An IERI – International Educational Research Institute Journal
Table 1 Example Evidence Model for Simulated Web Search Tool and Evidence Manager
Tool | Subconstruct | Description | Relevant tool actions | Scoring rules | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Web Search | Locate Sources (use effective search keywords) | Gather potentially relevant information by using appropriate search terms | Enter keywords into web search to retrieve relevant sets of results | Students receive up to 2 points for successfully retrieving high-relevance results (of two possible sets). Students can receive 1 point for successfully retrieving medium-relevance results. Points reflect the best set of results seen over all searches completed | 0–2 |
Web Search | Locate Sources (access the key Websites) | Evaluate the relevance of sources, based on a cursory view of the content | Click to view key Websites from search results based on their descriptions | Students receive 1 point for successfully retrieving (i.e., “click to view” action) each of the three key Websites (i.e., most useful for the inquiry task). Points reflect the total number of key websites accessed | 0–3 |
Web Search | Locate Sources (gather useful information for later application) | Save resources which may provide useful information | Click to save key Websites to Evidence Manager tool | Students receive 1 point for successfully gathering (i.e., “Save to Evidence Manager” action) each of the three key Websites (i.e., most useful for the inquiry task). Points reflect the total number of key websites saved | 0–3 |
Evidence Manager | Process, analyze, and synthesize sources (Identify key task-relevant information) | Identify key information (task-relevant information) within a source | Write a description of the key task-relevant information from the source | Human scored. Students receive 1 point for accurately describing the critical content of the source for each of the three key websites (partial credit possible) | 0–3 |
Evidence Manager | Evaluate information sources (Evaluate usefulness) | Identify source usefulness | Click to rate key Websites as Useful in Evidence Manager tool | Students receive 1 point for rating each of the three key websites as "Useful" (i.e., 4 or 5 stars) | 0–3 |
Evidence Manager | Evaluate information sources (Evaluate usefulness) | Explain why collected source is useful | Write an explanation for why the information is useful for the research task | Human scored. Students earn 1 point for accurately evaluating how the source/information is useful for the research task for each of the three key websites (partial credit possible) | 0–3 |
Evidence Manager | Evaluate information sources (Evaluate trustworthiness) | Identify source trustworthiness | Click to rate key Websites as Trustworthy in Evidence Manager tool | Students receive 1 point for rating each of the three key websites as "Trustworthy" (i.e., 4 or 5 stars) | 0–3 |
Evidence Manager | Evaluate information sources (Evaluate trustworthiness) | Explain why collected source is trustworthy | Write an explanation for the trustworthiness rating | Human scored. Students earn 1 point for accurately evaluating the trustworthiness of the source for each of the three key websites (partial credit possible) | 0–3 |