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Article

Information quality problems in Farsiweb-based learning resources: how doteachers assure of the content qualityfor classroom use?

Faegheh Mohammadi and A. AbrizahUniversity of Malaya

AbstractAlthough the Web has been seen as a critical source of information in K–12 education, Iranian educators’ accep-tance for the web technology to become mainstream in the classroom remains a big challenge. Quality of infor-mation might be taken into account towards successful use of web-based learning resources. This study identifiesthe perceived information quality problems of Farsi web resources to be used in classroom instruction. This qua-litative study employs focus group and interviews as the data collection technique, involving 10 secondary schoolteachers in Iran. It analyzed the information quality problems and information quality assurance applied or sug-gested by the participants in the context of web resources used in classroom instruction. Eleven dimensions ofinformation quality problems emerged from the focus group discussion, seven of which are associated with con-tent quality. Educators’ perceptions about the quality of web resources might be considered as critical in terms ofusage of web resources in the Iranian school context. Not only the information quality dimensions highlighted inthis study may help them, but also increased theoretical understanding can translate into practical insights that willbenefit professionals who seek to design educational websites for credibility.

Keywordsinformation quality, evaluation of web resources, Farsi web resources, classroom instruction, Iran

Teachers in Iran often have to rely on English language web resources and translatethem into the Persian language.

Introduction

The World Wide Web is becoming a powerful, global,

interactive, and dynamic medium for delivering class-

room instruction. Compared to traditional information

warehouses, the web is a rich tool which can provide

fast and effortless access to a variety of authentic teach-

ing and learning materials. Web-based learning

resources (WBLRs) have the potential to support a

learning environment in which students explore knowl-

edge and enhance their learning (Combes and Valli

2007). Due to the increased focus on digital literacy,

WBLRs as pedagogical tools are becoming more and

more important in school education. However, users’

acceptance remains a big challenge in order for the web

to become mainstream in classroom instruction (Wie-

senmayer and Meadows 1997), as the rapid increase

in the huge volume of information resources has raised

several information quality issues. Indeed, there has

been much discussion and research on how the online

environment that is used to access information can

affect perceptions of the credibility of that information

(Flanagin and Metzger 2007; Fogg et al. 2003;

Metzger, Flanagin and Zwarun 2003b; Wathen and

Burkell 2002). Unlike traditional information resources

that are published following a rigorous peer-review

process, in a web environment, ideally everyone can

Corresponding author:Faegheh Mohammadi, Department of Library and InformationScience, Faculty of Computer Science and InformationTechnology, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.Email: faeghehmohammadi@yahoo.com

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post his/her self-generated content immediately with-

out any restriction. While current openness and avail-

ability of information providers is an advantage, at

the same time they make the web vulnerable to inaccu-

rate, doubtful and out-of-date information. This prob-

lem is magnified especially when learners find

incorrect or out-of-date materials being used in instruc-

tion. Thus, the quality of information on the web is

highly variable.

The use of web resources in education can be influ-

enced by the quality of the information (Casteleyn

et al. 2009) from the user’s perception (Klobas

1995). A few studies have looked at the quality of

educational web resources and reported areas of con-

cern. Princeton Survey Research Associates (2002)

and Grimes and Bonening (2001) indicated that fraud

and low-quality information are perceived to be a

growing problem in the online world. Information

quality problems can appear in the evaluation of

web resources in education, especially for classroom

instruction, such as navigational problems, distracting

advertisements in the margins of scientific texts and

information that is irrelevant to the target audience

(Sumner et al. 2003). As the web has not been

designed for an educational setting, the quality of its

content is a major concern of educators (Kuiper

et al. 2005). This concurs with the concern of Hartig

and Zhao (2009) who indicated that scientific applica-

tions built upon the web would be of little value if

scientists are ‘‘skeptical of the quality of data’’. As the

quality of information has an impact on users’

decision-making and their performance, detecting

information quality problems and employing strate-

gies for dealing with them should be considered by

researchers (Fuld 1998; Keltner 1998).

Careful evaluation of electronic information has

long been emphasized by researchers (Fritch and

Cromwell 2001; Fitzgerald 1997). Since not all online

resources are equally reliable or valuable, K–12 edu-

cators need to be discerning and thoughtful web users

with clear ideas of web resource quality indicators.

