1. Knowledge Acquisition and Modification during Student’s Exploratory Web-search Processes for Career Planning
ISIC2008
Vilnius University
Makiko Miwa & Hideaki Takahashi
(National Institute of Multimedia Education)

2. Outline Introduction Conceptual Framework Method Results Implications
Conclusion
Future Research

3. Ⓒ2008 by Makiko Miwa Introduction
Goal: Describe how students modify and utilize knowledge in exploratory search processes on the Web.
Means: Elicit behaviour as well as cognitive and affective states in exploratory search processes on the Web and analyze it using “a view” as a unit of analysis

4. Theoretical Framework
Exploratory Search Processes (ESP):
Self-regulated Learning (SRL)
Interactive Information Retrieval (IIR)
Information Seeking Behaviour (ISB)

5. Conceptual Framework Exploratory Search
Learn
Lookup
Investigate
Fact retrieval Known item search Navigation Transaction Verification Question answering
Knowledge acquisition Comprehension Interpretation Comparison Aggregation Integration Socialize
Accretion Analyze Exclusion/Negation Synthesis Evaluation Discovery Planning/Forecasting Transformation
Source: Marchionini, 2006, p. 42

6. Integrating SRL, IIR and ISB into ESP
Self-regulated Learning (SRL): how active, self-regulated and motivated learners engage cognitively in learning tasks (Corno & Mandinach, 1983)
Interactive Information Retrieval (IIR): only those users with sufficient domain knowledge might improve their search results by using thesaurus terms in query expansion (Sihvonen & Vakkari, 2004)
Information Seeking Behaviour (ISB) : how and individual’s knowledge of everyday life can be modified by interactions with literature, media and social environments (Bates, 1979, 1989; Kuhlthau, 2004; Todd, 1999)

7. Ⓒ2008 by Makiko Miwa Methodological Assumption Unit of Analysis in Browsing
Human need categorizing ability to function in physical and intellectual world (Lakoff 1987)
Visual perception isolate input data from all other data to see only those determined by the input identification (Bertin, 1967)
A view = what person articulate as seeing at one time = span of attention = unit of analysis in browsing (Kwasnik, 1992)

8. A View in Browsing （Supermarket）
Think
Feel
Decide
Act
A View

9. A View in Browsing (Exploratory Learning on the Web)
Think
Feel
Decide
Act
A View

10. Recruit 14 participants (8 undergraduates & 6 graduates)
Ⓒ2008 by Makiko Miwa Method
Recruit 14 participants (8 undergraduates & 6 graduates)
Conducted a Web search for job-hunting
Pre-search interview (capture context)
Capture eye-movements during exploratory learning
Post-search interview (capture views)
Data analysis
Unit of analysis = a view
Constant-comparative

11. Ⓒ2008 by Makiko Miwa Research Design
Pre-search activity
Short questionnaire
Pr-search deep interview (recorded)
Recording ELP
Exploratory searching on the Web
-Capture screen shifts (HyperCam)
-Capture eye-movements (EMR-NL8B)
Post-search activity
Post-search interview (recorded)
-show recorded eye-movements
-elicit a view
Data analysis
Transcribe interview
Code Interview data
Time-line matrix analysis
Taxonomy of knowledge modification
Taxonomy of knowledge utilization

12. Ⓒ2008 by Makiko Miwa Eye-Tracker (EMR-NL8B)

13. Recorded Eye-Movement

14. Post-Search Interview
Thought
Felt
Decided
Acted
Interviewer
Participant
Participants

15. Ⓒ2008 by Makiko Miwa Participants
Code
Grade
Gender
Major
Web use
Future career plan A
3rd (U) F
Earth science
2/week
Graduate school B
1st (G)
Informatics
Private company C
Science
Graduate school or public administration D
History
Every day E
Cultural studies
Undecided
Humanities
1/week G
4th (U)
International studies H
Medicine
Hospital (medical doctor) I
2nd (U)
Education J
Graduated
Media K M
Public administration; librarian L
2nd (G)
Economics N
English language

