Monday, April 27, 2020

THE OTHER AMA

Special issue explores consumer access and power

News from the Journal of Public Policy & Marketing

AMERICAN MARKETING ASSOCIATION

Journal of Public Policy & Marketing has dedicated the second issue of its 2020 volume to better understanding and defining the uniquely related concepts of consumer power and consumer access. The guest editors and articles authors show how both concepts are in a constant state of change. They are influenced by technology, wealth, industry organization, and public policy.

Questions of access and power are particularly relevant in the context of today's United States with consumers simultaneously isolated and connected in ways never before imagined. Many of the articles in this issue offer prophetic insights though they were written well before and accepted only in the very early stages of the COVID-19 world health crisis.

"Denial Without Determination: The Impact of Systemic Market Access Denial on Consumer Power and Market Engagement"

Consumers may have access to a product or service, but that does not mean the consumer has the power to make ownership and usage a reality. Even when intervention levels the playing field, it still may take multiple purchase cycles before some consumers may attempt to take advantage of the new opportunities.

https://doi.org/10.1177/0743915619885393

"Access Granted? An Examination of Financial Capability, Trait Hope, Perceived Access, and Food Insecurity in Distressed Census Tracts"

Interestingly increasing a belief in hope is an effective way to improve the perception of access to adequate food sources among residents of food deserts. The authors suggest communication strategies that encourage this trait and improve the effectiveness of food and nutrition assistance programs.

https://doi.org/10.1177/0743915619889341

"The Effect of Consumers' Perceived Power and Risk in Digital Information Privacy: The Example of Cookie Notices"

Despite recent regulation (i.e., the GDPR), the design of cookie notices varies strongly in practice, with many websites providing cookie notices with low visibility and no or very limited choice. These most common designs are likely to increase consumers' risk perception, which reduces their purchase intent; website providers might, in contrast, benefit from offering consumers more choice over their private data.

https://doi.org/10.1177/0743915620902143

"Service Captivity: No Choice, No Voice, No Power"

This examination of "service captivity" offers insights into how consumers may feel trapped in a scenario where they can't exit a service relationship. The authors offer examples of how these consumers may gain access to new service providers.

https://doi.org/10.1177/0743915619899082

"Sound and Fury: Digital Vigilantism as a Form of Consumer Voice"

Via a pool of over 70,000 tweets associated with the 2017 Charlottesville Unite the Right rally, the authors categorize tweets into five categories and offer a perspective on how digital vigilantism was represented.

https://doi.org/10.1177/0743915620902403

"Sense of Power: Policy Insights for Encouraging Consumers' Healthy Food Choice"

Incorporating simple messages such as, "you are powerful" or "we all feel powerful sometimes" is enough to increase a consumer's sense of power and subsequently nudge them to make healthier food choices, particularly for consumers lower in socioeconomic status.

https://doi.org/10.1177/0743915620902148

"Children and Online Privacy Protection: Empowerment from Cognitive Defense Strategies"

Children and teens were already spending a growing amount of time online, but in the last several weeks, this seems to have increased even more. The authors investigate methods for improving safety beliefs and decisions to share personal videos on YouTube suggesting a combination of education and parental intervention empowers children and teens to protect their personal information online.

https://doi.org/10.1177/0743915619883638

"When Does the Social Service Ecosystem Meet Consumption Needs? A Power-Justice-Access Model of Holistic Well-Being from Recipients' Perspectives"

Research suggestions that respect is another dimension of consumer access and power. They show the fallacy of scorning low-income individuals' access to "luxuries," such as Starbucks coffee, and the importance of going beyond simple access and power and include the level of perceived justice (e.g., respect).

https://doi.org/10.1177/0743915620903318

"Consumer-Level Perceived Access to Health Services and Its Effects on Vulnerability and Health Outcomes"

Policymakers, health care organizations, and insurance providers can use perceived access to healthcare measure to better identify communities or populations that lack access, design programs and systems that reduce perceptions of health vulnerability in target populations, and ultimately improve consumers' health outcomes.

https://doi.org/10.1177/0743915620903299

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This special issue was organized by a team that included M. Paula Fitzgerald, West Virginia University; Sterling A. Bone, Utah State University; and Janis K. Pappalardo, Federal Trade Commission. The views of Janis K. Pappalardo are her own and do not necessarily represent the views of the Federal Trade Commission or any individual Commissioner.