Educators need to assess the quality of information

themselves before making any decision to use such

resources, as this allows them to guide students to

materials that are useful and appropriate for their aca-

demic level. They also need to know the interactions

and delivery strategies employed in various web

resources in order to develop effective pedagogy in

the web environment.

As regards the current state of the use of web

resources in Iranian classrooms, the limited research

shows that teachers in Iran are not intended to use web

technology in education (Najafi 2006). Among the

barriers they face are insufficient technical support

at school and little access to the Internet (Salehi and

Salehi 2012). Consequently, the lack of instruction

to help students conduct Internet searches is readily

felt (Fatahi, Dokhtesmati and Saberi 2011). Little is

known as to whether inaccessibility and disconnectiv-

ity to the Internet, and censorship and filtering of

Internet sites by the government have contributed to

teachers’ reasons for not doing so, and there has been

no research to date that looks into the desirable infor-

mation quality dimensions of Farsi (Persian) educa-

tional web resources required by teachers. As such,

there is a need to conduct context-based studies

exploring the information quality issues in adopting

web resources to be used in teaching and learning in

Iran, which results in the development of a framework

for measuring the quality of Farsi web-based

resources for K–12 education.

Literature review

There is a strong body of research dealing with what

criteria relate to quality online information sources

and how users make judgments about the quality of

these resources. Janes and Rosenfeld (1996) wrote

that information quality control mechanisms are initi-

ated based on an assumption that a vast amount of

information accessed through a wide variety of sys-

tems and resources is out of date, incomplete, poorly

organized, or simply inaccurate. Previous researchers

(Rieh and Belkin 1998; Dilevko and Gottlieb 2002)

found that users rate the web as less authoritative and

credible than other types of information systems. As a

result, credibility assessment has been considered by

many researchers to identify the factors that affect the

acceptance of web information. Credibility assess-

ment on the web concerns three types of evaluation:

evaluation of the web, evaluation of websites, and

evaluation of web information (Rieh and Danielson

2007). Evaluation of the web concerns credibility

assessment of the web at the media level, which com-

pares its credibility to other media such as print. Eva-

luation of website credibility concerns individual

websites as a source of information. Evaluation of

web information credibility explores the concept of

credibility on the basis of individual objects of infor-

mation or resources found on the web.

Fogg et al. (2001), in their first Stanford Web Cred-

ibility Research, found that factors such as ease of

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use, trustworthiness and expertise were indicators of

website credibility. Based on 4 years of quantitative

research on web credibility, Fogg (2003) developed

the Prominence-Interpretation theory, which posits

two aspects of credibility assessment: the likelihood

of an element related to the source or message being

noticed when people evaluate credibility (promi-

nence); and the value or meaning assigned to the ele-

ment based on the user’s judgment of how the element

affects the likelihood of being good or bad (interpre-

tation). According to Fogg, five factors affect promi-

nence, including user involvement, information topic,

task, experience level, and other individual differ-

ences. Three factors affecting interpretation were

identified: user assumptions, user skill and knowl-

edge, and contextual factors such as the environment

in which the assessment is made. Fogg explained how

people repeated their evaluative processes, focusing

on different website elements until they were satisfied

with their credibility assessments or until other con-

straints, such as lack of time or skill, stopped them.

Rieh (2002) studied how people make judgments

related to quality and cognitive authority while

searching for information on the web. Using verbal

protocols, Rieh found a slightly different set of factors

that were important for this task, including accuracy,

currency, trustworthiness, scholarliness and authorita-

tiveness. In another study, Sumner et al. (2003) iden-

tified educators’ criteria for quality judgments when

engaged in collection curation within educational

digital libraries. These included scientific accuracy,

lack of bias, and good pedagogical design. Other

research findings (Flanagin and Metzger 2007;

Stanford et al. 2002) have shown that users with dif-

ferent levels of motivation and ability focus on differ-

ent criteria when judging the credibility of web

information. These studies revealed that simple heur-

istics assessment criteria such as visual appeal tend to

be used by non-experts and those who judge informa-

tion on a web page neutrally. Conversely, experts and

those who find online information to be most impor-

tant were more concerned about the quality of the

information and source credentials rather than visual

design of website when making credibility judgments.

