Undergraduates’ perceptions of an online training to integrate conflicting sources in writing

Abstract

Integrating conflicting information from multiple sources is an essential skill in today's society. This ability can be developed in the field of education through tasks such as writing a synthesis after reading sources that present contradictory views about a topic. In this work, we focus on the design of an intervention on argumentative writing through the Moodle platform with students from an online university. The participants were 44 students of the Degrees of Psychology and Education. As an academic task, they were asked to write different syntheses after reading two sources presenting conflicting positions on various educational topics. Students received training about the processes involved on the synthesis task. The training includes different tools, using videos, graphic mediators and exercises, including an explicit instruction, as well as a modelling about the different phases of the synthesis writing process, focusing especially on integration. In this work we present, on the one hand, the particularities of the intervention and, on the other, the perception of the participants in terms of: (1) the degree of improvement in their skills, (2) the usefulness of the aid received and (3) their degree of satisfaction with the intervention. The results show that, in general, students consider that their skills have improved significantly and that the aids provided have been effective. In addition, their satisfaction with the intervention is high.