Full issue and individual author contact information is available at https://journals.sagepub.com/toc/ppoa/39/2

About the Journal of Public Policy & Marketing

The Journal of Public Policy & Marketing is a forum for understanding the nexus of marketing and public policy, with each issue featuring a wide-range of topics, including, but not limited to, ecology, ethics and social responsibility, nutrition and health, regulation and deregulation, security and privacy.

https://www.ama.org/jppm

About the American Marketing Association (AMA)

As the largest chapter-based marketing association in the world, the AMA is trusted by marketing and sales professionals to help them discover what's coming next in the industry. The AMA has a community of local chapters in more than 70 cities and 350 college campuses throughout North America. The AMA is home to award-winning content, PCM® professional certification, premiere academic journals, and industry-leading training events and conferences.

https://www.ama.org

Study finds rise in between-workplace inequalities in the US, high-income countries

Study of 20 years of data led by UMass Amherst sociologist Donald Tomaskovic-Devey finds inequality rising in 12 of the 14 countries examined, including the US, Canada and Hungary were the only exceptions

UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST

THE PROPORTION OF TOTAL INEQUALITY THAT IS BETWEEN FIRMS FOR THE TOTAL (LEFT), PRIVATE (MIDDLE) AND PUBLIC SECTORS (RIGHT). THE PROPORTION OF TOTAL INEQUALITY ATTRIBUTABLE TO THE BETWEEN-WORKPLACE COMPONENT HAS... view more CREDIT: UMASS AMHERST/TOMASKOVIC-DEVEY

AMHERST, Mass. - A new analysis of earnings inequalities by an international team of 27 researchers has found that the between-workplace share of wage inequality is growing in 12 of 14 high-income countries studied, and that the countries vary a great deal in their levels and trends in overall earnings inequality.

In a new report in the Proceedings of the National Academies of Science (PNAS), lead author Donald Tomaskovic-Devey of the University of Massachusetts Amherst and his colleagues detail their examination of roughly 25 years of administrative records covering more than 2 billion job-years nested within more than 50 million workplace-years for 14 high-income countries: Canada, Czechia, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Israel, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Slovenia, South Korea, Sweden and the United States. In 12 of the countries they found that the share of inequality between workplaces is growing; Canada and Hungary were the only exceptions.

Rising between-workplace inequality occurs when firms with powerful market positions simultaneously outsource production and services to temporary labor firms, subcontractors, global supply chains, franchisees, independent contractors and other low-wage firms. Firms such as Apple, Amazon, Marriott, McDonalds, Uber and Nike are prominent examples of this combination of market power and externalized labor.

"The extreme vulnerability of low-wage workers to the COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S. is linked to this trend of larger firms outsourcing risk and low-wage labor to weaker firms," Tomaskovic-Devey points out.

"Most strikingly, we find in 12 of the 14 countries examined that the organizational structure of production is shifting toward increasing between-workplace wage dispersion," the report states. "In all of those 12 countries this process is more pronounced in the private sector, but we also find rising between-workplace inequality in the public sector in eight countries."

The study also shows that in countries with weak or declining labor market protections, inequality - particularly between-workplace inequalities - rises the fastest. In contrast, widespread collective bargaining coverage and high minimum wages reduce inequalities both between and within firms.

"We show that trends in rising between-workplace wage dispersion are closely aligned with declining national labor market institutions, institutions that in some countries once protected the bargaining power of employees relative to employers," the authors write.

"We knew from past research that earnings inequalities in the U.S. were being driven by wage polarization between high-wage and low-wage firms, but I was shocked to see how widespread this trend is," says Tomaskovic-Devey, professor of sociology and founding director of the Center for Employment Equity at UMass Amherst. "Although rising between-firm inequalities are widespread, it is crucial to recognize that both the levels of inequality and the speed of firm wage polarization are strongly tied to national labor market institutions. The U.S. has the weakest labor market protections of all fourteen countries we studied and has the highest levels of inequality."

