RELATING ‘INFORMATION NEEDS’ TO LEARNER CHARACTERISTICS IN HIGHER EDUCATION

Abstract

‘Information needs’ are defined in terms of conceptual incongruities, the paramaters of which are described by a number of constructs originating in the fields of cognitive and social psychology. The ‘satisfaction’ of such needs are discussed in terms of access to varying ranges of information sources, from individual learning resources to large‐scale data bases, which may contain information appropriate to the resolving of such conceptual incongruities. From a review of systems designated to satisfy information needs of higher education students, it is concluded that generally, the wider the range of of information that an individual has access to, (i) the more restricted to the names of ‘topics’ and ‘subjects’ have been the parameters of information needs catered for by the system; and (ii) the less the individual has been able to know about the suitability of the sources to other parameters of his information needs, as proposed, at the time of searching. Implications are drawn, for students working in the context of relatively independent access to wide ranges of information sources, in terms of the need to develop effective information handling skills; assessment procedures; and information accessing systems.