Enhancing Information Literacy for Spotting Fake News: A Study on the Efficacy of a Serious Game for M-Learning Across Different Age Groups

With so many online information sources in recent years, it has become increasingly difficultto determine if the content is based on facts, half-truths, or lies. As a result, the goal of thisresearch is to propose a serious game design for learning to evaluate sources using the CRAAPtest. In the game, players take on the role of librarians who must evaluate news from socialmedia and newspapers, determine whether it is fake or true, and then inform the people ofthe city. During their efforts to make the correct decision, the players are able to observe andlearn about the impact of fake news on the community and the city as a result of their decisions.To evaluate the game, we did a randomized online field study, including quantitativeresearch based on pre-posttests involving 351 participants. The results revealed that using aserious game of “How to Spot Fake News” can improve the knowledge of information literacyneeded to evaluate online sources of information. Finally, we provide preliminary evidencethat gaming improves people’s ability to recognize and resist misinformation.