There is also a body of literature concerned with

developing frameworks for evaluating information

published on the web. During a large-scale empirical

research, Wang and Strong (1996) developed a frame-

work that contains 15 dimensions of information

quality within four categories: intrinsic information

quality (comprising accuracy, objectivity, believability,

reputation), accessibility information quality (accessi-

bility, security) contextual information quality

(relevancy, value-added, timeliness, completeness,

amount of information), and representational informa-

tion quality (interpretability, ease of understanding,

concise representation, consistent representation).

Adopting Wang and Strong’s framework, Katerattan-

kul and Siau (1999) developed an instrument to mea-

sure the information quality of websites which

contains these four categories. Alexander and Tate

(1999), in applying a quality framework for the web

environment, came up with six information quality

criteria, namely: authority accuracy, objectivity, cur-

rency, orientation (target audience) and navigation.

While Wang and Strong’s framework was aimed at

traditional information systems, the framework has

also been applied by Klein (2002) to information pub-

lished on the web. Klien (2002) came up with five

dimensions, namely: accuracy, completeness, rele-

vance, timeliness, and amount of data.

The library and information science (LIS) literature

provides guidance in the form of checklist criteria for

evaluating web resources based on those that a librar-

ian would use when evaluating print items for

inclusion in a library collection: namely, accuracy,

authority, objectivity, currency, and coverage (Rieh

and Danielson 2007). The checklist model which

helps promote the evaluation criteria also tends to

include a series of questions designed to help users

to decide the information quality of web resources;

however, the literature has also pointed out some dif-

ficulties in using the checklist approach (Meola 2004;

Flanagin and Metzger 2003; Rieh 2002; Scholz-Crane

1998). For example, the fact that a website does not

have contact information does not necessarily mean

that the information is of low quality; these research-

ers pointed out that some authorities who are

extremely well-known would naturally be reluctant

to give out their email address. Meola (2004), Metz-

ger and Flanagin (2003a) and Scholz-Crane (1998)

also found out that users are reluctant to exert much

effort, as well as spending the amount of time required

to use checklists, for evaluating web resources. Meola

(2004) indicated that the checklist format can ‘‘give

the impression that the checklist is a kind of machine

that spits out correct Web-site evaluations when given

the right input’’ and it seems to promote the idea that

students who proceed down the list and successfully

check off the questions can mechanically arrive at a

determination of quality. Another problem with the

application of the checklist model in practice is that

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it can serve to promote a mechanical and algorithmic

way of evaluation that is at odds with the higher-level

judgment and intuition that we presumably seek to

cultivate as part of critical thinking (Meola 2004).

Kapoun (1998) provides 27 statements that are

designed to provoke critical thinking and aid in the

evaluation of web resources. The statements, which

incorporate five criteria (accuracy, authority, objec-

tivity, currency and coverage), serve as guidelines for

undergraduate students to evaluate web resources for

their research. Variations of this same approach are

found in a similar research conducted by Shiveley and

van Fossen (1999), with the aim of providing guide-

lines for social science teachers and students to help

them sift and recognize useful and credible informa-

tion through the plethora of unequal web resources.

Their guidelines provide six user-accepted key cri-

teria in terms of evaluating web resources based on

critical thinking: authorship/source; objectivity/bias;

validity of content; bibliography/reference links; cur-

rency; and quality of writing. On the other hand,

Metzger (2007) opined that the best strategy for prac-

tice is to teach a hybrid approach to credibility assess-

ment that is based on individual Internet users’

motivation and contextual purpose for seeking infor-

mation online. Users could be taught to use the check-

list where they feel motivated to obtain high-quality,

credible information, while for less motivated users

or search situations, users could be taught some sim-

ple heuristics to consider, such as checking for source

or sponsorship information.

Objective and method

To set the stage of the method and results of this

study, we first need to define information quality.