16. Ⓒ2008 by Makiko Miwa Result Patterns of Knowledge Modification
Type
Definition
Adding
Acquire novel information to increase knowledge
Correcting
Clear up a misunderstanding
Limiting
Narrow down the scope of the concept
Relating
A concept is related with another concept
Specifying
A concept is narrowed by increasing specificity
Transforming
A concept is expressed in a different framework
Clarifying
Ambiguous knowledge become clearer
Recalling
Remember or emerge existing knowledge
Verifying
Confirm or validate existing knowledge
Interpreting
Combine existing knowledge and acquired knowledge for heuristics

17. Ⓒ2008 by Makiko Miwa Result Patterns of Knowledge Modification
Type
Definition
Example of expressions*
No domain knowledge required
Adding
Acquiring novel information to increase knowledge
There are two national universities in the Miyagi prefecture.
Limiting
Narrowing the scope of the concept
I want to obtain information on master’s courses but not doctorates.
Relating
Relating a concept to another concept
Queens Court is a member of the Java group.
Specifying
Increasing the depth of meaning of the concept by increasing specificity
The company office is located in downtown Tokyo (not by text but) from the map.
Domain knowledge required
Recalling
Remembering or merging existing knowledge
Proofreading is a job for a newspaper journalist.
Clarifying
Ambiguous knowledge becomes clearer
MD stands for merchandiser, a person who develops a marketing strategy.
Correcting
Clearing up misunderstanding
There is no entry for ‘graduate school’ in the Yahoo category menu.
Transforming
Understanding a concept in a different framework
I could find the way to the examination site.
Verifying
Confirming or validating existing knowledge
X University was found, as I anticipated.
Interpreting
Combining existing knowledge and acquired knowledge for heuristics
An idea of using the local government’s homepage came to mind because I have experience in using another local government’s homepage for a similar purpose.

18. Ⓒ2008 by Makiko Miwa Result Patterns of Knowledge Utilization
Type
Definition
Start browsing
Begin browsing within the site.
Stopping
Stop browsing
Stop browsing within the site.
Stop retrieval
Stop retrieval within the site.
Stop searching
Stop searching for the topic.
Further searching
Continue ELP to further the search for the topic
Changing
Change keywords
Change or modify keywords
Change logic
Change or modify search logic
Change strategy
Change the entire strategy of ELP for the topic
Planning for post-search activities
Plan what to do after the ELP on the Web.

19. Ⓒ2008 by Makiko Miwa Result Patterns of Knowledge Utilization
Type
Definition
Example of knowledge utilization
Start browsing
Begin browsing within the site
After acquiring increasingly more important knowledge about master’s courses in the results lists, the participant clicks the link to the site and starts browsing its contents.
Stopping
Stop browsing
Stop browsing within the site
When a participant learns that most students at the University of Air (a Japanese open university) are full-time workers, she stops browsing, indicating that she is not interested in the program.
Stop retrieval
Stop retrieval within the site
Realizing that there is not much of a match for the search topic at a blog site, the participant stops retrieval at that site and moves to another blog retrieval site.
Stop searching
Stop searching for the topic
Realizing that there is not much information on the search topic on the Web, the participant stops searching for the topic and moves to the next topic.
Further searching
Continue ESP to further the search for the topic
When the participant has determined that the employment test will occur in the near future, she moves on to find the application procedure.
Changing
Change keywords
Change or modify keywords
When the participant realizes that the initial keywords were incorrect, the keywords are modified before continuing the search.
Change logic
Change or modify search logic
When the participant determines that there are too many job descriptions for temporary staff, she modifies the search logic to exclude the term ‘temporary’ and limits the search to full-time jobs.
Change strategy
Change the entire ESP strategy for the topic
When a participant realizes that there is no information on parking lots for bicycles, she recalls her previous experience when using a municipal government site and goes there to find the information.
Planning for post-search activities
Plan what to do after using ESP on the Web
When a participant realizes that there is no information on a graduate course on the Web, she decides to ask a faculty member from her university.

