Students have trouble judging the credibility of information online, researchers find

As a librarian, part of my job is to try and help students understand and navigate the vast amounts of information out there, relating to their studies. These skills for finding, understanding, evaluating and using information though are applicable to many other aspects of our lives. This short article, Students have trouble judging the credibility of information online, researchers find from ScienceDaily summarises the findings of a Stanford History Education Group report Evaluating information: the cornerstone of civic online reasoning.  While the students, in this instance, are studying history, a lot of the challenges they face while searching for information online can be applied to students studying other subjects, as well as the population more widely.

In the year when Oxford Dictionaries has named the Word of the Year as Post-Truth and fake news is on the rise, it's more important than ever that we can find, understand and evaluate information whether we are using it in an academic assignment, deciding where to go on holiday or who to vote for.

If you have any questions about finding, evaluating and using information then remember that you can contact me or make an appointment to discuss what you need.

There is also the Library and Information Skills Moodle Module which offers help and guidance around finding, evaluating, managing and using information.