Open Education Weekpresentation, 9 March 2018, Timisoara, UPT

1. TACKLING
fake news
Workshop “Educația deschisă”
#OEWeek #OEWeekTimisoara

2. Laura MALITA
laura.malita@e-uvt.ro
@lmalita
Gabriela GROSSECK
gabriela.grosseck@e-uvt.ro
@ggrosseck- Twitter, Instagram, Slideshare etc. -

3. Why this subject now?

4. Fake News Types
1. satire or parody ("no intention to
cause harm but has potential to fool")
2. false connection ("when headlines,
visuals or captions don't support the
content")
3. misleading content ("misleading use
of information to frame an issue or an
individual")
4. false context ("when genuine content
is shared with false contextual
information")
5. imposter content ("when genuine
sources are impersonated" with false,
made-up sources)
6. manipulated content ("when genuine
information or imagery is manipulated
to deceive", as with a "doctored" photo)
7. fabricated content ("new content is
100% false, designed to deceive and
do harm")
Claire Wardle

5. FactCheck.Org
PolitiFact.com
Snopes.com

7. https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/fake-news

8. We are at WAR. An Information War

9. Fake Information on Academia??
Foto: : Coralia Sulea

10. Spotting fake / bad scholars
1. PREDATORY PUBLISHING (journals or
conferences): “predatory” for-profit open
access publishers
• In some cases criminal actors go so far as to
create fake incarnations of real journals to
steal submission fees.
• Even the peer review process itself is
increasingly under attack with fake reviewers
and even “peer review rings.”

11. Spotting bad scholars
2. ACADEMIC FRAUD: Even in publications that
are not predatory, some academic publications
still contain false or misleading information.
* sometimes even fake papers slip through the
supposedly rigorous peer-review process
3. MISLEADING STATISTICS. Data Leaks (real
data mixed with untrue or biased data). When
statistics are manipulated or misused, they can
make fake news even more powerful
(See the MOOC from Future Learn, Making Sense of
Data in the Media)

12. Spotting bad scholars
4. FAKE POLL. If there isn’t something on the
website that tells why the pollster is conducting
the poll, something is probably up.
5. ACADEMIC INACURANCIES. Review process is
been hijacked by fake reviewers ->Diluting
academic literature
See also Beall’s list of predatory journals
and Caltech Library’s list of predatory
conferences.

13. approach in tackling …

14. A1. TACKLING FAKE NEWS
IN A DIGITAL LITERACY CURRICULUM
the first Romanian academic study
on students’ perceptions about fake news
to be presented at the 14th International Scientific Conference “eLearning and Software for Education”, Bucharest, April 19-20, 2018
(PILOT)

15. The purpose of the study was to gather information on
ways in which students perceive what fake news are
and to identify their habits and practices when they
have encountered doubtful content.
• October-December 2017
• WUT LMS (online questionnaire
// ONLY 10 questions)
• 250 respondents, 1st year (39
M, 211 F)
• Two specializations:
Communication Studies and
Psychology
short bio-data

16. Is there a need for
training
students on this topic?
How students perceive and understand the
concept of doubtful content?
(clickbaits headlines, false or biased information online, deceptive advertising, satirical websites etc.)?
How well the students
can research?
Do they know how to evaluate such information?
Do they distinguish between real and fake
news? What are they research skills and
abilities?
Research questions:

17. A2. Increased information / digital literacy
education (training)
New specialization
starting 2018-2019 academic
year WUT offers the
programme “Digital Media” at
bachelor level
Transversal disciplines
“Evaluating information
credibility and fighting against
fake news and content”

18. A3. Organization of different events on fake news
topic (workshops, lectures, conferences etc.)
Denisa RIFAI
16 May 2017
Moise GURAN
30 January 2017
International student event approaching the topics of DIGITAL CITIZENSHIP and
FAKE NEWS in European context.12 December 2017

19. A4. Awareness of fake news topic through the WUT
promotional materials (newsletter, Facebook page)

20. Bogdan Nadolu, The Sociology of politics (Sociologia politicului)
A5. Integrating fake news topic
in the syllabus of different disciplines (piloting the transversals)
Political life in the digital era – from google to fake news
Laura Malita, The evaluation of information credibility and online content
(Evaluarea credibilității informațiilor și a conținutului online)
The universe of fake online content: who and why is producing it, which contexts

21. A6. Encouraging academic writing on fake news
in master / doctoral thesis
Master thesis

22. A7. Integrating
MOOCs about fake
news in academic
courses
See Holotescu et al. (2014) Integrating MOOC in Blended Courses
https://www.coursera.org/learn/news-literacy
https://classroom.google.com

23. B. Next steps
• Academic Fake News Observatory (research,
reports, studies, guides etc.)
• OER library
• Short courses f2f for teachers
• Opening the MOOC on fake news this spring
• Partnership with industry
• Students’ high school specific activities:
(online)courses, workshops, camps etc.
https://west-university-timisoara.teachable.com/p/fake-news

24. Thank you for your attention!
With the support of the ERASMUS+, 575370-EPP-1-2016-1-RO-EPPJMO-MODULE
This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This communication reflects the views only
of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information
contained therein.