Coordination Funds

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Students in higher education are learning increasingly online, and in recent surveys they claim the Internet is their main source of information for completing course-related assignments. In contrast to formal, on-site or electronic learning environments moderated by a lecturer who preselects learning materials, self-directed online studying requires a particular skillset to determine which sources are reliable as learning materials and which information is accurate. Despite the large body of research on media use in formal teaching-learning settings, little is known about students’ self-directed learning on the Internet, their processing and selection of online information, and the key influences on students’ use of online sources in higher education. To determine how the Internet can be used as an effective tool for learning and thereby improve chances of learning success, we investigate the following: (1) the key skills university students in two major disciplines - economics and medicine (including social sciences and physics as comparison disciplines) - require to use online information critically, that is, to search for, acquire, select, evaluate, and reason from it to draw warranted conclusions, build (more) reliable knowledge, complete course-related tasks, and solve generic or domain-specific ‘critical information problems’ online (generic and domain-specific ‘Critical Online Reasoning’ (COR)); (2) the characteristics of the online sources and content university students select for learning about course-related topics (online ‘Information Landscape’), including accuracy and comprehensibility, media and linguistic features, narrative frames, and latent meaning structures, and how they influence students’ source use in higher education; and (3) the relationship between (1) the development of students’ COR skills over the course of their studies, (2) the features of the online Information Landscape students use for their learning, and (3) students’ learning success in higher education. Based on the FOR’s extensive prior work, including the development of validated models and assessments, the longitudinal research conducted here combines the strengths of numerous disciplinary and interdisciplinary approaches and involves qualitative, quantitative, and mixed-methods analyses to generate new integrative theories and models, timely research findings, and a unique educational research dataset that offer a new path for long-term research and development in higher education. Findings from the 1st phase will be used during the 2nd phase to devise innovative instructional interventions to help university students develop the COR skills needed to search for, critically assess, and use online information in higher education. These interventions will help universities adapt to the rapidly growing trend of Internet-based learning and fulfill their educational mandate in times of increasing digitalization in higher education in the Information Age.