Sourcing on the Internet: Examining the relations among different phases of online inquiry

Abstract

This study examined students’ engagement in sourcing throughout online inquiry, that is, when they specified the information need, formulated search queries, evaluated online texts, and composed a written product. Participants were 167 upper secondary school students. Students completed an online inquiry task in a restricted online environment that utilized authentic online texts. Students’ prior topic knowledge and reading fluency was measured and controlled for in the analysis. The results showed that students engaged in sourcing even in the earliest phases of online inquiry. A sequential regression analysis indicated that the more frequently students engaged in sourcing in specifying the information need and in search querying, the more frequently they engaged in sourcing when judging the credibility of online texts. Further, the more frequently students engaged in sourcing in their credibility judgments, the more frequently sourcing also was observed in their written products. The results suggest that students would benefit from instruction emphasizing that sourcing is a continuous process throughout online inquiry.