The role of internet-specific epistemic beliefs and self-regulation in high school students' online academic help seeking: A structural equation modeling analysis

Three instruments (i.e., Internet-specific epistemic beliefs, self-regulation, and online academic help seeking questionnaires) were administered to 319 high school students with the aim of understanding the role of Internet-specific epistemic beliefs and self-regulation in their online academic help seeking. Through a structure equation modeling analysis, the results confirm the mediated effects of self-regulation on the relationships between Internet-specific epistemic beliefs and online academic help seeking. Interestingly, naïve beliefs about how Internet-based knowledge is constructed and sophisticated beliefs about how Internet-based knowledge is evaluated are verified to be linked with the students' online academic help seeking. The results imply that, with the focus on the Internet as a context of information, the positive influences of sophisticated epistemic beliefs on learning might be challenged, and the role of personal epistemic beliefs should be reinterpreted.