TERMINAL OBJECTIVE: Use qualitative and quantitative methods to identify authoritative sources of information.
Enabling Objective: Interpret quantitative measures of authority.
EDUC 766
Instructional Strategies & Assessment Methods
Horton (2012) categorizes learning activities as Absorb, Do, or Connect:
Absorb activities enable motivated learners to obtain crucial, up-to-date information they need to do their jobs or to further their learning ... Absorb activities usually consist of information and the actions learners take to extract and comprehend knowledge from that information. (67)
Do activities elevate learning from passive reading and watching to active seeking, selecting, and creating knowledge. They also provide safe, encouraging practice to prepare learners to apply learning in the real world. (129, 130)
Connect activities integrate what we are learning with what we know. They prepare learners to apply learning in situations they encounter at work, in later learning efforts, and in their personal lives. (163)
As stated in the Alignment section, the activities a learner performs during a class, learning activity, or teacher/student interaction are directly mapped to a learning objective (shown below). As a student begins to learn about a topic, the absorb activities, which will take the form of text, videos, or slides, will provide general information about the topic being covered; in this case, the information provided below gives a general overview of authoritative sources and explains quantitative measures of authority and their drawbacks. Once students have read or watched the background and basic information provided, they have an opportunity to test their understanding by attempting a quiz that will give them feedback about each correct or incorrect answer. At the end, whether they choose to complete the quiz, the connect activity will provide students with a list of rhetorical questions to consider as they begin to put into practice what they have just learned. In addition, a list of Related Topics will be given to highlight connections between the current topic and other related issues or topics in order for the learner to continue exploring the topic and any questions that may still be present.
Information resources reflect their creators’ expertise and credibility, and are evaluated based on the information need and the context in which the information will be used. In other words, authority will vary by discipline and by context
Authority is:
- Constructed in that different communities may recognize or prefer different types of authority
- Contextual in that an information need helps to determine the level of authority required
Qualitative measures of authority:
- These require judgment calls and knowledge of the context being investigated or researched.
- Examples: Expertise, Credibility
Quantitative measures of authority:
- These are numerical representations of authority. Different journals and resources have different measures, but they cannot be compared to each other. However, employing more than one measure can help us determine how an information source is seeing from different contexts.
- Examples: Citation counts, Impact factors
Other examples of quantitive measures:
- Article Acceptance Rates: Harvard Business Review (a non-peer reviewed journal) has an acceptance rate of ½ or 1% of articles submitted. In business, especially within management, this is a very important information source
- Readership: The Wall Street Journal (a non-peer reviewed newspaper) is one of the most respected business news sources and has a global readership. This is a very important information resources for business professionals
Measures, like impact factors, can tell you which journals are relevant in a field, but they are not enough. What are some of their drawbacks? How else could you determine how authoritative an article or a journal is within your discipline?
If authority is constructed and contextual, what would you need to know about the topic you are researching and who would you have to talk to in order to better understand your discipline?
If authoritative sources vary by discipline, how can the knowledge you develop in regards to one discipline transfer to another?
You want to use a non-peer reviewed source in your research, what criteria do you need to know in order to prove its credibility to your professor?
Credibility Evaluation of Sources Scholarly Conversations Peer Review Process Research Cycle
Horton, W. K. (2012). E-learning by design, 2nd edition. San Francisco, Calif: Pfeiffer.