Tsai, P.-S., Hwang, G.-J., Tsai, C.-C., Hung, C.-M., & Huang, I. (2012).

An Electronic Library-based Learning Environment for

Supporting Web-based Problem-Solving Activities. Educational Technology & Society, 15 (4), 252264.

An Electronic Library-based Learning Environment for Supporting Web-based

Problem-Solving Activities
Pei-Shan Tsai1, Gwo-Jen Hwang2*, Chin-Chung Tsai2, Chun-Ming Hung3 and Iwen Huang3
1
Graduate Institute of Applied Science and Technology, 2Graduate Institute of Digital Learning and Education,
National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, #43, Sec.4, Keelung Rd., Taipei, 106, Taiwan //
3
Department of Information and Learning Technology, National University of Tainan, No. 33, Sec. 2, Shulin St.,
Tainan city 70005, Taiwan // D9622305@mail.ntust.edu.tw // gjhwang.academic@gmail.com //
cctsai@mail.ntust.edu.tw // hcm@live.htps.tn.edu.tw // huangi@mail.nutn.edu.tw
*
Corresponding author

(Submitted June 12, 2010; Revised July 27, 2011; August 01, 2011)

ABSTRACT
This study aims to develop an electronic library-based learning environment to support teachers in developing
web-based problem-solving activities and analyzing the online problem-solving behaviors of students. Two
experiments were performed in this study. In study 1, an experiment on 103 elementary and high school teachers
(the learning activity designers) has been conducted to understand their views toward an electronic library-based
learning environment. The results showed that with this innovative approach, electronic libraries not only have
the potential to support traditional in-class learning, but also can assist teachers in developing learning activities
for training students in web-based problem-solving abilities. Moreover, teachers of different ages and
backgrounds all readily accepted the new approach, in particular, the older and more experienced teachers
showed even higher willingness to use the system than the younger and less experienced teachers. In study 2, a
quasi-experiment on 62 elementary school students (experimental group with 31 students and control group with
31 students) has been undertaken on a natural science course for evaluating the effectiveness of the proposed
approach. Experimental results showed that this innovative approach can improve the students learning
achievements and attitudes in comparisons with the conventional web-based learning approach.

Keywords
Web-based learning, Problem-solving, Learning portfolio, Electronic library, Computer-assisted assessment

Background and motivation

The rapid growth of digital resources has encouraged the development of digital archives for various purposes. One
of the most important roles of digital archives is to serve as learning material providers for the learning activities
conducted in all levels of schools (Boumarafi, 2010; Chen, 2010; Chu, Hwang, & Tseng, 2010; Hall & Davison,
2007). In the past decade, many studies concerning the use of digital archives in education have been reported
(Chiou, Tseng, Hwang, & Heller, 2010); for example, Chu, Hwang, Huang and Wu (2008) developed an electronic
library to support outdoor learning for an elementary school natural science course.

While trying to find better ways of using digital resources in education, educators have recognized the importance of
training students in the competence of collecting and using information for problem solving. Various studies have
been conducted to investigate this issue, including the development of learning strategies or tools to support web-
based problem-solving activities (Hwang, Tsai, Tsai, & Tseng, 2008; Skylar, Higgins, & Boone, 2007; Tseng,
Hwang, Tsai, & Tsai, 2009), investigations of the learning behaviors and performance of students using web-based
information for solving problems (Allan & Street, 2007; Tsai, Tsai, & Hwang, 2011), and the development of subject
content-related digital archives for supporting problem-solving activities (Chen & Chen, 2010; Wang & Hannafin,
2009).

One of the major difficulties of using digital resources in learning activities is the lack of an easy-to-follow
procedure for inexperienced teachers to design subject content such that suitable digital archives or technologies can
be properly applied to the learning process (Chu et al., 2008; Hwang, Chu, Lin, & Tsai, 2011; Hwang, Kuo, Yin, &
Chuang, 2010), in particular, problem-solving activities. Therefore, it has become an important but challenging issue
to develop a learning environment to assist the teachers in using electronic libraries to develop web-based problem-
solving activities.

