Measuring Situational Anxiety Related to Information Retrieval on the Web Among English-Speaking Internet Users

2019 ◽  
Vol 31 (5) ◽  
pp. 480-491
Author(s):  
Carole Rodon ◽  
Anne Congard

Abstract Searching for information on the web is regarded as a complex problem-solving activity involving a range of cognitive and affective processes. Anxiety is a key affective factor. In this article, we describe the construction and initial validation stages of the Information Retrieval on the Web Anxiety Rate (IROWAR) scale. The final structure of this inventory was validated with a sample of 183 English-speaking Internet users. Reliability analyses indicated that the factors were internally consistent (Cronbach’s alpha: 0.92). When we checked divergent validity, we found negative correlations with both self-efficacy and positive attitude towards the Internet. There were no effects of either sex or age on the total IROWAR score, but the Internet search anxiety sum score decreased with the length of use. This scale will be useful in several domains, including research on the determinants of web anxiety, individuals’ experience of web anxiety and ways of supporting them and Internet learning.

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesco Brigo ◽  
Simona Lattanzi ◽  
Giorgia Giussani ◽  
Laura Tassi ◽  
Nicola Pietrafusa ◽  
...  

BACKGROUND The Internet has become one of the most important sources of health information, accessed daily by an ever-growing number of both patients and physicians, seeking medical advice and clinical guidance. A deeper insight into the current use of the Web as source of information on epilepsy would help in clarifying the individual attitude towards this medium by Internet users. OBJECTIVE We investigated views towards the Internet in a sample of Italian healthcare specialists involved in epilepsy field, to explore factors which explained the influence of information found on the internet. METHODS This study was a self-administered survey conducted in a group of members of the Italian Chapter of the International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE) in January 2018. RESULTS 184 questionnaires were analyzed. 97.8% of responders reported to seek online information on epilepsy. The Internet was most frequently searched to obtain new information (69.9%) or to confirm a diagnostic or therapeutic decision (37.3%). The influence of consulting the Internet on clinical practice was associated with registration to social network(s) (OR: 2.94; 95%CI: 1.28-6.76; p=0.011), higher frequency of Internet use (OR: 3.66; 95%CI: 1.56-9.21; p=0.006) and higher confidence in reliability of online information (OR: 2.61; 95%CI: 1.09-6.26; p=0.031). No association was found with age, sex, years in epilepsy practice or easiness to find online information. CONCLUSIONS Internet is frequently used among healthcare professionals involved in the epilepsy to obtain information about this disease. The attitude of being influenced by the Internet for diagnostic and/or therapeutic decisions in epilepsy is independent on age and years of experience in epilepsy, and probably reflects an individual approach towards the Web.


Author(s):  
Amit Kumar Sinha

E-commerce and internet businesses are driving the rapid growth of the domestic IT-ITeS industry, attracting unprecedented global interest and funding. Indian e-commerce and internet companies are growing rapidly with about 460 million internet users and a tele-density of around 85.2%. Increasing penetration of the internet, adoption of smartphones and minimal effort low-cost mobile devices, changing demographics, mobile-empowered youth, and the emergence of tier 2 and tier 3 cities as major shopping hubs have been driving the growth of the industry, with new retail forces shifting its dynamics. Furthermore, the continued growth of large pure-play organisations that are powerhouses has moved retailers' focus to the web channel. These companies are not only becoming gateways to product research, but have also introduced consumers to new ways of viewing the retail process.


2004 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 254-259 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carol S. Bond

When trying to locate information on the Web people are faced with a variety of options. This research reviewed how a group of health related professionals approached the task of finding a named document. Most were eventually successful, but the majority encountered problems in their search techniques. Even experienced Web users had problems when working with a different interface to normal, and without access to their favourites. No relationship was found between the number of years' experience Web users had and the efficiency of their searching strategy. The research concludes that if people are to be able to use the Web quickly and efficiently as an effective information retrieval tool, as opposed to a recreational tool to surf the Internet, they need to have both an understanding of the medium and the tools, and the skills to use them effectively, both of which were lacking in the majority of participants in this study.


