Understanding Misinformation: A Lesson Plan Toolkit

Introduction and Instructions

About the Toolkit

Misinformation is a systemic issue. Its causes are varied and complex, and its solutions will be just as messy. Ready to dive in with us?

We, the creators of this resource, believe that the best way to understand and combat misinformation is to create a collaborative learning environment that gives participants opportunities to reflect, share, and explore together. Rather than provide a checklist (“Ten Easy Steps to End Misinformation!”) or an authoritative overview (“Here’s What’s REALLY Up With Conspiracy Theories”) our goal is to help you facilitate conversations within your community. We hope that your goals will be to enable a nuanced understanding of misinformation and enact creative solutions in response.

Who is the Toolkit for?

Anyone who wants to facilitate learning about misinformation, e.g. course instructors, library staff, or student staff.

How to use the Toolkit

This resource is divided into three learning outcomes:

• Identify the causes of misinformation
• Define information, misinformation, and disinformation
• Identify strategies for recognizing misinformation

For each outcome, we have provided a theoretical framework, learning activity examples, and resources for further exploration. The outcomes are designed to work individually, or in any combination or sequence that makes sense for your learning community. Any or all of the outcomes can form the basis of a standalone workshop or course about understanding misinformation, or be integrated into existing course curricula. Some of the resources are only available for UCLA students, staff, and faculty. If you are accessing the resources from off-campus, make sure to have your device configured with VPN or Proxy

The Toolkit is designed to be generative, and we hope it will serve as a launching point for adapting, revising, and creating your own learning outcomes.

As you use the Toolkit, we welcome your feedback! Let us know what works well, and what can be improved, via this brief survey.

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Learning Outcome: Identify the causes of misinformation

Theoretical Framework

The causes of misinformation extend beyond the individuals who create and disseminate it to encompass the entirety of our complex information ecosystem. In the learning activity below, we explore three aspects of this ecosystem and their contributions to the misinformation landscape: information overload, internet platform business models, and outdated internet literacy learning models. We encourage you and your learning community to explore other systemic causes of misinformation beyond what we present here.

Example Learning Activity

• Identifying Causes Presentation slides
• Identifying Causes Reflection prompt and learning assessment quiz

Resources

• Fake news, social media and marketing: A systematic review
• From the Journal of Business Research, an overview and synthesis of 117 academic studies relating to misinformation on social networks.


• The Social Dilemma – Bonus Clip: The Discrimination Dilemma
• A clip from the documentary The Social Dilemma (full film available on Netflix) that describes how algorithms and machine learning can perpetuate bias.


• Information Overload Helps Fake News Spread, and Social Media Knows It
• From Scientific American, an article about the psychological underpinnings of misinformation-spreading behavior.


• Causes and consequences of mainstream media dissemination of fake news: literature review and synthesis
• From the Annals of the International Communication Association, a study exploring the role of mainstream news outlets in disseminating misinformation.


• Educating for Misunderstanding: How Approaches to Teaching Digital Literacy Make Students Susceptible to Scammers, Rogues, Bad Actors, and Hate Mongers
• From the Stanford History Education Group, a study of how outdated approaches to teaching internet literacy impact the online habits of 256 college undergraduates.

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Learning Outcome: Define information, misinformation, and disinformation

Theoretical Framework

The language we use matters. The terms misinformation and disinformation are not always interchangeable and each come with their own set of implications about the intent of the sharer, the information’s level of veracity and factuality (or lack thereof), and the reliability of the source. The learning activity below helps learners define these terms and practice spotting examples.

Example Learning Activities

• Defining Terms Presentation Slides & Quiz Questions/Answers
• Kahoot Quiz (an example of how to present the quiz)

Resources

• Let’s flatten the infodemic curve
• Good step by step tutorial from the WHO about recognizing medical disinformation as well as an aesthetic infographic covering that same topic.


• PBS lesson plan for identifying misinformation
• Intended for middle and high school audiences. Provides relevant examples, thought-provoking questions, and linked resources.


• Teaching About Fake News
• List of relevant resources and tutorials for identifying misinformation.


• Fact checking and fake news lesson plans - The ultimate teacher guide
• Teacher blog with useful tips for identifying “fake news.”


• Fake News, Propaganda, and Disinformation: Learning to Critically Evaluate Media Sources
• Infographic on spotting fake news from the Cornell University Library.

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Learning Outcome: Identify strategies for recognizing misinformation

Theoretical Framework

The amount of distorted information on internet platforms is overwhelming, and developing strategies to identify it is crucial to effective civic engagement. The learning activity below outlines those strategies and helps learners develop and practice them.

Example Learning Activity

• Recognizing Misinformation Group Exploration
• Presentation slides that set up the activity for learners
• Identifying Causes Activity instructions for learners

Resources

• Truth Decay: An Initial Exploration of the Diminishing Role of Facts and Analysis in American Public Life
• A report from the RAND Corporation that explores the systemic causes of misinformation.


• Evidence-based strategies to combat scientific misinformation
• Focus on climate change misinformation.


• Fake news and science denier attacks on vaccines. What can you do?
• Analysis of 5 tactics commonly employed by science-based misinformation with a particular focus on COVID-19 vaccine denialism.


• Librarians against fake news: A systematic literature review of Library practices (Jan. 2018-Sept.2019)
• Overview of general library practices with embedded publications focusing on particular skills, workshops, frameworks, programs, etc.


• Library Technology Reports: Combating Fake News in the Digital Age
• History of fake news and how it spreads, the role of technology, methods for individual recognition of misinformation, and strategies for instructors to teach students on how to identify misinformation.


• Web Literacy for Student Fact Checkers
• Curriculum for evaluating web based content including social media. Includes a section on lateral reading.


• Citizen Literacy - Lateral Reading
• Explanation of lateral reading strategies.


• Crash Course - Navigating Digital Information
• ECrash Course series hosted by John Green explains how to navigate various aspects of digital information, including Social Media, Online Information, Lateral Reading, and Fact Checking in relatively brief 14 minute segments.

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Feedback

How was your experience using the Understanding Misinformation Toolkit? Please let us know in this brief survey.