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252
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Based upon these perspectives, in this paper, an electronic library-oriented learning environment for supporting web-
based problem-solving is presented, which provides an innovative approach to guiding teachers to systematically and
efficiently design web-based problem-solving activities with electronic libraries. The feedback of the teachers who
have experienced the proposed learning environment is collected to evaluate the usefulness of this innovative
approach; moreover, an experiment has been conducted on an elementary school natural science learning activity to
compare the learning performance of the students who learned with the proposed approach and that of the students
who learned with conventional web-based learning approach.

Literature review

Electronic libraries have been recognized as being important resources and facilities for supporting educational
activities (Saeed, 2006). The rapid advance and popularity of the World Wide Web have further enabled people to
conduct web-based learning activities with electronic libraries (Mourad et al., 2005; Polly & Ausband, 2009).
Nowadays, electronic libraries play an important role in library service. Various studies have been conducted to
develop new information technologies to provide more efficient and effective library services (Uzoka & Ijatuyi
2005). Meanwhile, the number of Internet users is increasing at a dramatic speed; therefore, it has become an
important issue to develop effective mechanisms for helping students utilize electronic libraries on the Internet
(Saeed, 2006; Chu et al., 2008).

Among the existing alternatives for web-based learning, the development of a web-based problem-solving activity is
one of the most crucial and challenging issues for teachers. Web-based problem solving refers to learning activities
which engage students in utilizing digital information in an organized and meaningful manner. In a web-based
problem solving activity, the students are asked to collect data from the Internet using search engines in order to
answer questions raised by the teachers, or to state their opinions about a particular issue (Polly & Ausband, 2009).

Many researchers have reported the effectiveness of web-based problem-solving approaches. Kanuka, Rourke and
Laflamme (2007) found several advantages of such an approach, including providing the opportunity to structure the
collected information, and allocating clearly defined roles and responsibilities for the students. Zheng, Perez,
Williamson and Flygare (2008) further investigated the perceptions of teachers regarding the use of web-based
problem-solving strategies, and received positive feedback. It can be seen that guiding the students to learn to solve
problems via searching for information from digital resources has become an important and challenging issue. These
studies not only demostrate the importance of providing new electronic library services in education, but also show
the necessity of developing new facilities to help teachers develop web-based problem-solving activities that will
enable the students to solve problems by searching for information from electronic libraries. In the following
sections, a new approach to coping with these problems is presented in detail.

Development of the electronic Library-Oriented learning environment

The electronic library-oriented learning environment, Library-Quest, has been developed. Figure 1 shows the
structure of Library-Quest, which consists of five components: a Search Agent to derive relevant information from
the electronic library which was designed by teachers, a Content Analyzer to recognize the derived information, a
Content Reorganizer to reformat the information for show, a Searching Behaviors Recorder to record each students
problem-solving portfolio, and a Searching Behaviors Analyzer to help the teachers analyze the students online
behaviors based on their problem-solving portfolios.

To more effectively assist them in administering web-based problem-solving activities, the teachers can create
learning activities, materials and student accounts in advance. According to the pre-defined user accounts, Library-
Quest can provide different interfaces for students and teachers; hence, after the students log into Library-Quest, they
will see a list of issues to be explored, which are pre-defined by the teachers. When the students choose an issue, a
search interface for problem solving will be displayed.

As shown in the left snapshot of Figure 2, the student interface consists of four operation areas: The question and
answer area is located on the left-hand side and can be hidden, the function-selecting area is located on the upper-
right and provides several useful functions for problem-solving, such as simple search, advanced search, category

253
browsing, title browsing and author browse, the information-searching and result area is located on the lower-left of
the window, and the content area is located on the lower-right for displaying the selected information, including text,
images and video. An illustrative example of using the student interface is given in the right snapshot of Figure 2.
After reading a question, the students can temporarily hide the question and answer area, such that they will have
plenty of space to use the category browsing function to search for information and to browse the content that
might be relevant to the question. The entire student portfolio, including the search functions that have been selected,
the browsed content and the student behaviors, are recorded in the server.

