Abstract:

This study investigates how undergraduate students in Taiwan are now using different sources of knowledge to augment and complement their study efforts because of the presence of online sources of knowledge and its implications to their instructors. The three online sources of knowledge investigated are professional blogs, Wikipedia and Yahoo! Knowledge+ while the two traditional sources are books as well as newspaper & magazine. The factors considered in this study include three motivational items (information richness, convenience and social networking) from the uses and gratification theory, credibility, reliance and satisfaction. As a whole, book emerges as the best source of knowledge in term of information richness and credibility. Online sources perform best in the area of convenience and social networking. In term of reliance, undergraduate students rely heavily on Yahoo! Knowledge+. This is followed by book and professional blog. Professional blog combines the desired features present in traditional and online sources of knowledge, hence making it a promising online source of knowledge for instructors. This research suggests that instructors can set up professional blog to further improve their effort to assist undergraduate students.