Title:	HOW STUDENTS EVALUATE CREDIBILITY AND RELEVANCE OF INFORMATION ON THE INTERNET?
Author(s):	Carita Kiili , Leena Laurinen , Miika Marttunen
ISBN:	978-972-8924-48-5
Editors:	Kinshuk, Demetrios G. Sampson, J. Michael Spector and Pedro Isaías
Year:	2007
Edition:	Single
Keywords:	Evaluation, evaluation strategies, credibility, relevance, Internet, reading
Type:	Full Paper
First Page:	155
Last Page:	162
Language:	English
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Full Contents:	click to dowload
Paper Abstract:	The Internet is a significant information resource for students due to ease of access to huge amounts of information. As the quality of information on the Internet varies, it is important that students are capable of evaluating information critically. The study addressed the following problems: a) how do students evaluate the credibility and relevance of information found on the Internet; b) how much time do students spend on different actions on the Internet; and c) what kinds of texts do students choose to read? Upper secondary school students (n=25) were asked to search source material from the Internet for 40 minutes in order to write an essay on a given topic. They were asked to verbalise their thoughts during the material gathering process. Their verbalisations and actions were recorded with the screen video capture program. Evaluation strategies were analysed on the basis of think-aloud protocols. The Internet actions were classified and the time spent on each action category was measured. In rating information credibility students mostly evaluated the credibility of the publisher or author. In rating information relevance the predictive evaluation of relevance and the evaluation of topicality either at the textual or paragraph level were the most common strategies. Students varied widely in the use of the different evaluation strategies and how they allocated working time for different actions on the Internet.
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