• Welcome!

      Welcome to the online course "Online information: search, quality and risks". This course was created by the eLearning Lab of USI - Università della Svizzera italiana - in the context of the swissuniversities' P8 programme.

      Why this course?

      The main objective of this course is to raise awareness about different aspects related to online information, such as how to search for it, how to assess its quality and how to understand the risks related to it.

      The volume of information to which we are confronted has sensibly increased during the last two decades. The advent of the internet and the digitalisation of information have had a profound impact on our everyday lives. These shifts have revolutionised our way of performing certain activities, one of those being the search for information.

      It is very common today to "google" for everything we are looking for, being it a culinary recipe, the cinema opening hours, or a scientific paper. In addition to that, internet has also deeply transformed the way in which academic research is conducted.

      The era in which we live has been defined as "Information Society" by academics, which tells a lot about the role that information is playing within our lives. Recent events, such as the COVID -19 pandemic, showed even more profoundly the role played by online information and confirmed the importance of mastering its production and use.

      This online course is primarily addressed to new bachelor students confronting themselves for the first time with the academic environment and its modus operandi. Nevertheless, it can be taken by anyone else (as for instance members of the non academic staff) wishing to acquire awareness about the opportunities and threats related to online information.

      Learning objectives

      This course will help you reach the following general learning objectives:

      1. Being able to conceptualise and perform an online research that will eventually lead to the collection of relevant and reliable information.
      2. Being able to critically assess online material.
      3. Being more aware about the importance of legal and ethical aspects of the online world.
      4. Being more aware about the security threats one might encounter while searching for online information.

      Structure of the course

      The course is structured in 4 modules:

       

      • Module I: Information in the digital age
      • Module II: Searching for online information
      • Module III: Evaluating online information
      • Module IV: Online security and ethical aspects

      This is the sequence we suggest, but you are free to start from the module you prefer.

      Each module is organised in two sections:

      • a chapter with contents: you will find theoretical resources and learning activities;
      • a final test: it aims to test what you have learned so far. You have unlimited attempts but you have to answer correctly 80% of the questions to pass the test (note: the final test will be unlocked after reading the chapter).

      Please, note that the course does not award ECTS credits. A badge of completion will be automatically generated once the course finished.