Browsing the internet to solve information problems: A study of students' search actions and behaviours using a 'think aloud' protocol

Many studies show that a large percentage of students lack the digital competencies to solve information problems using the internet. To address this problem, researchers have developed models to structure the process. However, we maintain that it is first necessary to understand how students actually search for information online when solving an information problem and compare their behaviours with the available literature. To do this, we collected and analysed the data on a laboratory setting of 41 students while they solved 16 information problems using the internet and expressed aloud what they were thinking whilst solving them. We identified 21 categories of actions, grouped into 9 activity types associated with four information search processes, showing that some of the students' stereotyped search behaviours are in fact conscious decisions based on the requirements of the task and the answers found. The results also show that searching for information on the internet can not only vary depending on the task's requirements, but also on the number of iterations students need to perform to reach an answer. These findings provide some evidence that challenge the assumption that students simply lack the competencies to search for information on the internet; rather, it seems that they show an awareness of different strategies, which they decide to use based on the context and purpose of the task, making their search behaviour more elaborated and complex than is usually portrayed by researchers in the field. Based on this, implications and further research lines are also discussed.