Engagement with online interactive career resources: A new frontier in university students' career decision-making research

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SummaryScholars have noted that the field of media communications is highly applicable to the study of young people's career decision-making. The consumption and function of media in society is changing, and the Internet and social media are increasingly being used to inform career decisions, especially in students. This research will explore university students' engagement with online interactive career resources such as online assessment tools, social media, discussion boards and messaging platforms via a mixed-methods approach. Findings will inform the development of new paradigms in career support research and practice and will position technology as a central theme within the field of career decision-making.Background informationThe function of media in society has changed dramatically over the last few decades (Pavlik, 2019). The dissemination of information has largely moved away from print and onto the screen (Kress, 2003), and - as people have more options to interact with information - audiences are more fragmented (Morris & Ogan, 1996). Determining the impact of mass media on groups of people is now harder to achieve as the boundaries between different mass media channels have become more blurred (Potter, 2013). As a result, scholars' focus is shifting away from the study of mass media and mass communications and towards personal and digital media communications (Luders, 2008). Indeed, while mass communications of the past would distribute generic information to uniform audiences over only a few media channels, at the turn of the millennium, interactive information was increasingly delivered via many channels to diverse audiences (Chaffee & Metzger, 2001). Relatively little is known about how young people engage with media in light of these changes when looking to make career decisions.RationaleICT integration with careers guidance is promising: not only has it been identified as one of the most cost effective and efficient mediums to reach the greatest number of young people (Bimrose, Hughes & Barnes, 2011), but also, young people are skilled users of mass communications and technology and have high expectations of efficiency and incorporation of ICT into career resources (Spiotta, Kalhorn & Patel, 2018). Media technologies are generally dichotomised into interactive and observational (Pempek, Yermolayeva & Calvert, 2009), and millennials report a significantly higher use of interactive technologies compared to previous generations (Moore, 2012). Indeed, with the emergence of new online technologies comes the need to modernise and optimise media career resources. It is known that young people favour immediate and interactive sources of career support such as text messaging and social media over more traditional sources of career support and information (Bimrose, Kettunen & Goddard, 2015).It is proposed that the engagement of young people with online career resources is explored with the aims of generating new knowledge, informing the development of new career support tools, and reconceptualising career guidance and ICT training for students with reference to recent changes in media communications. The focus of inquiry will be on interactive media technology and online support tools such as online assessment tools, social media, discussion boards and messaging platforms.Research questions RQ1. How do students engage with online interactive media when looking to make a career decision?RQ2. What online interactive media resources are students most likely to access when looking to make career decisions?RQ3. What expectations do students have of digital career support resources?RQ4. What types of interactive media features are most suitable for the development of students' career support tools and services?