Abstract
Using a Web search engine is one of today’s most frequent activities. Exploratory search activities which are carried out in order to gain knowledge are conceptualized and denoted as Search as Learning (SAL). In this paper, we introduce a novel framework model which incorporates the perspective of both psychology and computer science to describe the search as learning process by reviewing recent literature. The main entities of the model are the learner who is surrounded by a specific learning context, the interface that mediates between the learner and the information environment, the information retrieval (IR) backend which manages the processes between the interface and the set of Web resources, that is, the collective Web knowledge represented in resources of different modalities. At first, we provide an overview of the current state of the art with regard to the five main entities of our model, before we outline areas of future research to improve our understanding of search as learning processes.
Highlights
Using an online search engine is one of today’s most frequent activities
We propose our so-called “Spaceship model” as a novel framework in order to describe relevant research insights from the fields of psychology, education, and information retrieval that contribute to the understanding of search as learning (SAL) activities
A variety of self-regulated learning (SRL) models have been proposed since (Panadero, 2017). We focus on those SRL aspects which are featured in all these models, namely the three main phases that are progressed cyclically during a SAL activity: preparation, performance, and appraisal
Summary
Using an online search engine is one of today’s most frequent activities. Most web search activities do not merely consist of looking up a specific piece of information, such as how to get to the supermarket; web search is most often complex and exploratory in nature (Marchionini and White, 2007). Such online search activities, as opposed to simple fact-finding or navigational tasks, are typically open-ended (Wildemuth and Freund, 2012) and aimed at sense-making and understanding of the information retrieved (Vakkari, 2016). To emphasize the learning aspect of exploratory search with the intent of understanding, potentially leading to knowledge gain, we use the term search as learning (SAL).
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