Students’ Assessments of Credibility in Online Environments: Assessment Criteria, Influencing Factors, and Skills for Citizenship in the Digital Age

Professor Reichert, Frank   (Principal Investigator (PI))

Ms Fiedler Anna Julia   (Co-Investigator)

Hulkovych Valeriia   (Co-Investigator)

Oberle Monika   (Co-Investigator)

Miss XIE Jun   (Co-Investigator)

24

2023-01-01

89500

Students’ Assessments of Credibility in Online Environments: Assessment Criteria, Influencing Factors, and Skills for Citizenship in the Digital Age

NA

Others - EducationOthers - relating to Social and Behavioural Sciences

G-HKU704/22

Germany/Hong Kong Joint Research Scheme 2022/23

2022

On-going

1. Determine the criteria students use to assess credibility in digital environments. Research has shown that young people have difficulties evaluating digital content (McGrew et al., 2018). Yet, little is known about how they assess the credibility of digital information and online sources (Nygren & Guath, 2021). Knowing the criteria that young people believe to indicate credibility in digital environments is necessary for developing educational interventions and training programs.2. Identify the factors that influence how these criteria are applied. Individuals daily process a vast amount of digital information. Identifying the factors influencing the application of these criteria is critical to tackling the use of improper criteria and improving students’ skills in applying proper strategies when evaluating the credibility of digital information and sources (Ecker et al., 2022).3. Examine the effectiveness of an online game intervention in improving students’ understanding of credibility in digital environments. Educators need tools that help them raise students’ awareness of fake news and biased information and develop the skills required for evaluating digital content and sources. Online games can help students learn playfully (Maertens et al., 2020; Roozenbeek & van der Linden, 2020). Therefore, it is essential to determine whether an online game on fake news can raise that awareness in students and their understanding of credibility in digital environments before the large-scale adoption of such a tool in classrooms.4. Determine opportunities and challenges for educators, and evaluate potentials for civic education at school. Knowing the answers to objectives 1-3 is critical to improving civics. Discussing these insights with school personnel will further our understanding of what teachers are already doing to raise students’ respective skills and the challenges and opportunities they face. The knowledge produced through focus groups and surveys, combined with knowledge exchange activities with school personnel, can help promote civics in the digital era (Ecker et al., 2022). It will enable us to propose aims, contents, and materials for civic education as well as curriculum guidelines that can facilitate better training of students’ media literacy skills (Lewandowsky & van der Linden, 2021).5. Compare and connect the German experience with the Hong Kong experience for mutual benefit. Working across national contexts requires considering contextual aspects (e.g., education policy, curriculum, culture) and their potential effects. Gathering information from students in two different contexts allows us to develop a more robust measurement instrument that is sensitive to the nuances of students’ credibility assessments (e.g., by identifying items that ‘work’ across contexts as well as items that may be suitable in one context but not the other). This will raise the validity of findings and the usability of the measurement instrument by other researchers. It will also allow for tailored recommendations for