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Becoming an Information Critic: A Video

Marian Hampton with David Robins

Photo by Patty Nagle, CIDDE

Students use the Internet more and more to gather information for papers and reports. Unfortunately, because anyone can create a Web page and publish on the Web, today’s undergraduate researchers face a dilemma: what information is valid, and what information is bogus? “Students using the Web for research are now faced with the need to determine which of the overwhelming numbers of resources they have retrieved they should use for their research,” Marian C. Hampton, University Library System, and David Robins, Library and Information Science, point out. In Becoming an Information Critic: A Video Providing Students with the Fundamentals of Information Evaluation, Hampton and Robins will help undergraduates “learn the process for critically evaluating Web information.”

Hampton and Robins plan to create a live-action video tutorial that guides undergraduates through the tedious process of evaluating, using, and citing Internet materials. When completed, the video will be available in two formats: a classroom video and an online version. Hampton and Robins note: “This would allow the video to be integrated into specific undergraduate classes and viewed by students in a large group, as well as make it possible for individual students to view the video on their own via the Web.” The project also will include an accompanying instructor’s guide, an interactive quiz, and a Blackboard Web site providing online access.

Created with the assistance of the theatre arts department and instructional designers and video production staff at the Center for Instructional Development & Distance Education (CIDDE), the 20-minute video will take students through a 5-step process for evaluating Web-based material. First, students will evaluate the author(s) and the source of the information. Second, they will scrutinize the credentials of the source. Third, they will identify the purpose of the information. Fourth, they will analyze the target audience of the author(s). Finally, they will learn how to properly cite the material.

Instructors “from across the spectrum” are looking forward to utilizing the video when it is completed. “Several faculty members have expressed interest in using the proposed video and online tutorial in conjunction with their planned coursework,” Hampton and Robins pointout. Furthermore, they believe the video application could be implemented successfully in faculty and teaching assistant training programs, library tutorial sessions, and the College of Arts and Science’s Freshman Studies program.

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