The authors write that results of their analyses suggest that policies aimed at reducing rising inequalities in national production systems might focus on between-firm and workplace inequalities via mechanisms that strengthen the bargaining power of employees and curtail the ability of powerful firms to outsource risk while absorbing revenue.

"Strengthening institutional protections for lower-skilled workers," it concludes, "will not only improve their wages and job security, but also reduce the ability of more powerful firms to outsource production to lower wage firms. Policies to limit the market power of dominant firms may moderate both the earnings going to the top of those firms and their ability to externalize labor costs."

Funding for the research and creation of the paper was provided by numerous institutions, including the U.S. National Science Foundation, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, the European Research Council, the Independent Research Fund Denmark, Swedish Forte, the European Social Fund and state budget of the Czech Republic and the Research Council of Norway.

The full report "Rising between workplace inequalities in high-income countries," can be found on the PNAS website.

Edited by Lisa Tauxe, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, and approved December 12, 2019 (received for review September 24, 2019)

Significance

The age and early history of Earth’s geomagnetic field can provide insight into the evolution of the core and atmosphere. But measurement of Hadean zircons—the oldest known terrestrial materials—and the determination of the antiquity of their magnetizations are amongst the most challenging endeavors in paleomagnetism. New paleomagnetic, electron microscope, geochemical, and paleointensity data indicate the presence of primary magnetite inclusions in select zircons. These data support the presence of the geomagnetic field, and associated shielding of the atmosphere from the solar wind, ∼4.2 billion years ago. A relatively strong field recorded by these zircons at ∼4 billion years ago may be a signal that chemical precipitation in the core was powering the geodynamo.

Abstract

Determining the age of the geomagnetic field is of paramount importance for understanding the evolution of the planet because the field shields the atmosphere from erosion by the solar wind. The absence or presence of the geomagnetic field also provides a unique gauge of early core conditions. Evidence for a geomagnetic field 4.2 billion-year (Gy) old, just a few hundred million years after the lunar-forming giant impact, has come from paleomagnetic analyses of zircons of the Jack Hills (Western Australia). Herein, we provide new paleomagnetic and electron microscope analyses that attest to the presence of a primary magnetic remanence carried by magnetite in these zircons and new geochemical data indicating that select Hadean zircons have escaped magnetic resetting since their formation. New paleointensity and Pb-Pb radiometric age data from additional zircons meeting robust selection criteria provide further evidence for the fidelity of the magnetic record and suggest a period of high geomagnetic field strength at 4.1 to 4.0 billion years ago (Ga) that may represent efficient convection related to chemical precipitation in Earth’s Hadean liquid iron core.

IRONIC
New model finds countries should work together to control coronavirus, harmful species

ASU researcher explores pests, parasites, diseases on a global scale
ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY
PHOTO BY HANS BRAXMEIER VIA PIXABAY

Countries looking to contain the spread of harmful species and diseases like COVID-19 should work together in multiple hotspots, according to a new model developed by an Arizona State University researcher.

Because it would be difficult to completely eliminate the novel coronavirus, mathematical modeling suggests countries should focus on keeping the rate of infection low by collaborating in multiple areas. In some circumstances, however, a clear division of labor may be called for.

The findings by Adam Lampert, an assistant professor with the School of Human Evolution and Social Change at ASU, will be published next week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The model is intended to guide policymakers responding to the outbreak of harmful species, including pests, parasites and even infectious diseases like COVID-19. It indicates that sometimes a "divide and conquer" approach is better, while in other situations it is more effective to work together in several locations.

A key question is whether to focus on eliminating the harmful species entirely or controlling its spread to prevent the next outbreak.

"If you want to eradicate the harmful species, or reduce its abundance rapidly, then you may want to split the duties of the agents," Lampert said. "If you want to control it, and keep it at a low level for prolonged periods, then working together becomes important."

Lampert identified three factors to determine if the species should be controlled or eradicated: the annual cost of maintaining the population, the natural growth rate of the harmful species, and its response to the treatment.

For example, when treating an invasive insect outbreak, managers spray pesticide over a large area as a general, blanket treatment method. A more targeted approach can be applied if the species can easily be seen. For example, complete eradication of a harmful plant species is plausible, because managers can physically remove each plant.