20. Ⓒ2008 by Makiko Miwa Implications Theoretical Implications
Implications for Bates’ search tactics (1979)
Knowledge modification category of specifying is related to Bates’ tactic of specifying.
Our study focused on how searchers’ knowledge is modified during information acquisition, our explanation is that searchers use the specifying tactic to identify more specific information.
Searchers’ knowledge is modified to become more specific than its initial state when the desired information has been successfully identified.

21. Berry Picking Model (Bates, 1989)
Questions are changing
New ideas and directions are generated
Search result or knowledge is gathered bit by bit

22. Ⓒ2008 by Makiko Miwa Theoretical Implication
Implications for Bates’ berrypicking model (Bates 1989)
Searchers initiate their search for information on the Web using a broad question (e.g., to which job/graduate program they should apply), with one part of a question (e.g., what is a good keyword to describe the job)
Each new piece of information they encounter (e.g., a word found in Wikipedia) providing them with new ideas and directions in which to advance the search process.
Searchers generate new questions and queries continually, and they gradually identify useful information at every stage of the search, rather than obtaining all the necessary information in one stage using a single keyword search
A Web search might be a micro-level information search process with a single source of information embedded within a broader berrypicking process
ESP for job hunting as a macro-level berrypicking process, consisting of multiple micro-level berrypicking processes, each of which uses a different source of information.

23. Ⓒ2008 by Makiko Miwa Theoretical Implication
Implications for Sihvonen & Vakkari’s (2004) use of thesaurus terms:
Many participants visited the Wikipedia Web site.
During post-search interviews, all participants reported using Wikipedia to identify appropriate keywords for the search concept.
This behaviour seems to be identical to the use of a thesaurus for online searching. Experienced searchers appeared to use the tactic of visiting Wikipedia to gather useful terms during the initial stage of their Web-search processes.
=> experienced searchers obtain subject knowledge or keywords at the initial stage of their Web searching to improve interactive query expansion, a strategy proposed by Sihvonen & Vakkari (2004) for online database searching.

24. Ⓒ2008 by Makiko Miwa Methodological Implication
The concept of “a view” as a unit of analysis in browsing is adequate in capturing the dynamically changing knowledge structure of searchers as well as it’s utilization during their searching & learning processes (increase reliability)
Use of eye-tracker to capture exploratory learning processes on the Web and show it in post-search interviews help participants recall their cognitive and affective states behind each action.

25. Ⓒ2008 by Makiko Miwa Conclusion
Searchers not only modify their knowledge by acquiring information but clarify, recall and verify existing knowledge in exploratory learning processes on the Web.
The ten patterns of knowledge modification and nine patterns of knowledge utilization identified in this study seem to represent adequately micro-level ESP on the Web.
some patterns of knowledge modification (e.g., transforming and interpreting) require searchers to have a high level of domain knowledge, whereas other types of knowledge modification may be performed by searchers with little domain knowledge.
The exploratory learning processes on the web is opportunistic and similar to berry picking model
Wikipedia might be widely used as the terminology identification/control tool for exploratory searching.

26. Ⓒ2008 by Makiko Miwa Future Research
Continue similar experiments to verify and enrich our findings
Conduct a similar research in a different context (online shopping, health, etc.)
Conduct research on Web search using cellular phone.

27. Reference
Kwasnik, (1992). A descriptive study of the functional components of browsing. In J. Learson & C. Unger (Eds.), Engineering for Human–Computer Interaction, Proceedings of 5th IFIP Working Conference on User Interfaces. Ellivouri, Finland, Aug. 10–14.
Marchionini, G. (2006). Exploratory search: From finding to understanding. Communication of the ACM:49(4),
Miwa, M., & Kando, N. (2007). Naïve Ontology for Concepts of Time and Space for Searching and Learning. Information Research 12 (2).
Sihvonen, A., & Vakkari, P. (2004). Subject knowledge improves interactive query expansion assisted by a thesaurus. Journal of Documentation, 60(6), 673–690.

28. Thank You
ありがとうございました