smith, 2016) have explicitly addressed youth depictions of educational experiences in these spaces-and none have done so in the specific context of online learning. Considering social media as a grassroots window into young people's educational livesor their deliberate portrayals thereof-thus complements the important work that has been done to center youth perspectives on both formal and informal learning (especially in the Digital Media and Learning research community: e.g., Ito et al., 2009;Jenkins et al., 2016;Watkins, 2018). ...
... Furthermore, the findings also show that, amid the real challenges that they are facing, students did not feel adequately cared for/about, as individuals beyond the academic sphere. To make up for this perceived lack of emotional support from teachers, there was a strong ethos of providing practical and emotional support among youth going through the collective experience of online learning in a pandemic; this latter finding confirms the significant role of social media as a helpful resource in students' educational lives (Hayman et al., 2019;Smith, 2016). ...
Article
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Social media, and especially popular youth-focused platforms like TikTok, can offer a valuable window into youth experiences, including their perceptions of online learning. Building on a large-scale thematic analysis of 1,930 TikTok videos posted in March-June 2020, this study examines how young people shared their experiences of online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. Findings indicate that youth portrayed online coursework as overwhelming and relentless against the traumatic background of the pandemic. They sought support, empathy, and authenticity from teachers, and both received and provided emotional and educational support to peers on the platform. Students’ home contexts emerged as particularly salient, making visible the intersections between young people’s home, school and social lives. By facilitating a grounded, bottom-up understanding of students’ experiences and perceptions—shared in their preferred spaces and modes of expression—this research stresses the need to attend to youth perspectives to craft more equitable and empowering educational futures.
... The methodological review of the MMR literature, as well as the authors' own experiences conducting mixed methods research (Hayman, Smith, & Storrs, 2019;Smith, 2016), inform our outline of current needs and related recommendations to extend the development and application of mixed methods in LIS. One recommendation is to encourage researchers and researcher-practitioners to undertake MMR when appropriate. ...
Article
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Abstract Objective - To review mixed methods research trends in the field of library and information science (LIS). In particular, we examine the extent to which research about or using mixed methods has been occurring in library and information science over the past decade (2008-2018), and how much of that mixed methods research is done in health contexts. Methods - We conducted a methodological review and analysis of mixed methods research (MMR) in LIS for published articles indexed in LISTA and Web of Science. After deduplication and verification for inclusion, we coded 417 articles to identify contributions using or about MMR. Given the connections between evidence based practice in health and LIS, we also identified whether articles about or using mixed methods were health-focused. Results - We found MMR to be a tiny proportion (less than 0.5%) of the overall LIS research literature. In terms of observable trends, while contributions about MMR remain fairly static, there has been an increase in articles using mixed methods. Of the 417 included articles, 373 (89.5%) primarily used mixed methods and 44 (10.5%) were primarily about MMR. Results also demonstrated that health-related research both using and about mixed methods has a strong presence in the LIS literature, with 136 published articles (32.6% of the total). Conclusion - Confirming findings of prior analyses of research methods in LIS, our methodological review shows current opportunities to adopt and expand the use of mixed methods research processes. Further contributions about mixed methods research, and ideally connecting research and practice in LIS, are needed. Despite the small proportion of MMR in LIS research, there is an observable increase in the number of publications using mixed methods during this timeframe. The LIS research community can promote additional growth by leveraging this momentum around using mixed methods, and look to translate lessons learned about mixed methods research and practice in health contexts to other LIS settings. Recommendations include developing educational opportunities and learning resources that facilitate wider engagement with MMR in LIS contexts.
Conference Paper
Ever since it was developed, the internet facilitated communication between individuals and created new ways of interaction by removing the barriers of space and time. Nowadays, people have a wide range of social networks which they can use for various purposes, one of the most popular social networks being Facebook. In this regard, people in general, and students, started to use Facebook not only to communicate with friends or family members, but also for educational and romantic purposes. All around the world, students from different universities created "crush" pages on Facebook, through which they could communicate and get in touch with people they were interested in, in an anonymous way, the messages being posted on the page by an administrator. Thus, we were interested in analyzing the way Romanian students interact on two of this "crush" pages. The first page is entitled UAIC Crush and belongs to the students of Alexandru Ioan Cuza University from Iasi, and the second page is entitled Unitbv Crush and belongs to the students of Transilvania University of Brasov. The purpose of our paper was to identify interaction patterns in the online environment, by creating a typology of students on the UAIC Crush and Unitbv Crush Facebook pages. The method used in order to conduct the research was content analysis, and the posts were analyzed according to certain dimensions established. The analysis period for the "UAIC Crush" Facebook page was February - April 2019, and for the "Unitbv Crush" Facebook page was February - April 2021. The results of the comparative analysis revealed that on both pages there were 6 common typologies of users, such as: dreamy/romantic; hesitant/undecided; sarcastic; charming; detached; pragmatic. In the case of the "Unitbv Crush" Facebook page, we found another two typologies of users: benevolent and talkative. In this regard, from a theoretical point of view, our research manages to expand on the literature about online dating in the case of students, and from a practical point of view, it provides a framework for the type of students which interact on Facebook "crush" pages, and for the type of content they post.
Article
The information revolution presents opportunities as well as challenges for students in finding and getting information that suits their needs. By examining information-seeking behavior in meeting information needs, especially in the undergraduate extension program students in the Faculty of Administrative Science, Universitas Indonesia, a quantitative approach with the descriptive analysis used in this research. The results showed that the information needs of students related to their role as students were to increase knowledge and final project references. Meanwhile, as workers, information is used as a means to develop themselves and meet the demands of work. Information-seeking starts from identifying the topic and subject of the information, preparing keywords as a guideline for searching, selecting, and checking information until the information obtained is then used to reference lectures and jobs. The barriers to information-seeking encountered by students are lack of motivation, limited library collections, and too much and extensive information