Assessing the information quality of online sources used by first year students for solving generic critical online reasoning tasks

Abstract University students are increasingly using online media for learning purposes. However, the information presented there varies greatly in terms of quality. Previous studies have often examined the quality of online sources based on a simplified rating but have not explicitly studied the specific content of those sources or taken a multidimensional view of quality. The present study goes beyond previous research and, for the first time, explicitly examined the information quality of website content used by university students. Our results show that students use a variety of different online sources. Differences in quality become apparent regarding the completeness, accuracy, and balance of the content. This suggests that students are not always able to evaluate online content appropriately. Differences in quality based on the individual types of sources were identified, but not for all types of sources. Instead of the previously used source heuristics, a more detailed approach is therefore appropriate, examining the content of a website in detail, in order to make statements about the information quality of an online source.