Information Literacy Toolkit

In this activity, students work in groups to evaluate a social media post/video. Students begin their evaluation by considering their first reaction to the credibiity of the post. They then dig deeply into the post itself and read across sources on the web to evaluate factors such as creator expertise, currency, and any perspective or bias that impacts credibilty. They wrap up the exercise by identifying one claim in the post and verifying or reputing it using scholarly literature.

Considerations:

• You may ask students to find a social media post/video related to class content or assign each group one that you have already selected. You may also choose to make this an individual activity done outside of class time.
• If students are unfamiliar with how to find and read scholarly literature, consider asking a librarian to teach a session or provide a research guide for your course.
• While this activity was created for a class in the sciences, it can be adjusted to work in other disciplines.

Updated December 2025