Information quality in this study is defined as ‘‘infor-

mation fit for use’’ (Wang and Strong 1996), which

implies that it is relative, as information considered

appropriate for one use may not have sufficient attri-

butes for another use. Wang and Strong (1996) wrote

that the quality of data or information cannot be

assessed independent of the people who use the infor-

mation. According to Strong, Lee and Wang (1997)

an information quality problem is defined as ‘‘diffi-

culty encountered on one or more quality dimensions

that renders data completely or largely unfit for use’’.

To address information quality problems among users

and uses of the information, the quality of the infor-

mation needs to be assured. Information quality assur-

ance is the process to guarantee confidence that

particular information meets some context-specific

quality requirements. In an attempt to deal with this

phenomenon, we have at one point or another identi-

fied particular metrics for information quality. They

could also be described as ‘quality traits’ of informa-

tion, since these metrics could not so easily be quan-

tified, but rather be subjectively identified on an

individual basis.

The objective of this research was to identify the

perceived information quality dimensions of Farsi

web resources to be used in classroom instruction

by teachers. As web information quality issues in the

educational context have been largely unexplored in

Iran, a qualitative methodology was chosen for this

study. This exploratory study aimed to answer the fol-

lowing research questions:

1. What are the information quality problems

faced by teachers in terms of using Farsi web

resources for classroom instruction?

2. What is the perceived content quality of web

resources used by teachers in terms of meeting

their instructional information needs?

3. How do teachers address the content-related

information quality problems in terms of meet-

ing their instructional information needs?

A single selected urban Smart Secondary school in

Tehran, Iran was chosen as the case study for the fol-

lowing reasons, similar to Abdullah and Zainab’s

(2008) study: a) the school administration as well as

teachers are willing to participate in the study; b) the

teachers use the Internet in classroom instruction; and

c) the school provides Internet connections, putting

the educational community in an ICT-rich environ-

ment. Eligible teachers were approached following

consent from the school administration.

To benefit from the advantages of both group and

single interviews, we decided to combine both types

of interview in this research. A number between three

and six groups is considered enough to reach theoreti-

cal saturation, and focus groups typically have 7–10

respondents (Krueger and Casey 2009; Strauss and

Corbin 1990). To match with these rules of thumb,

we conducted a total number of two group interviews,

each having five respondents. The sample size was

small due to the fact that the data have reached satura-

tion with respect to the insights that the subjects can

offer. Patricio et al. (2003) used the same research

approach as we do in this study. They conducted four

group interviews with five participants each, as well

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as 14 single interviews. We conducted five single inter-

views in this research. A formal invitation was sent to

each of the participants informing them the basic prin-

ciples of the study, namely:

� the aim of the focus group is not to measure the

knowledge of the participants

� the information of the participants is regarded

as private

� there are stipends (thumb drives) and refresh-

ments during and at the end of the session

� the insights and ideas of the participants are

regarded as important.

Two group interviews were conducted on 20th and

21st January 2011, recruiting 10 Iranian High Smart

School teachers. Each group comprised five teachers

in the fields of mathematics, chemistry, biology, Per-

sian literature, and physics. The participants’ average

teaching experience was 20 years, and all of them

were female, reflecting the dominance of this gender

in the country’s teaching profession. Table 1 presents

the demographic information of the participants in the

focus groups.

An individual interview was conducted with each

of the participants in Group One during two days,

22nd and 23rd January 2011. The participants

comprised five High Smart School teachers who were

likely to be the most informative in relation to

the research question. Their average teaching experi-

ence was 21 years and all of them were female. The

single interviews lasted approximately 45 minutes

and the focus groups 2 hours. All single interviews

and group interviews were tape (audio) recorded.

In this research we utilized user self-reported

descriptions and rationalization of actions taken as the

means to identify the types of information quality

problems and related dimensions that are considered

to be important by the users. Information quality can

be assessed by using some criteria such as goals,

needs, conventions, knowledge, norms, rules and

technology within a specific context (Stvilia 2006).

In order to be informed of evaluation criteria for iden-

tifying required information quality dimensions of

web resources, group interview discussions were

guided around general questions relating to the parti-

cipants’ needs, goals, problems and actions taken to

fix the problems during their interaction with web

resources. The group interviews centred on the fol-

lowing questions:

� What are the Farsi web resources / websites you

use for teaching? How did you learn about the

websites for the first time?

