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Minimalist Instruction for Learning to Search the World Wide Web

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Abstract

This study examined the efficacy of minimalist instruction to develop self-regulatory skills involved in Web searching. Two versions of minimalist self-regulatory skill instruction were compared to a control group that was merely taught procedural skills to operate the search engine. Acquired skills were tested on Web search tasks and search tasks in an online library catalogue. Self-regulatory skill instruction was found to increase practice time by 25%. However, it did not enhance search performance on the test tasks. Explanations are advanced for these findings and topics for further research are identified.

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Lazonder, A.W. Minimalist Instruction for Learning to Search the World Wide Web. Education and Information Technologies 6, 161–176 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1012756223618

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