The Effect of Virtual Education During the Covid-19 Epidemic on The Information-Seeking Behavior of Graduate Students of Tarbiat Madras University

Abstract



Purpose: Virtual education, as a new model in modern education, is a set of educational activities that are carried out using electronic media, educational technologies, and information and communication technology, it is also considered one of the key learning environments in the information age. With the rapid and ever - increasing growth of information technology and the Internet , we are witnessing the expansion of a huge amount of information produced in the world ; Since information is always published in different forms and formats , achieving it requires skills in searching and learning search strategies and identifying types of information carriers. Accordingly, one of the most important concerns of university students and professors will be access to up -to - date information which is related to their information needs. The differences made in education during the COVID - 19 outbreak seem to affect the information-seeking behavior of students. The extent of this change is also unclear. The present study aims to investigate the effect of virtual education on the Tarbiat Modares University students' information-seeking behavior.



Methodology: The current research is an applied study and is considered as a mixed exploratory research in terms of data collection. In fact, Delphi and survey methods were used simultaneously to solve the research problem. In the qualitative part of the research, using the Delphi method, the components of information-seeking behavior and virtual education were obtained; To measure the accuracy and validity of qualitative data, 4 criteria of credibility, reliability, transferability, and confirmability were used. To confirm the validity of the quantitative part of the questionnaire, the questionnaire was approved by 3 expert professors in Knowledge and Information Science. Also, to check the reliability of the quantitative part of the questionnaire, Cronbach's alpha was measured (= 0.982). In the qualitative part, the sample for the Delphi stage was 15 experts who were selected by the purposeful sampling method. The sample examined in the quantitative section includes all graduate students of Tarbiat Modares University who entered the university in the 2019- 2020 and 2020- 2021 educational years and have studied virtually due to the outbreak of COVID- 19 .Using the standard Cochrane sampling table, 357 of the sample students were selected based on the random sampling method and were examined through an online questionnaire ; In the end, 257 questionnaires were answered by the students. SPSS software was used to analyze the data and a regression test was used to identify the effect of virtual education on information-seeking behavior.



Findings: In the qualitative part, the components of virtual education include the component of 'e-learning skills and knowledge' which includes 5 items; and the components of information-seeking behavior, including the 'resources used' component, including 8 items; The 'resources used by students' component includes 10 items; The component 'credibility measurement criteria and resource selection' includes 11 items; The 'information access channels' component includes 12 items, identified by experts (Delphi panel members). In the qualitative part of the research, there can be seen components of “'e-learning skills and knowledge” with 5 items, “information-seeking behavior” including the 'resources used', the 'resources used by students, 'credibility measurement criteria and resource selection', and 'the information access channels' which respectively have 8, 10, 11, and 12 items. All these components have been obtained from experts’ opinions (i.e., Delphi panel members). The findings obtained in the quantitative section showed a 0.33 effect of virtual education on students' information - seeking objectives. virtual education has an effect on the resources used by students by 0.19. it also affects the evaluation of the validity and selection of resources by 0.38, and the channels of obtaining information by 0.33. Finally, the findings showed that virtual education has an effect of 0.34 on the information - seeking behavior of postgraduate students.





Conclusion: The results indicated that virtual education makes it possible for the students not only to use different resources but also facilitates the possibility of comparing resources and choose among them simultaneously and asynchronously. Using modern information systems enables students to determine the originality of the sources. It also significantly reduces the possibility of acquiring information and knowledge through trial and error creates various and diverse ways to access resources and obtain information, and causes students to have full access to resources and information from existing channels.