Profiling Students’ Multiple Source Use by Question Type

Abstract

The present study examined undergraduate students’ multiple source use in response to two different types of academic questions, one discrete and one open-ended. Participants (N = 240) responded to two questions using a library of eight digital sources, varying in source type (e.g., newspaper article) and reliability (e.g., authors’ credentials). Log-data captured students’ source use process. Differences were found in the total number and types of sources students accessed when responding to the two questions. Across the questions, cluster analysis identified five consistent patterns of source use; however, the percentage of student in each cluster differed across the two questions.