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PART 1: FILL THIS OUT AT THE START OF THE SESSION:

 

Session Number 10

 

1) Today’s date: March 28, 2003

 

2) Time at start: 11:02 a.m.

 

3) What kind of a mood are you in?

1          2          3          4          5          6          7          8          9          10

negative                                                                                       positive

 

Type a number here:  8

 

Please type in an explanation for your answer: 

I’m in a positive mood. It’s just that Spring Break is already ending and I haven’t done as many things as I planned I would at the beginning of the week.

 

 

4) Describe the task for this session—what you’re planning to do and why.

I will be revisiting the topic of woman and man’s role. For my Annotated Bibliography Report, I focused more on men and women needing each other. I want to look for more articles on both sides of the issue: men should listen to women and maybe men shouldn’t listen to women or women should listen to men.

 

 

5) How long do you think this task will actually take today?

 

Type in hours and minutes: 1 hour

 

6) If you compare this task to other search tasks you’ve done, how long should it take in your opinion?

     

1          2          3          4          5          6          7          8          9          10

much less than others                                        much more than others

 

Type a number here:   5

 

Please type in an explanation for your answer: 

This topic seems pretty broad. With the more efficient search engine I’m using now, I hope to find many articles.

 

 

7) How important to you is this task today?

1          2          3          4          5          6          7          8          9          10

not important                                                             extremely important

 

Type a number here:  10

 

Please type in an explanation for your answer: 

It’s imperative that I complete this search session today because I must post my findings by this evening. Also, this is the last search session that would be documented in my Research Report, which is due next week. I need information from today’s session to finish up the section of self-observation data.

 

 

8) How upset would you be if you found nothing today?

1          2          3          4          5          6          7          8          9          10

not upset                                                                           extremely upset

 

Type a number here:  2

 

Please type in an explanation for your answer: 

I will probably find something, but if I don’t get as relevant results as I have hoped for, I might be a little upset. Afterall, I would like to succeed in today’s search task.

 

 

9) How sure are you that you will succeed in this task?

1          2          3          4          5          6          7          8          9          10

doubtful                                                                               almost certain

 

Type a number here:  10

 

Please type in an explanation for your answer: 

I don’t recall anyone having difficulty with this research topic and I have already researched it before, so I am not expecting any major problems.

 

 

10) How likely is it that you will become good at this type of task?

1          2          3          4          5          6          7          8          9          10

pretty doubtful                                                                       almost certain

 

Type a number here:  10

 

Please type in an explanation for your answer: 

Searching the internet is not as troublesome as I thought at the beginning of the semester, especially because I was using less efficient search engines.

 

 

 11) How much luck do you have in searching in comparison to other types of tasks?

1          2          3          4          5          6          7          8          9          10

I have bad luck                                               I always find something useful

 

Type a number here:  9

 

Please type in an explanation for your answer: 

For search tasks as this, I don’t believe in luck.

 

 

12) How motivated are you to keep on trying today until you succeed?

1          2          3          4          5          6          7          8          9          10

slightly motivated                                                       very highly motivated

 

Type a number here:  10

 

Please type in an explanation for your answer: 

I am very motivated because I would like to improve my Annotated Bibliography Report.

 

 

13) Computers and search engines make it easy for people to find what they’re looking for.

1          2          3          4          5          6          7          8          9          10

I strongly disagree                                                         I very much agree

 

Type a number here:  10

 

Please type in an explanation for your answer: 

Getting results is so much more convenient when the search engine Vivisimo clusters them into categories.

 

 

14) How likely is it that there will be something specific on what you’re looking for?

1          2          3          4          5          6          7          8          9          10

not likely                                                                                    very likely

 

Type a number here:  7

 

Please type in an explanation for your answer: 

It seems likely that I will find something. I just have to come up with some pretty good search phrases and with Vivisimo clustering the results into categories, I will be able to pinpoint the more relevant categories to gather information.

 

 

15) How much effort do you expect this task to take today?

1          2          3          4          5          6          7          8          9          10

not much                                                                 a tremendous amount

 

Type a number here:  6

 

Please type in an explanation for your answer:

Actually, I expect to finish searching within an hour, but if I don’t find what I’m looking for by that time, I wouldn’t mind putting in another half hour to come up with other search phrases or maybe try out other search engines/databases.

 

 

 

PART 2: FILL THIS OUT DURING THE SESSION:

 

Please list the databases and search engines you used today:

 

Database or search engine 1: http://vivisimo.com

 

Explain why you chose it?

It is more efficient than Google.