Figure 1. Library-Quest system structure

Question and answer area Question and answer area which

which is displayed is hidden

The function-selecting Category browse

area

Text

Content area
Image
Information-searching
and result area Video
Figure 2. Library-Quest student interface

Figure 3 shows the teacher interface for browsing the problem-solving portfolio of individual students. The problem-
solving portfolio includes the answers to each question, the search functions that have been selected, the contents that
have been browsed, and the browsing time for each content, etc. The operation column records the problem-
solving behaviors of each student, including submit answer, temporary answer, input keywords in simple
search function, information selection in simple search function, browse content in simple search function,
input keywords in advanced search function, information selection in advanced search function, browse content
in advanced search function, browse content in category browsing function, browse content in title browsing
function, and browse content in author browse function. In the following, the search functions of Library-Quest
are introduced in detail.

254
 Students ID and
name

Students answer to
each question

Question ID Students portfolio for

problem solving

Time duration for

the operation

Operation:
13 = submit answer, 14 = temporary
answer, 21 = input keywords in simple
search function, 22 = information selection
in simple search function, 23 = browse
content in simple search function, 31 = input
keywords in advanced search function, 32 =
information selection in advanced search
function, 33 = browse content in advanced Operand:
search function, 44 = browse content in keywords or titles
category browse function, 52 = browse
content in title browse function, 63 = browse
content in author browse function.
Figure 3. Teacher interface for browsing the problem-solving portfolio of individual students

Enter keywords

Simple search

Content

Search results returned from the server

which was created by teachers

Figure 4. Example of using the simple search function to collect information for problem solving

255
The simple search function

Figure 4 shows the student interface for using the simple search function to collect information for problem
solving. The student can enter keywords or a phrase to search for information in the selected field, browse the search
results returned from the server which was created by the teachers, and then browse the content that might be
relevant to the question.

The advanced search function

Figure 5 shows the student interface for using Boolean operators to gather information for problem solving. The
student can input keywords or phrases to search for information in the selected fields with Boolean operators, browse
the search results that are returned from the server which was created by the teachers, and then browse the content
that might be relevant to the question.

Boolean operators:
AND, OR, NOT
Advanced search

Enter keywords
Content

Information returned from server

which was created by teachers

Figure 5. Example of using the advanced search function to collect information for problem solving

Category browsing

Step 1: select main category Content

Step 2: select
secondary category

Step 3: select a title

Figure 6. Example of using the category browsing function to collect information for problem solving

256
The category browsing function

Figure 6 displays the student interface of using the category browsing function to obtain information for problem
solving. The student can follow the steps as below, and then browse the content that might be relevant to the question.
Step 1: select a main category.
Step 2: select a secondary category based on the selected main category.
Step 3: select a title based on the selected secondary category and main category.

The title browsing function

Figure 7 illustrates the student interface for using the title browsing function to collect information for problem
solving. The student can select a title, and then browse the content that might be relevant to the question.

Title browsing

Select a title

Content

Figure 7. Example of using the title browsing function to collect information for problem solving

Author browse

Step 1: select an author

Content

Step 2: select a title

Figure 8. Example of using the author browse function to collect information for problem solving
257
The author browse function

Figure 8 shows the student interface of using the author browse function to gather information for problem solving.
The student can select an author, and then select a title based on the selected author to browse the content that might
be relevant to the question.

Study 1: Teachers feedback of using Library-Quest

An experiment has been conducted to evaluate the perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness and attitude
toward using of 103 elementary and high school teachers (the learning activity designers). The participants first
experienced the learning activity development and analysis functions as well as the problem-solving interface of
Library-Quest; next, they were arranged to use the problem-solving interface of Library-Quest to search for data
from the electronic library to answer the questions concerning the ecological issues of the Chiku wetland in southern
Taiwan. The Chiku wetland is the largest and the most intact lagoon in Taiwan. The main water source of the
wetland is the Zengwun River which brings large varieties of biological, nutritive products, forming the excellent
habitat. Many shorebirds, wildfowl and egrets gather on sandbars in the river, the most famous being the black-faced
spoonbill. There are less than 2,000 black-faced spoonbills on the planet, of which 850 stay on the fish farm in the
Chiku wetland each year from October to February. In this learning activity, the participants were asked to answer
the following questions concerning the Chiku wetland:
(1) What are the representative birds in the Chiku ecological region in Taiwan? How are they distributed in this
region?
(2) What are the migratory birds in Tainan which forage in the Chiku fish ponds? Does this area provide enough
food for them?
(3) What are the representative plants in the Chiku wetlands? Do they have special features that are different from
the plants in other areas?
(4) The government would like to urbanize the Chiku region. Do you agree with this? Why or why not?

