Teaching Students How to Find and Identify Reliable Online Sources: A Series of Exercises

Abstract

Online information sources help undergraduate students acquire knowledge and find supporting evidence for their papers. However, this practicality is often clouded with unreliable sources. As such, instructors need better strategies to teach students how to reach reliable online sources and evaluate the accuracy of the online information they obtain. In this article, we introduce a series of exercises to teach students how to identify the reliability of a source, ways to fact-check information, steps to use online search tools effectively, and examples of online academic blogs to utilize and check the reliability of the information that they present, and how to use online data/survey sources. We believe that educating students on identifying and utilizing reliable sources is essential for their intellectual development and ability to conduct their research independently. Therefore, our exercises aim to provide a roadmap for instructors to improve their students’ virtual literacy.

Keywords:

• Teaching exercises
• online sources
• reliability

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Reyhan Topal

Reyhan Topal is a Ph.D. candidate in Political Science at University at Albany, SUNY. Her concentrations are in International Relations and Comparative Politics, and her research interests include technology, political violence, authoritarianism, and teaching methodologies.

Farzin Shargh

Farzin Shargh is a third-year Ph.D. student in Political Science at University at Albany, SUNY. His concentrations are in Comparative Politics and International Relations, and his research interests include pedagogy, Middle East politics, and human rights.