Internet Detective

Internet Detective is a free online tutorial designed to help students develop the critical thinking required for their Internet research. The tutorial offers practical advice on evaluating the quality of websites and highlights the need for care when selecting online information sources to inform university or college work.

The tutorial adopts a film noir detective metaphor to offer a light-hearted guide to developing Internet skills to help with studying and research. It takes around an hour to complete and is divided into the following five sections:

• What’s the Story? – aims to help students recognise the need to develop advanced Internet skills for university and college work

• The Good, the Bad and the Ugly – explains why information quality is an issue on the web, especially for academic research, and raises awareness of Internet hoaxes and scams

• Detective Work –gives hints and tips that help students evaluate information found on the Internet.

• Get on the Case – enables students to try out their Internet Detective skills with practical exercises

• Keep the Right Side of the Law - warns students about the dangers of plagiarism, copyright and incorrect use of citations and referencing