After experiencing the use of the electronic library and the learning activity development procedure, the teachers
were asked to complete a questionnaire that consists of three scales (six items for each scale), presented with strongly
agree/disagree statements on a six-point Likert scale. Two experts in the field of Internet-based instruction had
commented on the items of the questionnaire for face validity, and two elementary school teachers had been selected
to clarify the wording of each item. A detailed description of the three scales is presented below.
(1) Perceived usefulness scale: assessing perceptions of the degree to which teachers expect that using Library-
Quest will enhance students learning performance.
(2) Attitude toward using scale: measuring perceptions of the degree to which teachers will be willing to use it and
recommend it to peers.
(3) Perceived ease of use scale: exploring perceptions of the degree to which teachers expect Library-Quest to be
free of effort.

Teachers feedback via exploratory factor analysis

In accordance with the suggestions of Henson and Roberts (2006), Lee, Johanson, and Tsai (2008), and Worthington
and Whittaker (2006), this study first examined the KMO measure of sampling adequacy index and Bartletts test of
sphericity to ensure whether the samples are appropriate for exploratory factor analysis. The results indicated that the
KMO measure of sampling adequacy index was 0.84, and Bartletts test of sphericity was significant (2 (df = 78, n
=103) = 966.99, p < .0001), showing that the samples are appropriate for this kind of analysis. Then, a principle
components analysis with an oblique rotation was implemented on these items. According to the factors of the
questionnaire seemed to be correlated, an oblique rotation was applied in this study. In addition, a combination of
methods (e.g., conceptual clarity, eigenvalue > 1, and scree plots) were utilized to decide the number of the retained
factors, suggesting that three factors should be retained. For the final version of the questionnaire, an item within a
factor was retained only when its pattern coefficient (factor loading) was greater than 0.50 on the relevant factor and
less than 0.50 on the non-relevant factor. Consequently, the initial 18 items were reduced to 13 items in the final
version of the questionnaire (shown in Appendix A), and the total variance explained is 75.10%.

258
As shown in Table 1, the communalities (h2) of all items were at least 0.50. The retained three factors included
Perceived usefulness (PU), Attitude toward using (A), and Perceived ease of use (EOU). The reliability (Cronbachs
alpha) for each factor is high (i.e., 0.93, 0.85 and 0.84, respectively; the overall alpha coefficient is 0.90), indicating
that these factors had sufficient reliability for measuring teachers views toward Library-Quest.

Table 1. Rotated factor pattern and structure matrices for the three factors (n = 103)
Factor 1 Factor 2 Factor 3
Item P S P S P S Mean S.D. h2
Factor 1: Perceived usefulness
PU1 0.91 0.92 -0.05 0.46 0.00 0.41 4.42 1.13 0.65
PU2 0.88 0.89 -0.23 0.25 0.14 0.41 4.72 1.10 0.80
PU3 0.86 0.89 0.18 0.47 0.00 0.44 4.26 1.05 0.77
PU4 0.80 0.87 0.14 0.07 -0.06 0.51 4.38 1.05 0.59
PU5 0.80 0.82 0.20 0.39 0.05 0.32 3.95 1.06 0.80
Factor 2: Attitude toward using
A1 -0.01 0.26 0.91 0.90 -0.06 0.05 4.41 1.01 0.87
A2 0.16 0.37 0.81 0.84 -0.22 0.28 4.37 1.02 0.83
A3 0.03 0.32 0.80 0.83 0.16 -0.04 4.05 1.22 0.81
A4 0.00 0.39 0.71 0.75 0.34 0.43 4.47 0.92 0.70
Factor 3: Perceived ease of use
EOU1 -0.11 0.33 0.06 0.14 0.93 0.89 4.65 0.98 0.73
EOU2 0.07 0.45 -0.02 0.11 0.85 0.87 4.97 0.86 0.81
EOU3 0.20 0.55 0.21 0.35 0.63 0.75 4.64 0.70 0.73
EOU4 0.34 0.55 -0.17 0.02 0.57 0.71 4.84 0.70 0.68
Note. P = Pattern coefficients; S = structure coefficients; h2 = communalities of the measured variables.

