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Research Guides

Building Resilience to Misinformation: An Instructional Toolkit

A toolkit to assist teaching faculty in engaging students on the topic of misinformation or disinformation.

Information for Faculty

How to Use This Toolkit

This toolkit is designed to offer customizable content and flexible delivery options. For example, modules can be edited to add discipline-specific content, delivered synchronously or asynchronously, and used in online or in-person classes. 

  • We encourage faculty to edit and/or add to the modules, to best suit their course needs.
  • We encourage faculty to engage with their librarian on how the toolkit could be integrated into course content.
  • With the exception of the introductory module, the modules are not sequential. The modules may be completed in any order or Instructors may choose to introduce only one or two of the modules to their class.
  • Students can complete modules individually, in groups, or in a classroom setting. As such, the modules can be completed within or outside of class time. However, we recommend as much classroom discussion and engagement as possible.

There are five key components in each module: 

  1. Editable content in the PowerPoint Presentations 

  1. Suggested Activities 

  1. Quizzes

  1. Further Resources

  2. Links to a Glossary

Background

This toolkit was funded through a Teaching & Learning grant from the University of Calgary and support from Libraries and Cultural Resources.

In creating this toolkit, the project team took a participatory approach. Our guiding principles were: 

  • Evidence-informed
  • Collaborative
  • Modular
  • Adaptable
  • Technologically accessible
  • Open (educational resource)

For more background information on this toolkit, please, review the PowerPoint at the bottom of this text box that this research group created for the 2023 HETL Conference in Scotland.

 

Perspective/Lens

The creators of this guide are academic librarians. We are not psychologists, philosophers, scientists, political scientists, nor any other type of expert currently contributing to our understanding of false information. As academic librarians, we position ourselves as having a deep understanding of information-seeking behaviour and expertise in source evaluation. It’s within these parameters we have created this guide.

The content of this guide was developed through focus groups with students and teaching faculty, as well as an extensive literature review.  

Ethics Board Certification: REB21-0615.

Discussing misinformation has the potential to evoke strong feelings and beliefs. While this toolkit discusses some topics that have been “hotbeds” of misinformation, such as climate change, we also provide examples from the not-too-distant past, such as the impact of cigarettes on health. As the Instructor, it is your choice whether you include content that may garner strong opinions. 

Creating a positive classroom environment values the wellbeing and educational goals of all students in the room. The students’ classroom experience illustrates why it is important for instructors to address incidents that take place in the classroom. When we bring controversial and sensitive topics into the classroom, we are inviting the emotions that accompany deeply personal histories and realities. For students to feel comfortable enough to share their lived experiences or challenge the perspectives of other students, they must trust the professor will shut down problematic comments, address microaggressions, and support them in speaking up.  

  • Be sensitive to students’ backgrounds, beliefs, and lived experiences. Watch to see if students are withdrawing if the conversation begins to lean towards one side of a narrative and take steps to turn down the volume on that side.  Students learn from different perspectives and from the ability to share their perspective.  

  • Set ground rules and preventative measures that promote empathy and respect before beginning the conversation to outline classroom expectations. Examples are encouraging students to ask questions while being mindful of others in the room, not taking up too much space in the conversation, and focusing on remaining impartial by recognizing that we don’t all have the same shared beliefs because students don’t need to believe in something to learn it.  

  • Address classroom incidents that include microaggressions or insensitive comments immediately. A situation can intensify if an instructor’s response is delayed. Responding immediately can help to minimize the consequences for a student personally and professionally, their relationship with the instructor, and for other students in the class. 

  • As the facilitator of the conversation, honour the strong emotions in the room, step into re-word questions students pose if necessary, ask students for clarification and refer to the relevant readings and topic at hand. Finally, emphasize that all members of the class should focus on ideas, not people who share those ideas to help students from feeling personally attacked.  

  • Stop the conversation if the classroom discussion begins to get heated and students are flustered and use the time for journaling or self-reflection. Then speak to the class about where the conservation needs to go to remain constructive.  

  • Complete the classroom conversation with support mechanisms the University of Calgary has for students within Wellness Services and Mental Health Services.  

 

Feedback on this toolkit can be sent to Justine Wheeler at jwheeler@ucalgary.ca. 

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