Paper Info
Title
Predicting User Knowledge Gain in Informational Search Sessions.
Abstract
Web search is frequently used by people to acquire new knowledge and to satisfy learning-related objectives. In this context, informational search missions with an intention to obtain knowledge pertaining to a topic are prominent. The importance of learning as an outcome of web search has been recognized. Yet, there is a lack of understanding of the impact of web search on a user's knowledge state. Predicting the knowledge gain of users can be an important step forward if web search engines that are currently optimized for relevance can be molded to serve learning outcomes. In this paper, we introduce a supervised model to predict a user's knowledge state and knowledge gain from features captured during the search sessions. To measure and predict the knowledge gain of users in informational search sessions, we recruited 468 distinct users using crowdsourcing and orchestrated real-world search sessions spanning 11 different topics and information needs. By using scientifically formulated knowledge tests, we calibrated the knowledge of users before and after their search sessions, quantifying their knowledge gain. Our supervised models utilise and derive a comprehensive set of features from the current state of the art and compare performance of a range of feature sets and feature selection strategies. Through our results, we demonstrate the ability to predict and classify the knowledge state and gain using features obtained during search sessions, exhibiting superior performance to an existing baseline in the knowledge state prediction task.
Year
DOI
Venue
2018
10.1145/3209978.3210064
SIGIR
DocType
Volume
ISBN
Conference
abs/1805.00823
978-1-4503-5657-2
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
2
0.37
18
Authors
6
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Ran Yu1121.93
Ujwal Gadiraju2698.42
Peter Holtz3133.44
Markus Rokicki4576.37
Philipp Kemkes581.55
Stefan Dietze659768.07