College Students’ Online Information Commitments and the Role of Internet-Specific Epistemological Beliefs

Abstract

This study aims to examine the relationships between college students’ online information commitments and their Internet-specific epistemological beliefs. Two instruments, the Information Commitments Survey (ICS), including six constructs (Multiple sources, Authority, Content, Technical, Elaboration, and Match) and the Internet-Specific Epistemological Questionnaire (ISEQ), including four constructs (Certainty, Simplicity, Source, and Justification), were utilized for collecting the responses from 368 Taiwanese undergraduates. The exploratory factor analyses showed that there was adequate reliability in the two questionnaires. Correlation analyses found students’ online information commitments and their Internet-specific epistemological beliefs to be related to each other. The regression analyses indicated that college students’ Internet-specific epistemological beliefs were essential predictors of their online information commitments.