Nadia Parsazadeh’s scientific contributions

Studies conducted in many parts of the world indicate that students lack the skills to evaluate online information using established criteria which include information currency, relevance, authority, accuracy and purpose. The main purpose of this research is to investigate the effect of an online tutorial in improving students' online information evaluation skills. The online tutorial offers students clear criteria definitions, examples, and provides practices of applying information evaluation criteria. To test the effectiveness of the tutorial, an experimental design was conducted. Students' assignments were analyzed to compare students' abilities in online information evaluation before and after using the online tutorial using a rubric. Results of the experiment analyzed using Wilcoxon Signed Ranks test indicate that the online tutorial is significantly effective in improving students' online information evaluation skills.. Introduction. The quality of online information is extremely variable because anyone can post data on the internet, and not all online sources are equally reliable, valuable, or accurate. Evaluating information is an important process in education and in life in general. Quality and trustworthy information is crucial for accurate data analysis and good decision-making. However, recent studies in different parts of the world, including Malaysia indicate that most students especially those in pre-university levels do not have adequate skills to examine and evaluate the currency, relevance, authority, accuracy, and purpose of online information. This is in spite of the increasing usage of computers and mobile devices among today's students. It was found that most diploma students used convenience as the primary criterion to select online information rather than established evaluation criteria. Lecturers noted that students often cut and paste online-information without evaluating information and sources according to the evaluation criteria. Similar problems in other parts of the world are reported in the literature [1-3]. Furthermore, many universities face increasing number of students leading to large lectures, thus decreasing in-class interaction and collaboration, which can affect learning success and satisfaction [4]. To enhance students' information evaluation skills, libraries often offer face-to-face tutorials, and in recent years also provide online tutorials. Online tutorials allow librarians and lecturers to provide a comprehensive range of information and supporting resources than would be available in a single workshop. An online tutorial can also provide an alternative mode of learning to students who cannot attend and join traditional workshops [5, 6]. Thus a study which employs an online tutorial that enables interaction between students and tutorial content can provide an empirical basis for improvement strategies to enhance the information evaluation skills of students. Benefits of online tutorial. Online information skills tutorials have become a common method used to help students improve their information evaluation skills. Several studies have shown that online tutorials can be just as effective as in-person classes [7]. In fact, a report by the U.S. Department of Education found that classes with online learning, whether taught completely online or blended with face-to-face learning on average produce stronger student learning outcomes than do classes with solely face-to-face instruction [8]. Other previous studies mentioned that online tutorials can address students' desires and needs to access research materials [9, 10]. Information technology can be utilized to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the learning and teaching process [11]. Undoubtedly online learning plays a significant role in lifelong education. However, since only a limited number of online tutorials are available to enhance information evaluation skills, more applications with interactive components and activities should be developed for this purpose [5]. This study first developed an online tutorial for information evaluation skills enhancement, and then tested its effectiveness on a group of students. Methods. The online tutorial was developed according to the instructional systems design model (ADDIE) in five phases: analysis, design, development, implementation, and evaluation [12, 13]. Fig. 1 shows the development process of the tutorial. Information Evaluation Online Tutorial Needs Analysis and Design. The online tutorial needs analysis was done to determine the objective of training and whether the training is necessary to inculcate required skills. In an initial study, problems regarding online information evaluation skills of students were identified through literature review and content analysis on Malaysian diploma students' assignments [14]. The basic tutorial design consideration focused on ensuring the content was consistent with face-to-face sessions to support the learning process with additional explanations, examples, and interpretive assessment practices. The design phase identifies learning objectives, and