JISC has released Users' Trust in Information Resources in the Web Environment: A Status Report.
Here's an excerpt:
This study brings together the e-commerce, e-health and information trust literature to provide a broader picture of what is already known around issues of trust in the use of Web resources within Higher Education (HE). Herring (2005) believes the first aspect of teaching information seeking skills is to teach students how to evaluate the information they have found; he believes that "Information literacy is now regarded by governments across the world as a core educational and life skill, and schools have a key role to play in developing their student's information literacy" (Herring 2005: 91). The JISC JUBILEE project found that "Most students do not evaluate the information they retrieve electronically" (Banwell et al 2003). Rowlands et al (2008) found that young people are "unable to construct effective searches and evaluate the results. . . due to their lack of knowledge of the kinds of information content that exists." If there is an inability or lack of perceived need to evaluate Web resources, how are choices made relating to trust." Young people feel at ease in many virtual environments but this does not necessarily mean they are equally at ease in all virtual worlds, they are, however, acutely aware of the limitations and potential pitfalls surrounding internet use. Rather than being discouraged from over-dependence on the internet, what learners need are the tools to allow them to use the internet to their best advantages. These tools are not ICT skills, navigating a keyboard is vastly different from navigating the choppy waters of cyberspace (Pickard 2008). A key dimension of trust is the belief in ability; the expertise, skills or technical ability that another has in a certain area (Ridings & Gefen 2005). This aspect of the study focuses on identifying and assessing evidence to examine the choices individuals make based on trust and confidence within the Web environment.
