Who?

How?

And who’s watching?

Morell J. Old

they/them/theirs

Digital Instruction Librarian

University of Illinois Springfield

mold@uis.edu

a digestible credibility framework for first-year composition

Why this approach?

• ENG-102 students relying on AI
• Making credibility
• understandable
• relatable to students’ everyday lives
• goes beyond “scholarly publications are credible because they’re scholarly”

2

Three core points

1. Who created this, and do they know what they’re talking about?
2. How do they know what they’re claiming to know?
3. What systems are in place to catch and correct mistakes?

3

Point 1: Who created this, and do they know what they’re talking about?

• Does the author have some expertise in this specific field?
• What is their perspective, and how does it influence their message? - going beyond “bias”
• AI has no author whose credibility or perspective you can investigate

ACRL Framework: Authority is constructed and contextual

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Point 2: How does the creator know what they’re claiming to know?

• Research methods, sources cited
• Transparency about methods is a big benefit of scholarly sources
• AI’s process is a black box

ACRL Framework: Information Creation as a Process

5

Point 3: What systems are in place to catch mistakes?

• Fact-checking in traditional publishing or social media comments
• AI has no comments section or review before publication

ACRL Framework: Scholarship as Conversation

6

So did this work?

• Positive class discussion
• Positive assessment in Canvas
• However, preliminary student final papers still have issues

7

Further Resources

Thank you for your attention!

CrashCourse �Navigating Digital �Information

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Morell Old mold@uis.edu

https://go.uis.edu/SIFT

https://go.uis.edu/CrashCourse

Mike Caulfield’s �SIFT method