Teachers ratings on the questionnaire

Table 2 shows the teachers average ratings and standard deviations on the scales. The teachers gave the highest
ratings on the attitude toward using scale, implying that an electronic library-oriented approach has potential to
assist teachers in supporting web-based problem-solving activities; hence, the teachers are willing to keep using
Library-Quest and recommend it to their peers. In addition, the teachers have positive perspectives of the electronic
library-oriented approach and gave high ratings on all of the scales (above 4 on a 1-6 Likert scale), implying that an
electronic library-oriented approach has high potential for supporting web-based problem-solving activities with
proper user interface design and the provision of collocated functions. In sum, this study can conclude that the
effectiveness of Library-Quest is accepted by most of the teachers.

Table 2. Teachers ratings on the scales

Scale Mean S.D. Range
Perceived usefulness 4.25 0.92 1.0-6.0
Attitude toward using 4.78 0.68 1.0-6.0
Perceived ease of use 4.44 0.89 1.0-6.0

Table 3. Gender comparisons of the teachers ratings of the scales

Scale Gender Mean S.D. t
Perceived usefulness Male (n = 43) 4.41 0.94 1.51
Female (n = 60) 4.13 0.90
Attitude toward using Male (n = 43) 4.98 0.53 2.75**
Female (n = 60) 4.63 0.74
Perceived ease of use Male (n = 43) 4.59 0.97 1.39
Female (n = 60) 4.34 0.82
** p < 0.01

259
Comparisons of usage feedback between male and female teachers

This study compared the responses of the male and female teachers, as shown in Table 3. The results revealed that
there were no significant differences between the male and female teachers in terms of their beliefs of perceived
usefulness and perceived ease of use; however, there were significant differences in the attitude toward using scale,
with the male teachers having higher ratings on the scale than the female teachers. These results indicate that the
male teachers expressed stronger willingness to keep using Library-Quest and to recommend it to their peers than did
the female teachers.

The correlation among Internet usage experience, teaching experience and the questionnaire responses

As shown in Table 4, only one significant correlation is found among Internet usage experience, teaching experience
and the questionnaire responses. That is, teachers age had a significantly positive relationship to the attitude toward
using scale (r = 0.22, p < 0.05). This means that older teachers tended to have stronger willingness to keep using
Library-Quest and recommend it to their peers. This finding is quite different from those of several previous studies
that reported negative relationships between age and attitude toward using technologies (Lee & Tsai, 2010; Madden,
Ford, Miller, & Levy, 2005; Martin, McCaughtry, & Kulinna, 2008). In addition, most previous studies indicated
that teaching experience was negatively related to attitude toward using technologies (Lee & Tsai, 2010; Yaghi,
2001); however, in this study, it was found that the experienced teachers had even more favorable attitudes than the
inexperienced teachers in terms of using Library-Quest. Therefore, it is exciting to conclude that our approach has
been readily accepted by those teachers, especially by those who are older and more experienced. Such a positive
attitude expressed by senior and experienced teachers implies that our innovative approach has more potential than
other information technologies to be widely accepted by teachers of different ages and backgrounds.

Table 4. The correlation between teachers responses to the scales and their background
Teaching Web Experience of
Scale Age
experience experience Web-related pedagogical practice
Perceived usefulness 0.14 0.12 -0.05 0.06
Attitude toward using 0.22* 0.18 0.03 0.16
Perceived ease of use 0.05 0.09 0.04 0.05
* p < .05

Study 2: The effects of Library-Quest on students learning performance

To investigate the effect of the proposed approach on students' learning performance, an experiment has been
conducted on an elementary school natural science course. Moreover, the learning achievements and attitudes of the
participants are measured to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.

Participants

The participants were two classes of grade six students from an elementary school in southern Taiwan. One class
with 31 students (including 18 males and 12 females) was assigned to be the experimental group, and the other class
with 31 students (including 20 males and 11 females) was the control group. Both groups of students were taught by
the same teacher. The average of the students was 12. In other words, a quasi-experiment was undertaken for study 2.

Measuring tools and learning procedure

Before the learning activity, all of the students took a pre-test, which was developed by four experienced teachers for
evaluating the students prior knowledge of natural science. The pre-test consisted of 17 yes-or-no questions, 19
multiple-choice questions and 3 fill-the-blank questions. The perfect score of the pre-test was 100.