 

 

Database or search engine 2: N/A

 

Explain why you chose it?

 

 

 

Database or search engine 3: N/A

 

Explain why you chose it?

 

 

(add others if needed)

  

 

 

PART 3: FILL THIS OUT AT THE END OF THE SESSION:

 

16) How irritated did you feel in today’s search task?

1          2          3          4          5          6          7          8          9          10

no irritation                                                                       extremely irritated

 

Type a number here:  4

 

Please type in an explanation for your answer: 

I was a bit irritated because my first search phrase “men should not listen to women” produced some sites leading to porn. The site that I first clicked on looked very innocent but then other windows advertising porn started popping up. It was kind of shocking. I had to close probably 5 windows that opened up in succession. Imagine what children can access.

 

 

17) How anxious did you feel in today’s search task?

1          2          3          4          5          6          7          8          9          10

not anxious                                                                       extremely anxious

 

Type a number here:  4

 

Please type in an explanation for your answer: 

During the search task, I couldn’t find articles about men needing women’s advice. However, I did find many sites about how both sexes should communicate or know about each other to work together better.

 

 

18) How frustrated did you feel in today’s search session?

1          2          3          4          5          6          7          8          9          10

not frustrated                                                                   extremely frustrated

 

Type a number here:  5

 

Please type in an explanation for your answer: 

I was getting frustrated because I couldn’t think of other search phrases that would yield other results.

 

 

19) How much rage did you feel in today’s search task?

Type a number here:

1          2          3          4          5          6          7          8          9          10

no rage                                                                                     a lot of rage

Please type in an explanation for your answer: 

I was frustrated, but did not feel rage.

 

 

20) How much effort did this task require of you today compared to other search tasks in your experience?

1          2          3          4          5          6          7          8          9          10

much less than others                                            much more than others

 

Type a number here:  6

 

Please type in an explanation for your answer: 

It took quite some time before I finally decided to end the search.

 

 

21) How would you evaluate the relevance of what you found today?

1          2          3          4          5          6          7          8          9          10

not relevant                                                                           very relevant

 

Type a number here:  8

 

Please type in an explanation for your answer: 

Although it was not as specific as I would have liked, the information I gathered so far will improve one of the topics in my Annotated Bibliography Report.

 

 

22) How supportive are you of the search engine or computer facility you used today?

1          2          3          4          5          6          7          8          9          10

not supportive                                                                      very supportive

 

Type a number here:  8

 

Please type in an explanation for your answer: 

I have been using Vivisimo for the past three weeks and I have said that I liked its efficiency.  However, I finally found a drawback today. If I came across sites advertising porn, children can easily access the same sites. I am quite sure that even the word “mature” would lead to sites that are inappropriate for children. I know that parental controls might be difficult to implement in such search engines, but something has to be done about it.

 

 

23) How easy was it to use the search engine or computer facility today?

1          2          3          4          5          6          7          8          9          10

very easy                                                                                 very difficult

 

Type a number here:  1

 

Please type in an explanation for your answer: 

Typing in search phrases led to a long list of results. Fortunately, these results are clustered into categories making the list of results more organized.

 

 

24) If you compare this task to other search tasks you’ve done, how long did it take in your opinion?

1          2          3          4          5          6          7          8          9          10

much less than others                                        much more than others

 

Type a number here:  6

 

Please type in an explanation for your answer:   

Compared to the other search tasks that I have done for this class, this was one of the longest.

 

 

25) Which factor was most important in getting the search results you got?: 

a) luck

b) my search techniques

c) the quality of the databases or search engines I used

 

Type a choice here:  b

 

Please type in an explanation for your answer: 

I would say that it was my search techniques. I can’t blame the search engine if I used the same words several times and hence got the same results at times. I think I need to think of several search phrases and write them down first before actually starting the search. I can always think of others during the search, but by having a list to start off with, it could probably help me brainstorm more efficiently.

 

 

26) Did you change the goals from the beginning to the end of your search? Please explain what change and why.

Yes. I could not find concrete examples of men needing advice from women or of one sex needing to listen to the other. During the search, I just decided to search for tips on communication or how to make the relationship work out better. In essence, though, the information I gathered does deal with both sexes listening and understanding each other.

 

 

27) Overall how would you rate the success of today’s search session?

1          2          3          4          5          6          7          8          9          10

not successful                                                                      totally successful

 

Type a number here:  8

 

Please type in an explanation for your answer: 

The information I gathered is useful in improving my Annotated Bibliography Report.

 

 

28) Please record the time at the end of this session: 12:40 p.m.

 

 

 

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