Predicting College Students' Online Help-Seeking Behavior: The Effect of Learning Proficiency, Interest, Prior Knowledge, Epistemological Belief, and Problem Difficulty

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Abstract

This study investigates how college students seek help online and what factors predict their online help seeking. Online help seeking comprises of online searching, asking teachers online for help, and asking peers online for help. 219 students from a southeastern university in U.S. participated in the study. It was found that students searched more frequently than asked people online for help, indicating that online searching should be considered as an integrated part of online help seeking. Five factors, epistemological belief, interest, learning proficiency level, prior knowledge, and problem difficulty, were explored as predictors. Learning proficiency level and problem difficulty were found significant predictors of three types of online help seeking, which provides guidance for the facilitating online help seeking.

Authors

• Qiang Hao, University of Georgia

• Brad Barnes, University of Georgia

• Robert C. Branch, University of Georgia

• Ewan Wright, The University of Hong Kong