public defense Nan Li, Nov 27th, 17:00, BC420

Students often have information needs while carrying out a multitude of learning activities at universities. When extra information is required for investigating a problem, they may interrupt their work and switch to an information seeking task. As Internet connectivity becomes ubiquitous, searching information has been routinized and integrated in the learning experience. However, information needs are not always fully recognized, or they can not be well articulated. A MOOC student may perceive a video to be difficult, but fails to express what information can be helpful. Sometimes it is improper to interrupt the learning task for searching information, especially when social factors are concerned, e.g. in a seminar talk. These situations create research potentials for making information cues, hereafter referred to as contextual information scent (CIS), available in the ambience to help students navigate to the information resources that address their situational information needs. The CIS is designed to combine context-awareness with information seeking, ambient interaction as well as serendipitous encounter.

In this dissertation, we propose a research framework for designing and deploying CIS during learning activities. The framework lays the foundation for us to explore different contexts for their potentials to generate information scents. Four system prototypes are designed and experimented in various collaborative learning activities. These prototypes show how we manipulate design parameters to reduce distraction, increase relevance and ensure timeliness of CIS. Our studies demonstrate the potential benefits of CIS as well as generate a number of design implications. Finally, we extend our research to provide data-driven design insights for CIS based on a study of large-scale MOOC video interactions.