🌐 Information Literacy & Digital Composing

Upper-level undergraduate course

This class focuses on how information circulates online and how bad actors use mis- and disinformation, as well as conspiracy theories, to trick others. The class trains students to develop their information literacy skills to identify how specific algorithms boost or suppress certain actions while practicing how to use these methods to reach and to educate a public audience. Students conduct a case study on a cultural community on different platforms (e.g., TikTok, Instagram) to trace an instance of dis/misinformation or a conspiracy theory and to propose a research-based solution. They then turn that research into educational materials to help others not get tricked online.