Concerns about the spread and adoption of misinformation abound, and academic librarians have played a part in trying to stem the tide through information literacy instruction. However, teaching students how to evaluate sources can be complicated--teaching fact-checking skills may be insufficient if it increases students' overall cynicism about…

Open educational resources (OER) reduce the textbook cost burden for students, but we must examine whether students using OER are learning the necessary skills to succeed in their academic work. This study used rubrics to examine student essays and evaluate whether students using OER and those using commercial textbooks varied in how they…

According to a 2021 Pew Research report, over 80 percent of 18- to 29-year-olds use social media. Studies also show that higher education students use social media in both academic and everyday life. However, there is minimal research about how, or whether, librarians utilize social media in their library instruction as a source of information for…

How do students make sense of sources encountered during online inquiry, when the source types can be as varied as the topics themselves? This paper presents findings from a multiple-case study exploring how four 8th grade students evaluated source credibility while engaged in independent research during an inquiry-based information literacy…

Although much is known about how students evaluate scientific information about contentious issues in classroom or laboratory contexts, less is known about how students do so in their daily life. This study hopes to address that gap, using survey data to study how high school students from the Midwest United States obtained and evaluated…

This study investigated how and how often to present prompts to enhance students' source evaluation and multiple-text comprehension. Participants were 72 undergraduates who read a set of digital texts on a controversial topic of smartphone use and mental health, wrote a justification statement for their selection of trustworthy texts, and answered…

Librarians and instructors see college students struggle with evaluating information and wonder how to best teach source evaluation in a one-time course integrated library research session to ensure understanding and improve student performance. This research compared multiple sections of first-year students over two semesters taught two…

Fake news and disinformation are easily spread in today's digital society. Therefore, it is important that students learn how to evaluate the trustworthiness of online information, but this skill is often confined to a limited number of subjects in secondary education. History classes can potentially contribute to developing this skill. Therefore,…

The abundance of information available to us every day continues to increase, largely because of society's reliance on the internet. While the internet provides access to a wealth of information, information may be inaccurate or irrelevant because anyone can publish content on the internet. As a result, it is critical for individuals to develop…

Surveys administered to social sciences undergraduates at five universities in Spain measured their belief in importance, self-efficacy, and actual knowledge with respect to information ethics and information quality. The results suggest that students exhibit relatively low levels of self-efficacy regarding ethics and quality. The article…

Librarians at a community college in New York City identified that, unassisted, undergraduate students often find it difficult to categorize the various information formats they are locating and citing, such as a newspaper article, a book, a scholarly article, a blog or wiki entry, or a reference source. Due to their untrained approach defining…

The present study aims to determine the impact of perceived information literacy (IL) skills on the research productivity of mathematics faculty members in Pakistan. The study explores their opinion of their ability to identify information needs and information sources. It also examines their perceived capability of constructing effective and…

Today's college students grew up with digital news media and social media readily available on their smartphones. As a result, students are likely to use their smartphones to access the news through social media where partisan misinformation is easily spread. Efforts to combat the spread of misinformation on social media are being explored on…

This paper contributes to the pedagogical discussion on how to promote critical thinking among adolescents in modern media environments. It argues that teachers play an essential role in guiding students' assessment of and decision between credible information sources. The study was carried out among eighth-grade health education teachers and…

Purpose: The Internet is a key resource for college students seeking health information, but it is unclear how well students are trained to evaluate the quality of information accessed. This pilot study sought to determine the sources and critical appraisal of health information accessed by public health students enrolled in a midwestern…