Fact Checking 101: How One Course Helped Students Get Smarter About Misinformation
College students today are not just juggling classes, jobs, and social lives. They are also navigating a flood of misinformation, much of it coming from the very platforms they use most: TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram. For many, these feeds have replaced traditional news outlets, yet they rarely come with tools to separate fact from fiction.
At Georgia State University, Professor Mike Evans decided that ignoring the problem was no longer an option. Teaching American Government 1101, a course with more than 4,000 students each year, Evans noticed his classroom shifting. Instead of showing up with baseline civics knowledge, many students arrived with viral conspiracies and half-truths. The course’s goal to help students become “effective and responsible participants in American democracy” was at risk.
The Civic Online Reasoning Solution
Evans turned to the Civic Online Reasoning (COR) curriculum, developed at Stanford. COR focuses on practical strategies that professional fact checkers use, especially “lateral reading,” which means leaving a page to quickly see what credible sources say about the claim or its author.
Instead of lecturing about misinformation in the abstract, Evans embedded six short online modules directly into the course. Students dissected real viral posts tied to course content, such as an Instagram video falsely claiming President Biden wanted higher gas prices or a TikTok video about Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson’s confirmation produced by a partisan group. They learned to spot manipulated video clips, recognize “grassroots” sites secretly funded by corporations, and rethink assumptions, for example that dot org domains are automatically trustworthy.
Small Effort, Big Impact
The intervention was modest, just 150 minutes of lessons across the semester, requiring no overhaul of the syllabus. But the results were significant.
Nearly 3,500 students took pre and post tests over two semesters. Their ability to identify credible information improved by 18%.
80% reported that they learned “important things” from the modules.
Instructors could adopt the approach without disrupting their teaching flow.
The findings mirror similar successes in other courses, from nutrition to rhetoric. The message is clear: educators do not need to wait for a major curriculum revolution to strengthen digital literacy. Small, intentional steps can help students see the difference between legitimate sources and manipulative content.
Why This Matters for All of Us
At IGC Institute, we believe this work points to something bigger than the classroom. In a world where misinformation shapes not just young people’s feeds but public debate, policy, and the economy, teaching fact-checking skills is civic education at its most practical.
Evans’ experiment shows that equipping students with a few core strategies can pay dividends across disciplines and into daily life. Whether in politics, business, or health, these skills prepare future leaders and citizens to cut through noise and make informed decisions.
The lesson for educators, employers, and civic leaders is simple: you do not need to overhaul everything to make an impact. Sometimes, the most civic thing we can do is carve out a couple of hours to help people learn how to check the source.
Read the original article: College students are bombarded by misinformation, so this professor taught them fact checking 101.