Given the ongoing spread of novel coronavirus, Lampert shared that we're seeing a mix of blanketed and targeted control efforts.

"With diseases, you can put a lockdown on the entire country, or a region, and say 'ok nobody goes out', and this way you reduce the infection level over time," he said. "Or you can do some more targeted actions by identifying the people who are sick - and keep them at home."

Lampert's research indicates that effective long-term control methods to reduce the spread of harmful species, including the novel coronavirus, require international cooperation. He says it is unlikely that we will be able to completely eradicate the virus, but controlling the spread is necessary for our social welfare and can be accomplished most effectively if countries work together.

Lampert is already working on additional research applying these findings to COVID-19, specifically. In the future, we can expect to see more intensive findings about the spread and control of harmful species, as the issue is not likely to disappear anytime soon.

"The impact of invasive species is a major problem in ecological systems," Lampert said. "And it's only becoming more and more prevalent because of globalization."

The paper "Multiple agents managing a harmful species population should either work together to control it or split their duties to eradicate it" will be available at http://www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1917028117 after publication during the week of April 13, 2020.

About Adam Lampert

Adam Lampert is an assistant professor in the Simon A. Levin Mathematical, Computational and Modeling Sciences Center, an affiliated research center of the School of Human Evolution and Social Change. His research uses mathematical modeling to explore how multiple agents can manage ecosystems.

About ASU's School of Human Evolution and Social Change

ASU's School of Human Evolution and Social Change unites anthropology, applied math, global health and environmental social science around a common goal: to explore the untold chapters of the human story and share that knowledge with those who want to change our world for the better. As one of the school's diverse affiliated research units, the Simon A. Levin Mathematical, Computational and Modeling Sciences Center identifies cultural opportunities and risks through math modeling and simulations.

Exploring the link between education and climate change

INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR APPLIED SYSTEMS ANALYSIS

What are the most effective ways to achieve desired sustainable development outcomes across all aspects of wellbeing, and how might the pursuit of some of these goals affect progress toward others? A new study by an international team of researchers aims to address these questions to help understand possible synergies and tradeoffs among these goals.

The importance of pursuing sustainable development poses a challenge to scientists in terms of determining the most effective ways to achieve desired outcomes across health, education, poverty, energy, the environment, and many other aspects of wellbeing, as well as how the pursuit of some of these goals might affect the achievement of others. A study published in the journal Nature Sustainability brings together several different connections between particularly education and climate change and evaluates them together.

"We examined how changes in educational attainment simultaneously affect population growth, economic growth, greenhouse gas emissions, and vulnerability to climate change impacts. Previous studies have looked at the role of education in vulnerability to climate change impacts and its relationship to population increase, and also separately to economic growth. Our study however brings these multiple effects together in a single analysis," explains Shonali Pachauri, a study coauthor and Acting IIASA Transitions to New Technologies Program Director.

The team wanted to address two main questions through their research: Firstly, they wanted to determine the net effect of increased educational attainment on the emissions that drive climate change, as there is reason to believe that it could lead either to higher or to lower emissions. Second, they asked how much less vulnerable people in less developed countries might be if educational attainment is improved.

The findings indicate that increasing the level of educational attainment in a population leads to a large improvement in vulnerability - in other words, populations are significantly less vulnerable to climate change if efforts are made to improve their level of education. Conversely, populations are quite a bit more vulnerable if educational improvements slow substantially.

According to the researchers, one of the more surprising results of the study is that increasing educational attainment tends to lead to a small increase in emissions that drive climate change. Many other studies have found that slower population growth leads to lower emissions. In this case however, the authors found that if increased educational attainment is taken into account, the reductions in emissions from a smaller population can be more than offset by the boost to economic growth that education also provides.

A second unexpected finding was the size of the positive effect of education on vulnerability. If optimistic increases in educational attainment can be achieved in developing countries in the future, the reduction in vulnerability, as measured by the Human Development Index, can be quite large.

The authors point out that the study's results are preliminary, especially because education can affect people and society in many ways that matter to climate change, and they only examined a few of them. Improved education may, for instance, speed up the development of new technologies to lower greenhouse gas emissions, or it may change consumption patterns or political behavior. These possible effects were not included in the analysis.

