The Role of Interest and Curiosity in Students' Selections of Print and Online Sources

• In Event: 61.086 - Roundtable Session 21
  In Roundtable Session: 61.086-3 - Motivational and Cognitive Processes: Computers, Video, Technology, and Online Learning

Abstract

Interest and curiosity have been well established as critical mechanisms supporting student learning in a wide variety of academic tasks. However, the role of these motivational variables in source selections has been under-examined, and has focused on source use within a single medium (i.e., online or print). The current study analyzed the number and type of sources that undergraduate students accessed across print and online mediums while completing an open-ended academic task, and compared source selections to measures of interest and curiosity. Findings suggest that students’ source selections are related by source type across medium and that interest and curiosity play a role in the medium in which students access specific types of sources.

Author

• Emily M. Grossnickle, Georgetown University