� How are the qualities of the web resources?

What are the problems that you face when

using the web resources? What is missing from

the websites?

� If someone asks you about how would you

choose a particular web resource for a lesson,

what would you tell her? What are the qualities

that you would be excited about in the websites?

After the group interview sessions all audio files

were transcribed verbatim. Then the researchers

coded and analyzed the content. Finally, the quality

problems and their indicators were extracted from the

analyzed texts. We performed Glaser and Strauss’

Table 1. Demographic information for group interview participants.

Participants School subjects Academic qualification Years of teaching experience

Group 1- January 20th 2011 (9.30-11.30) a.m.M1 Mathematics Masters degree 19 yearsP1 Physics Bachelor degree 20 yearsC1 Chemistry Bachelor degree 22 yearsPL1 Persian Literature Masters degree 13 yearsB1 Biology Bachelor degree 25 years

Group 2 - January 21st 2011 (9.30-11.30) a.m.M2 Mathematics Bachelor degree 18 yearsP2 Physics Masters degree 23 yearsC2 Chemistry Bachelor degree 27 yearsPL2 Persian Literature Bachelor degree 16 yearsB2 Biology Bachelor degree 20 years

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(1967) four steps for analyzing the interview data.

First, the qualitative verbal data collected from all

five study participants were coded in the form of

memos by the researchers, to filter out comments that

were not relevant to quality, and then to derive the

most important dimensions of quality indicated by the

data. The latter was performed in an iterative process

where comments were grouped by similarity into

categories, and the categories then iteratively adjusted

until they best covered the data. Next, the researchers

added their interpretation to each code in the form of

memos. The codes representing similar meanings

were then integrated under a single theme. Priority

was given to categories that were identified by all par-

ticipants, and categories were adjusted until 100 per-

cent inter-rater agreement was reached. Finally, using

the evidence, a narration was written for each theme.

The information obtained from the interviews repre-

sents the researcher‘s interpretation based upon

records made during the focus group meeting, which

were subsequently transcribed and used in the data

analysis.

Findings

Information quality problems encountered

This section presents findings from the focus group

interviews in the form of a summary of what respon-

dents said in response to the research questions. In

general, the focus group teachers typically reported

using web resources to support their curriculum.

Teachers frequently use web resources and integrate

them into their lesson plans. Most teachers spent an

average search time of 3 hours a day in order to find

materials to be used in the classroom.

Participants revealed that they use web resources

specifically to create customized electronic educational

content based on their lesson plans. They disclosed

some relevant issues as well as problems encountered

during their interaction with web resources to generate

their own curriculum content. Most of the information

quality problems encountered are related to context

change, in which information is used outside its origi-

nal context of creation. According to the teachers’

objectives and needs in terms of using Persian web

information resources for producing customized

content conforming to their lesson plan requirements,

‘‘context change’’ was considered as the source

of information quality problems. As information re-

sources available on the web have been produced in

various contexts to endorse different objectives and

in different formats and types, so in order to use them

appropriately in a specific context the teachers need to

find, evaluate, select and modify them based on their

own specific requirements based on their own percep-

tions. Metadata quality problems associated with

searching and retrieving of web resources were also

discussed in detail by participants.

Table 2 outlines the most important findings

related to the first research question, ‘‘What are the

information quality problems faced by teachers in

terms of using the Farsi web resources for classroom

instruction?’’ grouped by theme. A total of 11 infor-

mation quality problems perceived by teachers

emerged from the focus group discussions, namely,

problems with information accessibility, verifiability,

accuracy, informativeness, reusability, timeliness,

metadata, completeness, authority, interactivity and

objectivity. The 11 terms used to describe the infor-

mation quality problem were identified from criteria

or factors in the assessment of web resources culled

from the literature review. Table 2 illustrates the find-

ings with the associated definition of each problem,

and two sample incidences culled from the focus

group interview transcripts. The source of the infor-

mation (which group or participant) is also presented.

