October 2012 Volume 15 Number 4 - Educational Technology ...

Conclusions
In the past decades, various powerful search engines have been developed that enable users to search for information
from digital archives on the Internet. Such technologies for using and managing digital content have motivated
educational applications on the Internet. Most current studies mainly focus on the issue of improving the efficiency
of retrieving data from digital archives; nevertheless, one critical bottleneck of applying digital content to
educational purposes is the lack of a way of assisting the teachers in conducting quality learning activities to guide
the students to use digital content for problem-solving .
In this study, a web-based learning environment, Library-Quest, is proposed to cope with this problem. Library-
Quest provides not only an electronic library-oriented learning environment for supporting web-based problemsolving
activities, but also a mechanism for analyzing the problem-solving behaviors of the students. From the
experimental results, it is found that Library-Quest is readily accepted by the teachers for developing and conducting
web-based problem-solving activities. Moreover, there are several interesting findings that are quite different from
those reported by previous studies (Lee & Tsai, 2010; Madden, Ford, Miller, & Levy, 2005; Martin, McCaughtry, &
Kulinna, 2008). For example, the older teachers tended to be more willing to use Library-Quest, and the experienced
teachers did not resist the use of Library-Quest as expected. This finding implies that developing extended learning
facilities or functions is a good way to promote the application scope and utilization rate of electronic libraries. In
addition, the positive attitude from older and experienced teachers toward the use of electronic libraries in learning is
rarely seen in other technology-enhanced learning approaches, implying that electronic libraries have more potential
to become a widely used learning tool than other information technologies.
Furthermore, from the experimental results of a natural science course, it was found that the use of Library-Quest not
only improved the learning achievement of the students, but also improved their learning attitude toward science.
Such findings conformed to what were reported by previous studies that students usually had difficulties in coping
with problems in more open-ended environments (Brush & Saye, 2000). Research has concluded that higher degree
of learner control may not necessarily facilitate learning, and sometimes it may impede learning (Lin & Hsieh, 2001).
Good instructional designs should provide optimal learning control for students. The experimental results suggested
that compared to common search engines for free navigation with full learner control, Library-Quest may offer
optimal learner control for the students, thus enhancing learning achievements and attitudes.
From the findings of this study, it may be provided some insights for further research. However, this study was
conducted using quantitative measures, which may not provide in-depth insights regarding students’ problem-solving
abilities in an electronic library-based learning environment. Future studies are suggested to analyze students’
learning portfolios to find the problem-solving patterns of different learning-achievement students, which could
provide important references to teachers for learning design. Moreover, the sample in this study only included
elementary school students, and elementary and high school teachers. Future research should attempt to address this
issue in other school levels (such as university) for receiving more feedback from both teachers and students.
Acknowledgements
This study is supported in part by the National Science Council of Taiwan under contract numbers NSC 99-2511-S-
011-005-MY3, NSC 99-2511-S-011-011-MY3 and NSC 99-2631-S-011-002.
References
Allan, J., & Street, M. (2007). The quest for deeper learning: An investigation into the impact of a knowledge-pooling WebQuest
in primary initial teacher training. British Journal of Educational Technology, 38(6), 1102-1112.
Boumarafi, B. (2010). Strategies for the delivery of e-information services to support the e-learning environment at the University
of Sharjah. The Electronic Library, 28(2), 276-285.
Brush, T., & Saye, J. (2000). Design, implementation, and evaluation of student-centered learning: A case study. Educational
technology research and development, 48(2), 79-100.
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