Online credibility evaluation skills among general and vocational upper secondary students: The role of prior knowledge, reading fluency, and self-efficacy

Abstract

The ability to evaluate online information has become an essential skill in digital learning environments. Previous research suggests that several individual factors may influence students’ online credibility evaluation performance; however, less is known about whether these factors play different roles among general and vocational upper secondary school students. This study investigates how Finnish students in general and vocational upper secondary schools differ in their online credibility evaluation skills, and how prior knowledge, reading fluency, and self-efficacy are related to their evaluation performance.

A total of 188 upper secondary school students (General n = 90; Vocational n = 98) completed an online credibility evaluation task. They read and evaluated four online texts on the health effects of vitamins. Two texts were more credible, and two were less credible. Students evaluated each text in terms of the author’s expertise, the author’s benevolence, and the quality of the evidence, and justified their evaluations. Independent sample t-tests were used to compare the performance of general and vocational school students in each online credibility evaluation subskill (confirming the credibility of more credible texts, questioning the credibility of less credible texts, and justifying their credibility evaluations). Regression analyses were used to examine the role of prior knowledge, reading fluency, and self-efficacy in online credibility evaluation performance by school tracks.

Results showed that general upper secondary school students outperformed vocational upper secondary school students in all online evaluation subskills. Prior knowledge and reading fluency showed track-specific positive associations on students’online credibility evaluation. While reading fluency contributed to credibility evaluation among students in the general track, prior knowledge was a significant contributor among students in the vocational track. Self-efficacy positively predicted, confirming the credibility and justifying the evaluations among all students. However, self-efficacy was negatively associated with questioning the credibility of less credible texts among vocational students. These findings suggest that educational instruction on online credibility evaluation should consider not only individual factors that upper secondary school students rely on, but also specific differences between upper secondary students in both educational tracks.