260
During the learning activity, both groups of students were asked to answer the four questions concerning the Chiku
wetland described before. The time of this learning activity was 50 minutes. The students in the experimental group
employed the Library-Quest to search for data to answer the questions. On the other hand, the students in the control
group were asked to answer the questions via the traditional technology-enhanced learning approach; that is, using
common search engines to search for data from the web.

After the learning activity, all of the students took a post-test, which was developed by two experienced teachers for
evaluating the students learning achievement during the learning activity. The post-test consisted of 5 yes-or-no
questions, 5 multiple-choice questions, 2 check-all-that-apply questions and 2 question-and-answer items. The
perfect score of the post-test was 30.

The students in both groups were also surveyed for their attitudes toward the science learning activity both before
and after the treatment. The science learning attitude measure originated from the questionnaire developed by Hwang
and Chang (2011). It consisted of 7 items with a six-point Likert rating scheme, where 6 represented strongly
agree and 1 represented strongly disagree. The Cronbach's Alpha value of the science learning attitude measure
was 0.94. For example, two of the questionnaire items were It is worth learning the natural science course well and
I will actively search for more information and learn about natural science.

Experimental results for study 2

To evaluate the effectiveness of Library-Quest, ANCOVA is employed to analyze the post-test scores of the students
by using the pre-test scores as the covariate to exclude the impact of the pre-test. The non-significant interaction of
the independent variable and the covariate of the learning achievement test showed that F = 1.92 (p > .05), implying
that the use of ANCOVA was appropriate.

Table 5 shows that the ANCOVA result, showing that the two groups had significantly different learning
achievements with F = 15.17 (p < .001) after excluding the impact of the pre-test scores. The adjusted mean of the
experimental group scored was 20.67, which was higher than that of the control group (i.e., 17.63), showing that the
use of Library-Quest was helpful to the students in enhancing their learning achievement in this course.

Table 5. ANCOVA result of the post-test achievement scores

Group N Mean S.D. Adjusted Mean Std. Error. F
Experimental group 31 20.58 3.95 20.67 .55 15.17***
Post-test (achievement)
Control group 31 17.71 2.31 17.63 .55
***
p < .001

This study further employed ANCOVA to analyze the learning attitude post-questionnaire scores of the students
toward science by considering the learning attitude pre-questionnaire scores. The non-significant interaction of the
independent variable and the covariate of the learning attitude scale showed that F = 1.85 (p >.05), implying that the
use of ANCOVA was appropriate.

As shown in Table 6, the ANCOVA result was F = 7.38 (p < .01), showing that the learning attitudes of the two
groups were significantly different after excluding the impact of the learning attitude pre-questionnaire scores.
Moreover, the adjusted mean of the experimental group was 4.88, which was higher than that of the control group
(i.e., 4.60), suggesting that Library-Quest approach was able to foster the learning attitude of students toward science.

Table 6. The ANCOVA result of the learning attitude post-questionnaire toward science
Group N Mean S.D. Adjusted Mean Std. Error. F
Experimental group 31 4.96 0.54 4.88 .07 7.38**
Post-test (attitude)
Control group 31 4.53 0.86 4.60 .07
**
p < .01

261
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 problem-
solving 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.

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Appendix A: The final version of questionnaire items
Perceived usefulness (PU)
1. The use of Library-Quest is helpful to students for understanding the questions.
2. The use of Library-Quest would enhance students ability to search for information when problem-solving.
3. Library-Quest is helpful to the students in solving the questions.
4. Library-Quest provides a good way of problem-solving.
5. The use of Library-Quest makes students have more interest in the course.

Attitude toward using (A)

1. I am willing to use other electronic libraries in the future.
2. I have more willingness to use electronic libraries than before.
3. I will actively look for information from electronic libraries.
4. I hope I can participate in relevant activities like this one.

Perceived ease of use (EOU)

1. It took only a short time to learn how to operate Library-Quest.
2. The designs of Library-Quests interface fit users operating habits.
3. The interface of Library-Quest is easy to operate.
4. The search results which are displayed in Library-Quest are clear and easy to read.

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