Content-related information quality problemsencountered

From the content point of view, web-based learning

resources are computer-based implementations of a

specific subject that is aligned with a given curricu-

lum in school education (Hadjerrouit 2010) and they

are created to support different topics of a given sub-

ject, as well as learning materials in a number of sub-

jects at all levels in school education. To further

probe the content-related information quality prob-

lems experienced by teachers in the focus group dis-

cussion, we recruited five teachers were experienced

in assessing the quality and appropriateness of digi-

tal resources for various digital collections. We pre-

sented these teachers with digital resources and

asked them to talk about how they would make a

quality judgment of these resources. This section

attempts to address the following research question:

‘‘What is the perceived content quality of web

resources used by teachers in terms of meeting their

instructional information needs?’’ The result of ana-

lyzing the interview transcripts was a set of seven

content-related information quality dimensions,

namely, verifiability, accuracy, informativeness,

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Table 2. Categorization used for coding information quality problems.

IQ Problems and Description Sample incident from Focus Group 1 Sample incident from Focus Group 2

1. Accessibility problemThe occasions when claims weremade that reference information wasnot effectively accessible because ofsome reasons that would beconsidered important

Information I need has been filteredpolitically, I think based on thekeywords . . . . my search for‘‘Nuclear Energy’’, ‘‘Atomic Energy’’,‘‘Atom’’ returns no result. (P1)

Searching certain phrases such as ‘‘sexdifferences’’ obtained no resultbecause of the filtering policy, relatedresources on ‘‘sex’’ will not beaccessible to us, generally. (B2)

2. Verifiability problemOccurs when users feel thatinformation cannot be verifiedquickly and inexpensively due to thelack of references and links tooriginal resources as well as brokenlinks prone to verifiability problems

Most of the time I fail to open relatedlinks to the original resources as theyare not linked easily, the links are notactive, so they are not reliable at all(C1).

Most of the time, Farsi educationaltexts are not supported by anyreferences, so how can I trust them!My students need trustworthyinformation resources. (PL2)

3. Accuracy problemOccurs when the legality ofinformation is questioned regardingto some reference sources, such asinvalid or less accurate use ofvocabulary.

In spite of availability of Farsi equivalentfor most of particular English wordshowever direct translation is acommon practice related to themajority of Farsi web resources. (C1)

Spelling errors are very prevalentamong Farsi educational webresources; you can’t fail to noticethem! (P2)

4. Informativeness problemOccurs when the users claim that theresources present redundant and /orduplicate information. Redundancyreduces the information novelty

Repeated content in various Farsi websites is common; it seems that theweb creator frequently practise copyand paste of resources! (M1)

Over and over again I find repeatedFarsi educational resources, they donot present new information.(P2)

5. Reusability problemOccurs when users believe that webresources cannot be used in morethan one context and grade level

At a glance Farsi educational resourcesseem reusable for more than onegrade level, but actually a carefulfocus on their contents, indicatesthat they are intended to be used in aspecific level only (C1)

Often after embedding parts of themwhich I thought relevant into mylesson plan, I note that they didn’tactually meet my classrequirement . . . definitely not forhigh school students, in terms ofvocabulary or writing style (PL2)

6. Timeliness problemCurrency or timelines taken in intoaccount when users feel thatinformation is out of date

Currency of resource is very importantcriteria for my subject, well,unfortunately it is not consideredseriously by the majority of Farsieducational websites. (P1)

The last update and date of websitecreation are not there, I’m verysensitive about using up-to-dateinformation in my field, it is impor-tant for me. (B2)

7. Metadata problemOccurs when users’ search processusing metadata obtain a lot ofirrelevant materials.

There is not clear distinction amongtypes of metadata in our searchengine, for example when I search for‘‘koohestani’’ for author name, theresults include both author as well assubject (PL1)

Using our search engine is timeconsuming because of the poorquality of metadata. We have to scanall the results for example typing‘‘Galaxy’’ in search box in order to findscholar texts or images related toastronomy provides huge irrelevantmaterials such as ads of a shoppingcenter named ‘‘Galaxy’’. (P2)

8. Completeness problemOccurs when the amount ofinformation retrieved by user is notenough to meet her/his informationneeds

At times, I have anxiety related toobtain enough resources to embedthem into my subject because veryoften I fail to find the neededinformation (M1)

Unfortunately web educationalresources in Farsi language do notsupport wide range of perspectivesin a same topic that can complementeach other via enough details (B2)

(continued)

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reusability, completeness, timeliness, and objectiv-

ity. Each of these categories will be discussed in

detail below. Quotations from the interviews are

used to illustrate the findings.