The study's results will help to inform discussions around policies aimed at fostering sustainable development and improve human wellbeing, while also preserving the environment. Not all policies will off course achieve these multiple aims equally well.

"The world is complicated, so we shouldn't expect policy solutions to be simple. Improving education has overwhelmingly positive consequences for people and society in many different ways, and we find that is true for reducing vulnerability to climate change impacts as well. At the same time, we shouldn't expect it to also reduce the emissions driving climate change. We will still need other approaches to accomplish that goal. Reducing emissions requires shifting the global energy system to be largely free of fossil fuels. Improved education may even help with that task in ways that we did not examine as part of our study," concludes study lead author Brian O'Neill, a researcher at the Josef Korbel School of International Studies and Pardee Center for International Futures at the University of Denver.

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Reference

O'Neill B, Jiang L, KC S, Fuchs R, Pachauri S, Laidlaw E, Zhang T, Zhou W, & Ren X (2020). The effect of education on determinants of climate change risks. Nature Sustainability DOI: 10.1038/s41893-020-0512-y

Contacts:

Researcher contacts

Shonali Pachauri
Acting Transitions to New Technologies Program Director
Senior researcher - Energy Program
Tel: +43 2236 807 475
pachauri@iiasa.ac.at

Samir K.C.
Project Leader
World Population Program
Tel: +43 2236 807 424
kc@iiasa.ac.at

Press Officer

Ansa Heyl
IIASA Press Office
Tel: +43 2236 807 574
Mob: +43 676 83 807 574
heyl@iiasa.ac.at

About IIASA:

The International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) is an international scientific institute that conducts research into the critical issues of global environmental, economic, technological, and social change that we face in the twenty-first century. Our findings provide valuable options to policymakers to shape the future of our changing world. IIASA is independent and funded by prestigious research funding agencies in Africa, the Americas, Asia, and Europe. http://www.iiasa.ac.at

USA
Medicare coverage varies for transgender hormone therapies

MARY ANN LIEBERT, INC./GENETIC ENGINEERING NEWS

FACILITATES AND SUPPORTS THE WORK OF RESEARCHERS, CLINICIANS, ACADEMICS, AND POLICYMAKERS TO ADDRESS BARRIERS TO CARE AND ADVANCE EFFORTS TO IMPROVE THE HEALTH, WELL-BEING, AND CLINICAL OUTCOMES OF ALL LGBT... view more
CREDIT: MARY ANN LIEBERT, INC., PUBLISHERSNew Rochelle, NY, April 13, 2020--A new study has shown substantial variability in access to guideline-recommended hormone therapies for older transgender individuals insured through Medicare. The variability in Medicare coverage and out-of-pocket costs for feminizing and masculinizing therapies are detailed in an article published in LGBT Health<.i>, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. Click here to read the full-text article free on the LGBT Health<.i> website through May 12, 2020.

The article entitled "Medicare Prescription Drug Plan Coverage of Hormone Therapies Used by Transgender Individuals" was coauthored by Michael Solotke, Yale University (New Haven, CT) and colleagues from San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center (CA), University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine, Veterans Affairs Connecticut Healthcare System (West Haven, CT), Yale School of Medicine, Mayo Clinic (Rochester, MN), Yale School of Public Health, and Yale-New Haven Hospital.

Medicare coverage and out-of-pocket costs can vary widely depending on the medication regimen. Access to care and to certain medications may be limited to those with adequate means. The study showed that in 2018, the proportion of Medicare plans offering unrestricted coverage ranged from 5%-75% for masculinizing therapies and from 13%-100% for feminizing therapies. Out-of-pocket costs ranged from $180-$2,176 for masculinizing therapies and from $72-$3,792 for feminizing therapies in that same year.

"It is unfortunate when drug costs stand in the way of optimal treatment," says LGBT Health Editor-in-Chief William Byne, MD, PhD, Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, NY. "To minimize this problem, prescribers should be prepared to direct low income and inadequately insured patients to assistance programs, when available, to defray costs, particularly for the gonadotropin releasing hormone agonists for which generic preparations are not yet available."

