You are invited to participate in this online research entitled: “Assessing an online tutorial series on evaluating sources through lateral reading.” This research examines participants’ experiences completing the online tutorial provided in this resource. You are included in this study because you are 18 years or older and you or your instructor is interested in learning more about the effectiveness of the related tutorial on evaluating online sources. The number of subjects to be enrolled in the study will be determined by the level of interest expressed in completing the tutorial. 

The purpose of this research study is to evaluate the effectiveness of the tutorial in helping people to strengthen online evaluation skills. The tutorial may take approximately 30-40 minutes to complete. Your participation is voluntary. If you are completing this tutorial in conjunction with an academic course, your course grade will not be affected by whether or not you agree to participate in this study. If you do not wish to participate in this study and indicate this by not providing your consent for participation, you may still complete the tutorial. For those who do not provide their consent, their data will be removed from the analysis and they will not be included in the study. We expect the study to last through the summer 2026.

Some participants may experience mild discomfort if they encounter information with which they disagree. However, the tutorial does not include any websites that are deemed graphic, violent, or vulgar. By participating in this study, you may benefit by developing or strengthening your skills in evaluating online sources.

In order to assess how participants evaluate sources throughout the course of the tutorial, the principal investigators (PIs), who are conducting this study, will collect the following information, which will remain confidential and only available to the PIs: email address and, if applicable, institution name, course name, and instructor(s) name. The email address will be used solely to match individual participants’ responses to activities throughout the tutorial and thereby to assess the tutorial’s effectiveness. Faculty or instructors who invite students enrolled in their courses to complete the tutorial may ask the PIs for course-level data about their students’ engagement with the tutorial. In these instances, the PIs may share a report of that course-level data, which is anonymized.

Participant responses will be stored in a password-protected, dual-authenticated system provided through Rowan University. The two PIs will be the only individuals with access to this raw data. The anonymized data will be retained for 10 years. If you have any questions about this study now or in the future, you may contact the researchers, Andrea Baer (baera@rowan.edu or 856-256-4975) or Dan Kipnis (kipnisd@rowan.edu or 856-256-4474). 

If you would like to speak to someone outside of the research team, you may call the Rowan University’s Office of Research Compliance, (856) 256-4078.

This study has been approved by the Rowan IRB, PRO-2020-225. Please complete the items below. 

To participate in this study, you must be 18 years or older. If you are 18 years or older, please select the radio button below.