Verifiability

Verifiability is one of the most frequently encoun-

tered content-related information quality problems

experienced by the teachers in this study. Teachers

feel that information cannot be verified quickly and

inexpensively due to the lack of references and links

to original resources, as well as broken links prone

to verifiability problems. Teachers do not rely on

information sources with not enough references. The

following statements reflect this issue:

I can’t rely on the resources . . . not without support-

ing references [B1]

Sometimes the references are not usable because of

broken links or the web page contains non-reliable

references [P1].

Accuracy

Stvilia et al. (2007) defines accuracy as ‘‘the extent to

which information is legitimate or valid according to

some stable reference source such as a dictionary’’

(p.1729). According to the interview participants, Per-

sian educational texts on the web contain a lot of spel-

ling errors and mistakes in composition or sentence

structure. The participants reported the following:

Very often, I come across a lot of spelling errors in

Farsi educational texts on chemistry on the web [C1].

Incorrect word-for-word translation is a common

malpractice in Farsi web resources [P1].

In addition to spelling errors, the web resources have

such weak writing structure that has failed to convey

the meaning clearly [PL1].

Informativeness

Informativeness problems arise when the users claim

that the resources present redundant and / or dupli-

cate information. Stvilia (2006) opined that redun-

dancy reduces information novelty. The following

demonstrates some verbatim statements from the

participants in terms of content-related informative-

ness problems:

In spite of the possibility of web resources to demon-

strate a variety of information within a given subject

matter, Farsi educational web resources just are the

identical copy of a unique electronic format [C1].

Table 2. (continued)

IQ Problems and Description Sample incident from Focus Group 1 Sample incident from Focus Group 2

9. Authority problemArose when users are skepticalabout the source of Information.

Most of the web resources do notexpose who the author is, where heworks, his qualification, I think it isthe critical criteria to support thereliability of scientific information(M1)

There is no guarantee that you canknow from whom or where theresource originates, absence ofcreator’s name is very commonamong Farsi educational webresources! (B2)

10. Interactivity problemArose when the web pages havebeen organized in such way thatusers cannot attain their goalssuccessfully and effortless.

Most Farsi educational web sites shouldhave their internal search engine. Butthey are not like English educationalwebsites, unless if they are affiliatedto our government, they don’tprovide this feature for users. (P1)

I believe that use of audio-visual attri-butes is necessary to enhance stu-dents’ understanding of a subjectmatter. Unfortunately this featurehas been barely incorporated intoFarsi educational web resources (B2)

11. Objectivity problemObjectivity of information will bequestionable when users feel bias ininformation presented by creatorsor providers which distract userattention to information.

The most important problem aboutFarsi web resources which regularlyannoy us is the irrelevant resources.In some cases deceptive adsmargined into educational web pagesthat distract students’ attention awayfrom the scientific texts and decreasetheir ‘‘loyalty’’ to the web page. (PL1)

Farsi web resources contain massivevolume of irrelevant advertisementsthat do not aligned with oureducational aims. In many cases theydivert students’ attention fromacademic materials text to worthlessmaterials. (P2)

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All in all, compared to English educational web

resources, Farsi resources are poor in terms of pre-

senting very specific information or detailed infor-

mation; they merely contain basic knowledge on a

subject matter [B1].

There are a lot of redundant Farsi educational materi-

als available on the web [PL1].

Reusability

Based on the Distributed National Electronic Re-

sources and Learning Objects (DNER&LO) evaluation

criteria for electronic learning resources developed by

the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC),

reusability is considered as an attribute of web-based

educational resources which enables them to be re-

used in various contexts (Currier and Campbell

2002). DNER&LO classifies reusability into two

types: horizontal reusability and vertical reusability.

