Political Science · Level 1 · Foundation
Lateral reading: College students learn to critically evaluate internet sources in an online course
Breakstone J, Smith M, Connors P, et al. (2021). Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) Misinformation Review. doi:10.37016/mr-2020-56 · CC BY 4.0
Step 1 of 2Read the paper
Can students learn to judge whether a website is trustworthy, the way professional fact checkers do, without a teacher in the room? Researchers added four one-hour online lessons on "lateral reading" to a summer nutrition course and compared 87 students' scores on a source-evaluation test taken before and after the lessons.
How to read it
- Start with the "Research Question" and "Essay Summary" boxes for the big picture.
- In Methods, read "Design and analysis" closely: it explains why the two sections took the test forms in opposite orders.
- Finding 1 has the key score numbers; Finding 2 and Figure 2 show which strategies students used before and after.
- Finish with "Limitations and future directions" before judging how far the results reach.
Step 2 of 2Take the test
5 questions · about 30 minutes including reading · pick an answer to see straight away if it’s right. Nothing is saved.
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Paper: Breakstone J, Smith M, Connors P, et al., Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) Misinformation Review (2021), licensed CC BY 4.0. Summary and questions are Research Nest’s own; read the original for the full study.