The effectiveness of a virtual learning companion for supporting the critical judgment of social media content

Abstract

Social media usage has become a daily habit for the younger generation. It can have positive effects on educational processes, but it also raises concerns about harmful content, such as fake news or hate speech. Fake news is often distributed with the intention to manipulate the public opinion by propagating disinformation. This includes the manipulation of images taken from reputable news resources. In response to these concerns and manipulations, we developed a web-based learning environment with a virtual learning companion (VLC). The VLC is designed to assist students in developing their critical thinking skills while interacting with social media content. The VLC is incorporated into a controlled learning environment that resembles Instagram and contains real and manipulated content. The “Courage” companion communicates with the students through chat dialogue and knowledge-activating questions. It also links additional images from web sources discovered through reverse image search based on image similarity. Learners are provided with various textual descriptions and keywords and are prompted to reflect on this information. The system’s effectiveness and assistance in identifying real or manipulated images have been evaluated in an empirical classroom study in August 2022 with 22 high school students in Germany that generated 95 conversations around five images and their texts assisted by the companion. Users’ interactions with the companion in a controlled Instagram-like social media environment have been recorded in xAPI format and then analyzed using a research dashboard. The results of this evaluation demonstrate that guidance through the VLC, along with the provision of additional content sources containing similar images and their explanation through the companion, improves the learners’ judgment. This corroborates the claim that the tool can help enhance learners’ critical thinking, resilience, and sensitivity facing social media issues.