ERIC Number: EJ1433165
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2023
Pages: 39
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: EISSN-2292-8588
Available Date: N/A
Beauty Is Truth, Truth Beauty: Students' Assessment of Credibility in Online Materials
Ralf St. Clair; Maryam Shirdel Pour; James Nahachewsky
International Journal of E-Learning & Distance Education, v38 n2 2023
This study discusses the findings of a survey designed to capture students' allocations of credibility to online materials resembling social media posts. The survey respondents were 1,019 undergraduate students at a medium-sized Canadian university. The students came from a range of programs and years of study in those programs. The survey instrument presented varying stimuli to students to see how their scores varied, and then asked students to explain their scoring. A number of significant dynamics emerged, such as the students' tendency to give lower credibility scores to poorly presented information, even if the information was factual, and to explain information by referring to previous knowledge. These dynamics varied little by area or year of study, which suggests that presentation should be recognized as a powerful heuristic in online credibility assessment. [Note: The publication year (2024) shown on the PDF is incorrect. The correct publication year is 2023.]
Descriptors: Foreign Countries, Undergraduate Students, Credibility, Online Searching, Social Media, Value Judgment, Misinformation
Canadian Network for Innovation in Education. 260 Dalhousie Street Suite 204, Ottawa, ON K1N 7E4, Canada. Tel: 613-241-0018; Fax: 613-241-0019; e-mail: journalofde@gmail.com; Web site: http://www.ijede.ca/index.php/jde
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Canada
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A