Internet Information Accuracy and Validity

Validity and Accuracy of Internet Resources
LV-PS Digital Commons

Students who produce digital content in the Penn State Lehigh Valley Digital Commons Studio must provide proper citation to works that are used to create the scripts or the images in their multimedia projects Students also must ensure that all resources used are both valid and accurate. During the first year of the studio’s presence at the Fogelsville campus, the issue of resource validity has not been raised. As multimedia creation is further integrated into the teaching and learning environment of the campus, it is necessary to create a policy that addresses educating students in the use of valid and accurate Internet resources to create their multimedia projects.

Penn State University Libraries addresses the issue its “Information Literacy and You” self-learning modules that are located at:
http://www.libraries.psu.edu/instruction/infolit/andyou/infoyou.htm
The specific reference to evaluating Internet resources is located at:
http://www.libraries.psu.edu/instruction/infolit/andyou/mod6/eval.htm

Policy option 1.

Digitial Commons Staff will direct students who are using web references to the Penn State University “Information Literacy and You” Learning modules. With this resource, students will be able to determine the accuracy, validity and appropritateness of the web resource that they are using for a multimedia presentation.

Pros: The Library Resource is readily available on the PSUniversity Libraries site. It is contain modules for self-directed learning.

Cons: Students will forget to follow up and take time to access the resource to learn how to check their site for accuracy.

Policy Option 2:

Prepare a checklist tool or simple chart, such as those located at http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/EvalForm_General.pdf and http://www.library.ubc.ca/home/evaluating/
Using the checklist/tool, walk the student through the steps of critically evaluating the authenticity of the web resource. In addition, have the student access the University Libraries link to “Information Literacy and You,” on one of the DC computers.

Pros: Digital Commons Staff will have a tool-at-the-ready to use with students. It will be a tool that will provide education at the time a resource is considered for use/inclusion in a multimedia project. Use of such a tool will not depend upon students remembering or taking the time to access a web resource after they leave the Digital Commons.

Cons: Digital Commons Staff resource allocation will be needed to create a suitable checklist tool. Additional time will be needed to work with the student and use the checklist/tool. This may take away time from training in multimedia production.