CNN.com reports on new test given to Cal State students that is designed to “evaluate Internet intelligence, measuring whether students can locate and verify reliable online information and whether they know how to properly use and credit the material.”
I think that this is a wonderful idea. These are critical research skills that librarians have been teaching for years.
From the article:
“This test measures a skill as important as having mathematics and English skills when you come to the university,” says Roth. “If you don’t come to the university with it, you need to know that you are lacking some skills that educated people are expected to have.”
Sample questions include giving students a simulated page of Web search results on a particular subject and asking students to pick the legitimate sources. So, a question on bee sting remedies presents a choice of sites ranging from ads to a forum for herb treatments to (the correct answer) a listing from the National Institutes of Health, identifiable by having “nih” in the URL (site address) along with the “.gov” suffix that connotes an official government listing.
Source: Library Link of the Day