2003 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 172-187 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ofra Nir-Gal ◽  
Talia Nur

The present study focuses on the Internet activity of young children in order to examine how these children utilized the Internet and their potential in the uses of the Internet. The study sample consisted of 20 children, from both compulsory and pre-compulsory kindergarten. Two Internet learning environments were examined: (1) the ‘universal’ environment of the Web, where a search engine was used for navigation; and (2) the ‘modified’ Web environment, which was created in accordance with the abilities and level of young children. It was shown that young children who operated in a ‘modified’ Internet environment manifested better control of the uses of Internet interfaces and were better oriented in the Internet environment when compared with their activity in the ‘universal’ Internet environment. Another finding was that not all of the Internet uses constitute a meaningful learning environment for young children. In order for the environment to be advantageous for children, Internet uses must be structured in accordance with the children's levels of development and needs, with the emphasis on the use of the Internet as a source of information in parallel with concrete activity and teacher/adult mediation in the children's Internet activity.


1998 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tony Greening

<span>The World Wide Web (WWW) is achieving a place of prominence in educational practice. However, the benefits of using the Web to support learning are not always apparent. The most prominent public feature of the Internet is the multitude of possibilities that it presents for information retrieval. This is widely believed to offer educational advantage, although the means by which that advantage are realised are typically not well specified. The paper discusses the role of information retrieval opportunities presented by the Internet, and suggests that it requires a new model of information access best supported by a reconsideration of educational philosophy. The constructivist position is favoured. The paper also discusses issues in using the Internet to deliver courses, arguing that the delivery model does not take full advantage of the new possibilities offered by the technology. It then presents a case study of the use of the Web in a first year computer science course, offered in a Problem Based Learning (PBL) mode. The focus is on the appropriate use of the technology as a pedagogical tool in higher education. In the case of a curriculum clearly founded on constructivist principles an important factor in the appropriateness of the supporting technology was that it did not encourage staff and students to adopt more familiar, instructivist patterns of behaviour. In this sense, the role of the Internet within the curriculum needed to be different to those roles that currently tend to typify it.</span>


2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (3.15) ◽  
pp. 110 ◽  
Author(s):  
Noor Latiffah Adam ◽  
Muhammad Alif Zulkafli ◽  
Shaharuddin Cik Soh ◽  
Nor Ashikin Mohamad Kamal ◽  
Nordin Abu Bakar

In this millennial age, Internet is becoming essential to human kind. Along with the growth of Internet users, information is also becoming huge and starting to cause difficulties to find the relevant contents. Thus, the recommender system was introduced. It helps the user to suggest the items based on the user’s preferences. This system could help the students as Calculus is one of the tough subjects feared by most students. Credits given to the technology as many sources on the web can provide tutorials, working examples and solutions on the subjects. However, there are too many of them. Students had to make a few selections, which one can fulfil their needs of specific calculus topics. The personalized recommender system developed was a content-based filtering recommender system with its own scraping engine to collect the sources from the Internet which focuses on the basic Calculus topics. The system and engine were constructed by using Flask framework together with its relevant libraries. 


2015 ◽  
Vol 11 (28) ◽  
pp. 183
Author(s):  
Dr. Syahirah Abdul Shukor ◽  
Associate Professor Dr. Nazura Abdul Manap

<p>In a multi-cultural society, living in peace and tolerance are keys to development and sustainable economy. Undeniably, the efforts taken by all stakeholders are essential in materializing the future and dream of a peaceful country. Since its independence, Malaysia has been struggling to maintain the unity and integration of the three main ethnics, the Malays, the Chinese and the Indians. Matters pertaining to media especially publications of printed presses are strictly supervised by the Ministry of Home Affairs. However, with the inception of the Internet, regulating content of the Internet might be impossible for the law makers. This paper examines how the emergence of social networking website such as <em>Facebook, MySpace</em> and even <em>Tweeting</em> have been misused by irresponsible Internet users in Malaysia. Spinning the web of hate online is like spreading virus to the netizens and yet, its impact if it is not well tackled by members of society, it might spark serious problem to the unity and harmony of ethnics in Malaysia. Next, this paper examines how law responds to problems arose on the Internet. Finally, this paper suggests that supervision and monitoring content of the Internet which promote hate might be challenging but such problem need to be tackled by the authorities with extra vigilant and full coordination with all authorities.</p>


