Reading Less and Learning More: Expertise in Assessing the Credibility of Online Information

• In Event: 18.069 - Learning-Centered Online Environments and Assessing Online Information

Abstract

This paper describes expertise in evaluation of online information based on an expert/novice study. Professional fact checkers (n=10), historians (n=10), and freshman at Stanford University (n=25) thought aloud while completing a series of online tasks. These tasks included evaluations of static and live websites and open web searches. Qualitative and quantitative analyses of audio and visual data from screen recordings were conducted. Analyses revealed that fact checkers engaged with online information in markedly different ways than Stanford students and historians. Students and historians spent more time on sites and read deeply but were often misled. Fact checkers had far more success by leaving sites to gather additional information about the sites they were evaluating and privileging verification through multiple sites.

Authors

• Sarah McGrew, Stanford University

• Sam Wineburg, Stanford University