Digital Information Evaluation Skills among Students in Higher Education

Abstract

Despite of the advancement of technology in the present internet age, many college students lack the information and communication technology (ICT) literacy skills like evaluating those necessary to navigate, as well as using the information available today. Evaluating the quality of information sources encompasses students’ ability to determine relevance, accuracy, and overall credibility of sources and information. Moreover, the quality of information found online is extremely variable because anyone can post data on the internet, and not all online sources are equally reliable, valuable, or accurate. From a study conducted on diploma students’ assignments using rubric at an international university in Kuala Lumpur, it was found that there was a problem in digital information evaluation skills and lack of ability in using evaluation criteria, including authority, accuracy, currency, objectivity, and coverage on digital information, as well as sources among diploma students. The future work of this study will be the use of mobile devices in collaborative and interactive learning to improve digital information evaluation skills among diploma students. This approach does not only improve the students’ learning attitude, but also enhances the effectiveness of learning.