Course | Evaluating Online Sources: Checking Facts and Identifying Misinformation

Instructors

Charlotte Cheng
Charlotte Cheng is the STEM Education Program Manager at KQED. Her expertise is creating effective and engaging content for kids at the intersection of education, media, and technology. Charlotte has also taught in a variety of K-12 classroom settings and one of her workshops was featured on ABC News.

Rachel Roberson
Rachel is KQED’s program manager for humanities professional learning. Previously, she was an English and social studies classroom teacher and teacher leader in San Francisco, Oakland, Austin and internationally. Before becoming a teacher, she was a newspaper reporter in the Bay Area.

Rik Panganiban
Rik Panganiban is the Manager of Online Learning at the San Francisco-based public media station KQED. He supports educators’ professional growth through KQED Teach, an online learning platform with more than 10K registered users. Previously, Rik served as the Senior Manager of Digital Learning at the California Academy of Sciences.

Prepare your students to be savvy online researchers by giving them the tools they need to distinguish facts from misinformation. Gain confidence and resources for teaching how to evaluate information and spot unreliable sources. This media literacy course is provided to you FREE from public media station KQED.

In this free, hands-on course you will
• Evaluate online sources like a professional fact checker
• Practice lateral reading and other fact-checking methods centered on a topic relevant to you and your curriculum or content area
• Gain confidence and resources to recognize both reliable and unreliable sources whether researching online or scrolling social media
• Prepare students to find reliable sources, whether human or AI-generated, by creating a lesson plan on any aspect of online source evaluation in a way that aligns with your curriculum goals

Learning Objectives

Master the basics of evaluating sources and spotting misinformation to enhance instruction and support student learning, including:
• Practicing current best practices to assess the accuracy and credibility of online sources in a variety of formats
• Gaining strategies to support student in using search engines and evaluating the quality of online news and information sources
• Understanding what misinformation, disinformation and propaganda are, the dangers of each, and how to combat them
• Creating a lesson plan or online source evaluation activity that build students’ ability to evaluate online sources for accuracy and credibility

Who Should Take This Course

K-12 educators in all subject areas who want to develop skills and confidence with media making and media literacy.

Course Features

Learn online at your own pace with step-by-step videos and hands-on activities. Join live events with instructors and peers. It’s completely free!

Certificate of Completion

Earn a Certificate of Completion for 8 hours of professional development. Then apply for graduate units from one of the university partners.

Course Curriculum

Welcome
• Welcome

Introduction
• Introduce Yourself!
• Need Help?

The Ever-Evolving Media Landscape
• Time to Update Our Source Evaluation Toolbox
• The Trouble with Terminology
• What Makes a Source Reliable?
• Know Your Algorithms

Fact Check Like a Pro
• Fact-Checking Superpower: Know What to Ignore
• Good-bye, Long Checklists. Hello, Lateral Reading!
• Lateral Reading Basics
• Go Deeper Into Lateral Reading
• Lateral Reading in Action
• Lateral Reading Quiz
• Evaluating Images
• Evaluating Video
• Evaluating Data
• Reflect on Source Evaluation in Your Learning Context
• Assignment: Get Ready to Read Laterally

Teaching Strategies for Online Source Evaluation and More
• Integrate and Scaffold Evaluation Skills Into Your Curriculum
• Help Students Understand How Online Search Works
• Help Students Identify Cognitive Bias
• Help Students Discuss Current and Controversial Topics
• Assignment: Create a Lesson Plan for Evaluating Online Information

Course Wrap Up
• Final Review
• Course Survey
• Next Steps and Certificate of Completion

Unit

Unit may be available for this course and may vary by country or institution. Please verify eligibility with KQED Teach.