Scientometrics
Zhiyan Darvishi; Elmira Janavi; Maryam Sarrafzadeh
Abstract
Background and Objectives: The scientific community's presence in scientific and professional social networks such as LinkedIn has advantages such as improving scholarly works' visibility, sharing knowledge with professionals and students, interacting with other scholars, and promoting research's social ...
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Background and Objectives: The scientific community's presence in scientific and professional social networks such as LinkedIn has advantages such as improving scholarly works' visibility, sharing knowledge with professionals and students, interacting with other scholars, and promoting research's social impact. This study aims to analyse the activities of faculty members in the field of Information Science and Knowledge Studies in the social network of LinkedIn. Methodology: The present research is applied, and descriptive-analytical and the method used in this research is the library and social network analysis, which has been done with a quantitative approach. The research community consists of all faculty members working in Information Science and Knowledge Studies in Iranian public universities. Data were obtained manually during June and July 2019 by examining each of these members' profile pages. Then, the obtained data were entered into Excel software and tabulated and analysed based on research questions. Findings: The results showed that 59.13% of the faculty members are members of LinkedIn. Of this number, only 17.64% have been active in posting, commenting, and liking, with Maryam Sarrafzadeh and Amir Reza Asnafi accounting for the highest number. The most common topic of faculty posts on LinkedIn is "Sharing and introducing personal scholarly outputs" at 28.07%. In the LinkedIn interests section, 54 members followed 314 groups, influential people, companies, and educational institutions. In general, "Abdolreza Norouzi Chakli" and "Rasoul Zavaraqi" followed by 73 of the mentioned cases have the highest amount. The activities of "Maryam Sarrafzadeh" and "Abdolreza Norouzi Chakli" are more diverse than the others. The studied indicators determined that "Maryam Sarrafzadeh" with 3161 points and among the universities; the University of Tehran with 6271 points had the highest performance. Among the surveyed members, 75% of the people in their profile have a personal photo. Given the importance of having an image on your LinkedIn profile, 25% of people who do not have a photo on their profile are almost high. Examining the faculty members' profiles and the information they provided about themselves showed that they had performed poorly in this area. The low statistics of completing the experiences, achievements, and language sections show that people did not enter everything they are, but only briefly mentioned them. Recommendations, which are an essential part of LinkedIn, have received very little attention. The "About" section of most people gives minimal information about the person. This may be because people are not interested in describing their scientific and professional life descriptively or do not take completing this section very seriously. Discussion: In general, according to the findings of this study, including that less than 14% of faculty members on LinkedIn have shared posts, and also had the least interaction with the posts shared by other members in the form of likes and comments, it can be said that board members Information Science and Knowledge Iranian public universities have not used the facilities and capabilities of the LinkedIn social network to share knowledge and communicate with professionals and students. The faculty members' poor performance of the Iranian Information Science and Knowledge Departments on LinkedIn has prevented a real interaction between science and practice. So that specialists in this field, such as librarians, research experts and people involved in the areas of scientometrics and evaluation of science and technology, can not update their professional knowledge by following faculty members and published research to improve their working performance. Job search is one of the most critical applications of a LinkedIn social network, and many employers search for the required workforce from LinkedIn. In resume and job search workshops held by libraries in developed countries for job seekers, LinkedIn and how to present profile information in a way that attracts the employer is taught. But in Iran, the issue is not taken into account; given the high unemployment rate in Iran, it needs to be educated and taken seriously. It is suggested that faculty members of Information Science and Knowledge Studies have an active presence in this network and encourage their students to use it. Incorporating scientific and professional social networks such as LinkedIn into related courses and institutionalizing its use as a conduit for faculty and students and staying up-to-date scientifically can pave the way for it to be taught by future professionals and professionals. It is also suggested that different Library and Information Association branches hold educational workshops on scientific and professional communication in cyberspace to emphasize the importance of being on the social web to enhance the visibility of the scholarly works and increase the social impact of research and provide the necessary platform for education and public awareness.
Elahe Naseri; Maryam Sarrafzadeh; Alireza Noruzi
Abstract
Abstract Purpose: A digital native is someone who is born in the digital age. Computers, mobile phones, and in general, the new technologies have surrounded their lives. Natives are more comfortable using technology, and more skilled than their predecessors. The dependence on technology and hence the ...
