Critical Online Reasoning in Higher Education (CORE) research group will explore online information use and informational landscape students use for learning in medicine, physics, economics, and the social sciences
17 May 2023
Students are using more and more information from the Internet rather than from established university sources like textbooks for their studies. As recent surveys indicate, the Internet is students' main resource when searching for learning material. In the same vein, students often rely on inappropriate, irrelevant, and scientifically unreliable sources when researching online. Despite increasing research on online learning, little is known to date about how self-directed learning on the Internet and the selection and processing of online information actually happens. The new Critical Online Reasoning in Higher Education (CORE) Research Unit, funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG), will address this research deficit. "We will be examining how students work with online sources and information in four study domains at three locations across Germany. Our research group has a strong international orientation and is distinctly multidisciplinary – with 16 participating disciplines," emphasized CORE spokesperson Professor Dr. Olga Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU). The CORE research group is a collaboration between Mainz University, Goethe University in Frankfurt, LMU Munich, and the Leibniz Institute for Research and Information in Education (DIPF). Among the international project partners are researchers from Harvard University and Stanford University in the USA. The German Research Foundation (DFG) has allocated over EUR 5 million of funding to the research group over the next four years.
The Internet is usually the main source of information
Students' online learning habits had begun changing even before the COVID pandemic, which forced most in-person classes to be conducted online. Prior to COVID, about 95 percent of students from various disciplines indicated that they used search engines to find information. "However, students use the Internet not only as a main source of information, but also as a learning environment — sometimes exclusively," emphasized Professor Olga Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia. "Our research group aims to record and analyze precisely which online sources and content students are viewing and how they are using it in their studies." For this aim, the participating researchers use a complex digital assessment platform implemented in preliminary studies.
To outline an example: Students are assigned typical study tasks for their major, such as preparing a presentation on a specific topic, e.g., a current economic crisis). They conduct research on this topic using virtual computers that record and analyze the students' processes in solving this task, also across longer time periods. "Which search terms are used, which search results are selected et cetera – we are recording and reconstructing the entire search process to answer the question whether todays' students choose suitable, current, relevant, and scientifically reliable sources," explained Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia. Prior studies revealed that students are frequently unable to adequately differentiate between unbiased sources and less reliable information, especially when the information comes from purported experts. In CORE, the entire (online) information landscape that students use for their learning will be captured and analyzed in-depth. This includes all online sources, including new developments like ChatGPT, but also traditional sources such as textbooks.
Promoting critical online reasoning at universities
The CORE Research Unit will focus on four study domains: economics, medicine, sociology, and physics. The research results will be transferred into a multi-disciplinary model and will ultimately offer a basis for the development and implementation of innovative digital training tools for higher education institutions. Using online training sessions, universities could promote competencies in critical use of online information in targeted and effective ways, ideally at the start of academic studies.
"We are building on outstanding preliminary work and are seeking to make a research-based practical contribution to higher education by supporting students in their search and critical evaluation of online information," stated Professor Olga Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia. The research group, unusually large with its more than 30 project leaders, has received approval for an initial funding period of four years and, presuming a positive interim evaluation, is eligible to be extended for another four years. The members of DFG-funded Research Unit CORE include several outstanding and acknowledged experts from 16 disciplines who will be joining forces to undertake promising research. The Research Unit strives for international recognition for its scientific quality and originality.
Successful cooperation in the Rhine-Main Universities alliance
The approval for the new CORE research group also acknowledges the achievements of the Rhine-Main Universities (RMU), the cross-state strategic alliance consisting of Goethe University Frankfurt, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, and TU Darmstadt – three prestigious, research-led universities. The RMU framework agreement, signed in December 2015, extended the long-standing partnership and made the collaboration into a strategic alliance designed to promote the research undertaken by the universities, improve the shared courses on offer, and enhance knowledge transfer and networking with society in general.