This study identifies factors that influence undergraduate students’ selection of a source of help. Learners engage in intentional decisions to seek help from human and non-human sources to resolve gaps in knowledge. Previous research in academic help-seeking assumed learners sought only human sources of assistance, resulting in a narrow understanding of how learners resolve knowledge gaps. Methodological trends in help-seeking research consistently favor quantitative, survey-based tools with pre-defined options. As a result, the factors that influence the selection of a source in a real-world setting with both human and online sources remain unexplored. The findings support including online sources in help-seeking models. Furthermore, the findings demonstrate the importance of relationships and underscore the need for an integrated framework of help-seeking. A new theory of source selection emerged which integrates academic help-seeking and information-searching behavior.

这项研究确定了影响大学生选择帮助来源的因素。学习者做出有意识的决定，以寻求人类和非人类资源的帮助，以解决知识方面的空白。先前在学术上寻求帮助的研究假设学习者仅寻求人类的帮助资源，从而导致对学习者如何解决知识鸿沟的理解狭窄。寻求帮助研究的方法学趋势始终支持具有预定义选项的定量，基于调查的工具。结果，在现实环境中，无论是人工资源还是在线资源，都会影响到选择资源的因素仍待探索。调查结果支持在寻求帮助模型中包括在线资源。此外，调查结果证明了关系的重要性，并强调了寻求帮助的综合框架的必要性。出现了一种新的资源选择理论，该理论整合了学术寻求帮助和信息搜索行为。