About the Journal

LGBT Health published 8 times a year online with open access options and in print, facilitates and supports the work of researchers, clinicians, academics, and policymakers to address barriers to care and advance efforts to improve the health, well-being, and clinical outcomes of all LGBT and other sexual and gender minority persons. Led by Editor-in-Chief William Byne, MD, PhD, Columbia University, New York, NY, the Journal spans a broad array of disciplines and publishes original research, review articles, clinical reports, case studies, and legal and policy perspectives. Complete tables of content and a sample issue may be viewed on the LGBT Health website

About the Publisher

Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers is a privately held, fully integrated media company known for establishing authoritative peer-reviewed journals in many promising areas of science and biomedical research, including Transgender Health, AIDS Patient Care and STDs, AIDS Research and Human Retroviruses, Journal of Women's Health, and Population Health Management. Its biotechnology trade magazine, GEN (Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News), was the first in its field and is today the industry's most widely read publication worldwide. A complete list of the firm's more than 90 journals, books, and newsmagazines is available on the Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers website.

Mindful yoga reduces testosterone by 29% in women with polycystic ovary syndrome

Anxiety and depression levels also significantly improved, according to The Journal of the American Osteopathic Association

AMERICAN OSTEOPATHIC ASSOCIATION

CHICAGO--April 14, 2020--Women with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) should consider adopting a mindful yoga practice to help ease symptoms and improve androgen levels. Researchers found a one-hour mindful yoga class, done three times a week, reduced testosterone levels by 29% over a three-month period.

Other androgen levels, like DHEA, were also reduced, and depression and anxiety levels improved by 55% and 21%, respectively, according to the study in The Journal of the American Osteopathic Association.

"There are effective pharmacologic options for managing PCOS. However, they come with the potential for some significant side effects," says Diana Speelman, PhD, Associate Professor of Biochemistry at Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine and lead author on this study.

"Mindful yoga appears to be a promising option for treating PCOS in a way that can improve several aspects of the disorder."

PCOS is a common hormonal disorder that affects reproductive, metabolic and psychological health. It is estimated PCOS affects between 5 and 15% of reproductive-age women, and it is the most common cause of anovulatory infertility.

Women with PCOS may experience irregular menstrual cycles, hirsutism, acne, male-pattern hair loss, subfertility and higher incidence of miscarriage. Reducing androgen levels, including testosterone and DHEA, is key to managing these symptoms. Weight loss, where appropriate, can also help in the management of symptoms.

Researchers recruited women with PCOS aged 22-43 and randomly assigned them into a group, either with no intervention or one in which they would participate in mindful yoga practice for three months. The latter group was given a course in practicing mindfulness one week before beginning the 3-month mindful yoga practice.

Mindful yoga sessions were an hour long and took place three times a week, over three months. The benefits of improved androgen levels, as well as reduced depression and anxiety, occurred in the absence of weight loss.

Some participants also reported fewer acne breakouts and improved menstrual regularity, following the mindful yoga intervention.

"Yoga has so many benefits," says Speelman. "One of its best qualities is that it is accessible to such a wide array of ages and fitness levels."

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About The Journal of the American Osteopathic Association

The JAOA's mission is to serve as an international forum for the dissemination of scientific literature that incorporates an integrative, comprehensive, patient-centered approach to clinical care and improving health. To that end, the JAOA is designed to support and amplify the scholarly voice of osteopathic medicine, publishing research that is meaningful to osteopathic physicians in whatever field they practice. The Journal is indexed by the National Library of Medicine, the Web of Science, and ReadCube. In the Web of Science, the JAOA is part of the Core Collection in the Emerging Sources Citation Index, which allows JAOA content to reach a much wider audience than previously possible. For more information, visit http://www.jaoa.org.

Students often do not question online information

CORA study examines students' ability to critically assess information from the Internet and from social media

JOHANNES GUTENBERG UNIVERSITAET MAIN Z

The Internet and social media are among the most frequently used sources of information today. Students, too, often prefer online information rather than traditional teaching materials provided by universities. According to a study conducted by Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) and Goethe University Frankfurt, students struggle to critically assess information from the Internet and are often influenced by unreliable sources. In this study, students from various disciplines such as medicine and economics took part in an online test, the Critical Online Reasoning Assessment (CORA). "Unfortunately, it is becoming evident that a large proportion of students are tempted to use irrelevant and unreliable information from the Internet when solving the CORA tasks," reported Professor Olga Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia from JGU. The study was carried out as part of the Rhine-Main Universities (RMU) alliance.

