Abstract
Prior research with low literate internet users has shown a tendency to perform fewer searches and do not ‘fact check’ the information they found, often being satisfied with their initial findings. Research was conducted to understand how degree seeking low literate and medium to high literate adults search for information online. Ten low literate and ten medium to high literate degree seeking freshman and five non-degree seeking low literate participants were recruited to conduct three search tasks designed to mimic a low-level college science task. Low literate degree seeking participants were found to have search habits similar to the degree seeking medium to high literate participants. Degree seeking participants performed more searches and accessed more sites for each task than the non-degree seeking participants. Non-degree seeking participants showed signs of task fatigue, while degree seeking participants did not show a similar fatigue. Results indicate degree seeking adults have higher levels of digital literacy than non-degree seeking adults.
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Notes
- 1.
There is a correlation between educational attainment and literacy ability. The National Center for Educational Statistics [2] found in 2003 that people with below basic reading skills were more likely to drop out of high school.
- 2.
The Rapid Estimate of Adult Literacy in Medicine has been shown to give an accurate estimate of literacy in a matter of minutes with very little training needed to administer the exam [13].
- 3.
Any degree seeking adults that scored less than 60 points on the REALM were considered low literate, while those over 60 were put in the medium to high literate group. All non-degree seeking adults tested below 60.
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Alton, N.T. (2020). The Digital Divide: How Low-Literate Freshman Search for Information. In: Ahram, T., Falcão, C. (eds) Advances in Usability, User Experience, Wearable and Assistive Technology. AHFE 2020. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, vol 1217. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-51828-8_49
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