ERIC Number: ED539080
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 2009-Jul
Pages: 9
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
How Do Students Organize Personal Information Spaces?
Hardof-Jaffe, Sharon; Hershkovitz, Arnon; Abu-Kishk, Hama; Bergman, Ofer; Nachmias, Rafi
International Working Group on Educational Data Mining, Paper presented at the International Conference on Educational Data Mining (EDM) (2nd, Cordoba, Spain, Jul 1-3, 2009)
The purpose of this study is to empirically reveal strategies of students' organization of learning-related digital materials within an online personal information archive. Research population included 518 students who utilized the personal Web space allocated to them on the university servers for archiving information items, and data describing their directory hierarchies. Several variables for measuring folders size and depth were defined, and four of them were chosen as best representing different aspects of the user's archive structure. Then, as a result of cluster analysis of the students, four organization strategies emerged, refining the classical piling/filing classification: piling, one-folder filing, small-folders filing, and big-folder filing. Also, associations were found between the organization strategies and archive size, students' studies degree. A discussion of this study and further research is provided. (Contains 4 tables.) [For the complete proceedings, "Proceedings of the International Conference on Educational Data Mining (EDM) (2nd, Cordoba, Spain, July 1-3, 2009)," see ED539041.]
Descriptors: Data Analysis, Organization, Information Management, Undergraduate Students, Graduate Students, Multivariate Analysis, Filing, Classification, Web Sites, Foreign Countries
International Working Group on Educational Data Mining. Available from: International Educational Data Mining Society. e-mail: admin@educationaldatamining.org; Web site: http://www.educationaldatamining.org
Publication Type: Reports - Research; Speeches/Meeting Papers
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: International Working Group on Educational Data Mining
Identifiers - Location: Israel
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A