Critical evaluation of online information and online sources are particularly important today

Learning using the Internet offers many opportunities, but it also entails risks. It has become evident that not only "fake news" but also "fake science" with scientifically incorrect information is being spread on the Internet. This problem becomes particularly apparent in the context of controversially discussed social issues such as the current corona crisis, but it actually goes much deeper. "Having a critical attitude alone is not enough. Instead, Internet users need skills that enable them to distinguish reliable from incorrect and manipulative information. It is therefore particularly important for students to question and critically examine online information so they can build their own knowledge and expertise on reliable information," stated Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia.

To investigate how students deal with online information, Professor Olga Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia and her team have developed a new test based on the Civic Online Reasoning (COR) assessment developed by Stanford University. During the assessment, the test takers are presented with short tasks. They are asked to freely browse the Internet, focusing on relevant and reliable information that will help them to solve the tasks within the relatively short time frame of ten minutes, and to justify their solutions using arguments from the online information they used.

CORA testing requires complex and extensive analysis

The analysis of the results is based on the participants' responses to the tasks. In addition, their web search activity while solving the tasks is recorded to examine their strengths and weaknesses in dealing with online information in more detail. "We can see which websites the students accessed during their research and which information they used. Analyzing the entire process requires complex analyses and is very time-consuming," said Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia. The assessments have so far been carried out in two German federal states. To date, 160 students from different disciplines have been assessed; the majority of the participants studied medicine or economics and were in their first or second semester.

Critical online reasoning skills should be specifically promoted in higher education

The results are striking: almost all test participants had difficulties solving the tasks. On a scale of 0 to 2 points per task, the students scored only 0.75 points on average, with the results ranging from 0.50 to 1.38 points. "The majority of the students did not use any scientific sources at all," said Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia, pointing out that no domain-specific knowledge was required to solve the CORA tasks. "We are always testing new groups of students, and the assessment has also been continued as a longitudinal study. Since we first started conducting these assessments two years ago, the results are always similar: the students tend to achieve low scores". However, students in higher semesters perform slightly better than students in their first year of study. Critical online reasoning skills could therefore be promoted during the course of studies. In the United States, a significant increase in these kinds of skills was observed only a few weeks after implementing newly developed training approaches.

The study shows that most students do not succeed in correctly evaluating online sources in the given time and in using relevant information from reliable sources on the Internet to solve the tasks. "As we know from other studies, students are certainly able to adequately judge the reliability of well-known media portals and Internet sources. We could build on this fact and foster the skills required to critically evaluate new sources and online information and to use the Internet in a reflected manner to generate warranted knowledge," concluded Professor Olga Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia.

In research on this topic, skills related to critically dealing with online information and digital sources are regarded as an essential prerequisite for learning in the 21st century. However, there are still very few training approaches and assessments available for students to foster these skills, especially online. "The RMU study is still in the early stages of development. We have only just developed the first test of this kind in Germany," Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia pointed out. "We are currently in the process of developing teaching/learning materials and training courses and of testing their effectiveness. The analysis of the processing will be particularly useful when it comes to offering students targeted support in the future.

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The Rhine-Main Universities (RMU)

As outstanding research universities in the Rhine-Main area, Goethe University Frankfurt, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, and Technische Universität Darmstadt have joined together to form the strategic Rhine-Main Universities alliance. The universities have worked in close cooperation with each other for more than ten years, signing a framework agreement to form a strategic alliance in 2015.

The Rhine-Main Universities are situated in close vicinity to one another in the Frankfurt/Rhine-Main metropolitan region and offer a wide range of disciplines from medicine and the natural sciences to the humanities and social science through to engineering. With more than 100,000 students and 1,460 professors, the Rhine-Main Universities collaborate closely in research, learning and teaching, the promotion of young researchers, and the transfer and exchange with business and society.

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