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Abstract Purpose: A digital native is someone who is born in the digital age. Computers, mobile phones, and in general, the new technologies have surrounded their lives. Natives are more comfortable using technology, and more skilled than their predecessors. The dependence on technology and hence the use of digital media has led to significant changes in various aspects of the lives of digital natives, one of which is the way information is acquired. This study aimed to investigate the information seeking behavior of digital natives in smart schools in Tehran. Method: This research is an empirical research with the qualitative approach. Methods used included literature review and library study, questionnaire and interview. The study unit in the present study is the students of 10th and 11th grade students of Faezun School. At first, 12 students were selected by purposeful sampling method for interview. The data were then collected by semi-structured interviews and analyzed by coding method. Results: Findings showed that the most used sources were databases, Google search, friends, e-books, print books and Wikipedia. But the library is not that important for them as an information source and they don't use it. In terms of the information-seeking process, the findings showed that the search for information in this generation is non-linear and not all follow a specific pattern. Since digital natives have good access to information tools and spend most of their time in digital media, they usually use cyberspace to meet their needs. Possible barriers to accessing information from a digital natives’ perspective include filtering, poor English, poor information literacy skills, low Internet speed, high cost of Internet, and lack of access to quality content in Persian. Other findings regarding the evaluation of information resources showed that digital natives perform well in the evaluation of educational resources but perform poorly in evaluating non-educational resources, for example in the social media space.Conclusion: The results revealed that digital natives have poor performance in information searching and content assessment skills in social media; considering the importance of the above in information seeking behavior, it is suggested that holding workshops and training courses set it on the agenda related to the items listed.
Marzieh Hasani; Maryam Sarrafzadeh; sepideh fahimi far
Abstract
Background and Objectives: The aim of this study was to identify the relationship between the level of digital literacy and self-directed learning among students of Sharif University of Technology. Digital literacy refers to the set of capabilities required for the effective use of information and communication ...
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Background and Objectives: The aim of this study was to identify the relationship between the level of digital literacy and self-directed learning among students of Sharif University of Technology. Digital literacy refers to the set of capabilities required for the effective use of information and communication technologies in a knowledge society. Self-directed learning is a process in which people identify their learning needs and implement appropriate learning strategies. Its dimensions are self-management, self-control and desire to learn. Self-management is related to work control issues focuses on the behavioral and social aspects of learning tendencies. Outdoor activities, in this sense, are related to the learning process. Self-management is related to setting learning goals and managing learning resources. Questions about management goal, learning methods, support, and outcomes are discussed collaboratively and continuously. Self-control considers cognitive and metacognitive processes, including the monitoring of learning strategies, as well as the ability to think about the way of thinking (planning and modifying thinking according to the purpose of learning). Self-control is the process by which the learner becomes responsible for his or her own mental construction. The basic concept of the desire to learn dimension is that motivation plays an important role in taking action and maintaining the effort to learn and complete cognitive goals. Despite our limited understanding of the relationship between motivation and cognition, there is ample evidence that motivational factors have many practical effects on a variety of cognitive activities.
In his regard, there are five questions as below:
Question 1: What is the relationship between the level of digital literacy and students' self-directed learning and its various dimensions?
Question 2: What is the relationship between students' gender and digital literacy and their self-directed learning?
Question 3: What is the relationship between education and digital literacy and students' self-directed learning?
Question 4: What is the relationship between college and digital literacy and students' self-directed learning?
Question 5: What is the relationship between students' participation in IT courses and their level of digital literacy?
Methodology: This research is applied in terms of purpose and is a descriptive-survey in terms of data collection method. Is. In this study, Sharif University of Technology students in undergraduate and graduate studies were selected as the statistical population. 8709 students are studying in 13 faculties of this university. The number of male and female students in bachelor's and master's degrees is almost equal. Stratified sampling method was used and 30 students (15 males and 15 female) from each faculty were randomly selected. A total of 390 people were randomly selected of which 195 were female and 195 were male. In order to assess the level of digital literacy of students and their self-directed learning, researcher-made and standard questionnaires were used, respectively.
a standard questionnaire was used to assess the self-directed learning of the respondents. This questionnaire is the Fisher standard questionnaire with 40 items that was introduced in 2001. The response scale is the Likert five-choice range (too low = 1 to too high = 5). Score of the self-directed learning variable of each respondent was equal to the median score of items.
Since there was not any updated and appropriate questionnaire to measure the level of digital literacy, the researcher decided to design a researcher-made questionnaire with the following steps:
1- Digital literacy reference sources such as Microsoft and North Star companies were used to design the questionnaire. The questions on these websites cover various areas of digital literacy, from beginner to advanced.
2- The questions were modified and localized. The final questionnaire consisted of 25 items that items 1 to 18 measured the digital literacy level of the respondent as a practical test and items 19 to 25 measured the respondents' mental perceptions of their digital literacy level.
3- The questionnaire was revised by 14 experts and professors to ensure its validity
4- Cronbach's alpha test was used to assess the reliability of the questionnaire. The results showed the high reliability of the questionnaire.
Findings: The results showed that there is a positive and significant relationship between the level of digital literacy and students' self-directed learning and all its dimensions. It can be concluded that the digital literacy of Sharif University of Technology students is not at a very good level.
Discussion: In order to improve its students 'academic achievement indicators, the university can hold various courses to increase students' digital literacy skills.
