What it is:

The Information Literacy competency involves using critical thinking skills to assess the reliability of information from online sources. This includes evaluating the information to judge its accuracy and to determine whether the information comes from a reliable and trusted source (Critical Digital Literacy, University of Edinburgh). This is very important in our digital world, where anyone can publish any content online, making information so widespread and readily available.

Why it is important:

Since anyone can publish content online, increasingly we need to be critical of the information we interact with. The algorithms that are so deeply embedded in our online technologies compound the problem, influencing how the information we interact with is produced, prioritized, and presented. This can lead to the information being inaccurate, limited, or untrustworthy, or containing inherent biases because it is presented through a particular worldview and may not reflect other interpretations. So it’s crucial that we critically evaluate online information to assess its authority before interacting with it. Failing to do so runs the risk of spreading misinformation.

Examples:

• Explore how open pedagogy can facilitate the growth of critical information literacy skills in students with this article: Intersections of Open Pedagogy and Critical Information Literacy: A Case Study

Multimedia Activity

Read through the Explore section of The Digital Tattoo Project’s Algorithms and Your Data tutorial and then complete the quiz from the tutorial below:

Learning Activities

1.   Learn it for yourself

Hopefully you’re now more familiar with what algorithms are, how they affect the information we interact with, and how they can be biased. They are an “integral part of our socio-digital eco-system” and strongly influence how online information is produced, prioritized, and presented to us (Marta Samokishyn, Educational Technology Users Group). So, as consumers of this information, how are you and your students vetting the online information you interact with? Concrete strategies are needed to help identify reputable sources and analyze the credibility and reliability of those sources.

Read and familiarize yourself with the following two models for evaluating the suitability of content that both you and your students can use:

• SIFT (Stop; Investigate the source; Find better coverage; Trace claims, quotes, and media to the original context)
• CRAAP (Currency, Relevance, Authority, Accuracy, Purpose)

Click on the image hotspots to see more information about the SIFT method. The image and text was adapted from Introduction to College Research by Walter D. Butler, Aloha Sargent, and Kelsey Smith is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

These dialogue cards will give you a more in-depth look into the CRAAP method for evaluating sources. Click through each card to read more about each step. The information on these cards was adapted from Introduction to Professional Communications by Melissa Ashman is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

2.   Incorporate it into your teaching practice

Let’s put the CRAAP model to the test! Choose a new or existing resource that you want to include in your course for students to learn from. Apply the CRAAP model to the resource by using the questions listed under each of the letters to help you evaluate the suitability of the resource (Melissa Ashman, Introduction to Professional Communications). Then create a brief post that shares the outcome of applying the CRAAP test to the resource. Based on your evaluation:

• Would you deem the resource suitable to use in your course?
• Why or why not?
• What factors stood out that made the resource reliable or unreliable?
• What did you learn overall?

Think about how you can integrate the practice of evaluating content, using models like SIFT and CRAAP, explored above, into one of your course activities or assessments for your students to use. Here are some examples to consider:

• If students are using the internet to find information or perform research in your course, is there an opportunity to integrate an assignment that requires an annotated bibliography? Annotated bibliographies can help students methodically engage in the practice of evaluating resources and can be part of a larger research activity in your course. To model this for students, you might complete an annotated bibliography yourself. Then, when sharing it with students, walk them through your approach and thought process.
• If students are reading articles in your course, introducing them to the process of annotating resources can be beneficial for them. An example of a technology that can support this is Hypothes.is, which can be used both individually and collaboratively.
• Connect with your library or explore their LibGuides to see what support they can offer for you and your students. Can they visit your classroom for a presentation? Can you take your students to the library for a mini-lesson?
• Connect with your research office to see what support they can offer related to research and information literacy. Can they visit your classroom for a presentation?

Communicate to students the institutional supports (library, research office, writing centre, etc.) that are available to support them with their research and information literacy efforts. Include this information in places like your course outline, a “Student Supports” section in your course, and/or right in an assignment description when students may be looking for support in completing their assignment.

3.   Teach it to students

• Revise the Annotated Bibliography lesson plan and customize it to include your institution’s specific resources. The assignment will help students locate sources relevant to a topic, summarize the main points or arguments in a scholarly article, and evaluate the authority of sources.
• Help students develop their algorithmic literacy so they understand how the information they are presented with was produced and prioritized. This will help them see why it’s essential that they evaluate the information they interact with on the internet. In Algorithmic Literacy: The Role of Academic Libraries in Creating Metaliterate Learners (presentation, 21 minutes), between 12:49 and 18:16, Marta Samokishyn shares some strategies for helping students develop algorithmic literacy.
• Algorithmic Awareness Toolkit: Teaching Algorithmic Literacy in Academic Libraries and Beyond features a variety of lessons related to algorithmic literacy. You might be particularly interested in:
  • Lesson 2: Examples of Algorithm
  • Lesson 5: Exploring Algorithmic Biases

Further Reading

• Hypothes.is is a free tool that allows you to mark up an article with notes as you’re reading and assessing its suitability for your purpose.
• Algorithms and information literacy are becoming inextricably linked in our digital world. Learn more about how algorithmic literacy intersects with information literacy, either in Algorithmic Literacy: The Role of Academic Libraries in Creating Metaliterate Learners (video, 20 minutes) or The Role of Algorithmic Literacy in Academia and Beyond: Some Considerations (article).