Fact-Checking Skills And Project-Based Learning About Infodemic And Disinformation

Abstract

• University students are increasingly involved in autonomous and collaborative learning processes. • Based on thematic-experiential classes and through the project-based learning methodology, this teaching experience consisted of lecturing a fake class. • The objective of this study was to raise awareness of the risks of disinformation and infodemics and to identify the main social competencies and skills related to fact-checking. • Training in fact-checking skills appeared to improve job performance and undoubtedly contributed to the personal development of future graduates. In today's high-information and high-communication society, university students are increasingly involved in autonomous and collaborative learning processes, which require active methodologies to facilitate the integration of social competencies. The objective of this study was to raise awareness of the risks of disinformation and infodemics and to identify the main social competencies and skills related to fact-checking that students should acquire. Based on thematic-experiential classes and through the project-based learning methodology, this teaching experience consisted of lecturing a fake class in the communication degree programme, in which the professor gave a speech to 150 students about coronavirus that contained both hoaxes and true information, thus challenging students to identify false information. The results obtained in this qualitative study are divided into three parts to answer each research question. The first part is focused on identifying the most influential hoaxes about the coronavirus that young people have embraced as reliable information during the 2020 pandemic (RQ1). The second part is dedicated to explaining students’ reactions when they are involved in infodemic contexts. We also point out the main challenge that arose in a period of infodemics (RQ2). In the third part, we propose the main fact-checking skills that students should acquire to tackle disinformation in a period of infodemics (RQ3). Training in these skills appeared to improve job performance and undoubtedly contributed to the personal development of our future graduates.