Búsqueda y selección de información en Internet de adultos que cursan estudios superiores a distancia

The research addressed the human side of the relationship between andragogy and information and communication technologies (ICTs) in the field of higher education in the virtual or distance modality. This, in a scenario of development, consolidation and expansion of ICTs and the Internet, together with the growing offer of higher education courses in virtual or distance mode. The objectives were to investigate how adult students search for and select information on the Internet, and the criteria for evaluating information sources from the Web. It was possible to demonstrate that the search and selection of information on the network and the evaluation of information sources have an empirical basis, which is not the result of systematic and academic learning in the field of ICTs. This is a challenge for higher education institutions, academics and students, in the sense of including, on a mandatory basis, continuing education workshops, training and improvement in the use of the web, search engines, information search processes on the Internet, and the evaluation of information sources from which data are extracted from cyberspace.