2012 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
K. G. Srinivasa ◽  
N. Pramod ◽  
K. R. Venugopal ◽  
L. M. Patnaik

In the Internet era, information processing for personalization and relevance has been one of the key topics of research and development. It ranges from design of applications like search engines, web crawlers, learning engines to reverse image searches, audio processed search, auto complete, etc. Information retrieval plays a vital role in most of the above mentioned applications. A part of information retrieval which deals with personalization and rendering is often referred to as Information Filtering. The emphasis of this paper is to empirically analyze the information filters commonly seen and to analyze their correctness and effects. The measure of correctness is not in terms of percentage of correct results but instead a rational approach of analysis using a non mathematical argument is presented. Filters employed by Google’s search engine are used to analyse the effects of filtering on the web. A plausible solution to the errors of filtering phenomenon is also discussed.


2014 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 37-49
Author(s):  
Manoocher Niknam ◽  
Kobra Najafi ◽  
Azamosadat Hoseini ◽  
Sima Amirpoor ◽  
Parisa Bahmandar ◽  
...  

This study explains the internet usage among Iranian users. Therefore it has been tried to give basic answers to this question that: What is the Iranians main use for internet and not shopping online? Based on this, by thoroughly analyzing the literature of internet users and develop a comprehensive theoretical model, the use of internet was tested in the web domain. The results indicate that; there is a significant relation between the demographic variables (age, education) and the motivations for using the Internet, also results show that in Iran, men and women use the internet for more searching motivations, and one of the major reasons that Iranian users do not shop online is the mistrust to receive that product. This study was done on a descriptive–analytical basis and based on the achievements of this research, it was recommended to advertising agencies that by using the indicators identified how to make appropriate steps in order to provide online advertising.


Author(s):  
Valerie Nesset

In today’s modern world, elementary school students (aged 5 to 12 years) use computers for a wide variety of tasks. These include communication (e-mail, instant messaging, and chatrooms), entertainment (games, video, music, etc.), leisure (such as information relating to hobbies and general interests), and information retrieval to support class-based learning. Internet access is now very widely available from home, school, and public library. A major reason for accessing the Internet is to find Web-based information relevant to classroom learning activities. Undoubtedly the Web represents an enormous and potentially rich source of multimedia information on topics within the elementary school curriculum, but accessing this information does pose a number of challenges. We identify in this article three major problem areas that currently impede effective exploitation by elementary school students of Webbased information resources: information systems are not necessarily intuitive or straightforward for children to use; basic information literacy skills too often are inadequate; and too little content appropriate for young users is available on the Web. The first technology to gain popularity as a means for children to retrieve information was the CD-ROM. By the early 1990s, a wide variety of multimedia information resources targeted specifically at children were available in this medium. Many were children’s encyclopedias, designed to facilitate rapid retrieval of discrete information “chunks,” and often multimedia versions of an original print title. These CD-ROMs could offer an engaging, interactive experience for the young student. Although students were willing to explore and experiment with interfaces (Large, Beheshti, Breuleux, & Renaud, 1994; Large, Beheshti, & Breuleux, 1998), they were not necessarily effective at retrieving information from these CD-ROM titles (Marchionini, 1989; Oliver, 1996). In any event, regardless of its strengths and weaknesses as a classroom resource, CD-ROM technology proved transient and was quickly superseded by the expansion of the Internet and the rise of the Web. Yet the information retrieval problems revealed by CD-ROMs would continue to plague the Web.


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