‘Horizontal reusability’ (or subject specificity) refers

to the possibility of classifying the resources under the

following categories: generic, interdisciplinary, subject

specific and resource specific. ‘Generic’ reusability rep-

resents the ability of web resources to be reused in any

subject field or discipline. ‘Interdisciplinary’ indicates

that resources are applicable to teaching and learning

in more than one discipline or subject. ‘Subject specific’

refers to those resources that have been designed only

for use within a specific subject or discipline. ‘Resource

specific’ indicates resources designed only for use with

a specific resource.

‘Vertical reusability’ refers to resources that may be

used at more than one educational level. DNER&LO

further considered contextual dependency as one of the

factors that affect the level of resource reusability.

Contextual dependency refers to whether a web

resource ensures maximum comprehension on its own,

or depends on external resources or links, e.g. a glos-

sary. (Currier and Campbell 2002). It is proposed that

the more contextual the dependency of a web resource,

the more blurred the content will be.

Vertical reusability addresses issues associated with

content of web based learning resources. This informa-

tion quality dimension was considered an important

information quality problem among all participants, as

they believed that most Farsi educational web resources

are not reusable at more than one grade level. According

to the participants, a single Farsi web resource cannot be

modified and re-used for more than one level of study,

as depicted in the following statement:

At a glance Farsi educational resources retrieved by

search engines seem reusable for more than one

grade level, but a careful focus on their contents,

indicates that they are intended to be used in a spe-

cific level only [C1].

In line with this statement, other participants

remarked:

Yes that’s right; most of the time they represent basic

knowledge that is useful for one who needs just basic

information about a scientific topic [P1].

It is ideal that Farsi educational web resources written

in the same subject but with different level of com-

plexity organized together and categorized based on

their target groups. This will facilitate us teachers

in the selection of required materials [M1].

According to the participants, although using

external resources provided by hyperlinks to reflect

reusability might enhance the learner’s understand-

ing of an educational text, the extraordinary use of

hyperlinks may reduce students’ concentration on

specific subject. The teachers believe that although

hyperlinks are capable to expand the scope of sub-

ject matters, excessive hyperlinks embedded into

the customized texts may lead to ‘‘students being

easily distracted [PL1], having less control over

their attention [C1] and being much less able to

differentiate important information from trivia

[C1]’’. The following statement represents partici-

pants’ statements regarding this condition: . . .

I have seen a Farsi educational text which includes

too many hyperlinks, 10–12 hyperlinks for each

page! I think there should be a balance between the

numbers of hyperlinks and size of content [PL1]

Completeness

According to participants, another most frequently

encountered information quality problem type was

completeness. Completeness refers to the granularity

or level of detail present in the content of an informa-

tion object. This problem appears when the amount

of information retrieved by the users is not enough

to meet her/his information needs. Participants’ state-

ments show that missing critical perspectives on a

topic and missing detailed information are the origin

of this type of information quality problem:

. . . enough details are not provided . . . need to sup-

port extensive user needs, give variety of perspective

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in a given subject. Most of Farsi web resources pres-

ent only a little basic information [P1].

Unfortunately web educational resources in Farsi lan-

guage do not support wide range of perspectives in

the same topic that can complement each other via

enough details [B1].

Timeliness

Currency, or timeliness, which refers to the age of an

information object, is considered as an important cri-

terion by participants in terms of evaluation and deci-

sion- making to use web resources:

We have encountered shortage in terms of Farsi web

resources for chemistry, I noted that resources are not

updated and most of them were created 4–5 years

ago. [C1]

Objectivity

Objectivity is the extent to which materials expresses

facts or information without distortion by personal

feelings or other biases (Alexander and Tate 1999).

With respect to the aims of educational resources, one

could expect them to be free from bias in any case.

However, the nature of the World Wide Web, which

includes open content information resources, might

be the origin of some quality problems. Whereas the

possibility of unlimited publishing of web informa-

tion resources provides an opportunity for everyone

to offer their opinions through this medium, it some-

times creates challenges in terms of biased ideas pre-

sented by dishonest people who attempt to distort

public opinion by imposing their beliefs using the

web. One participant commented:

I know some web resources that do not reflect the

facts . . . you know . . . the contents generated by

some unknown people merely to present their biased

ideas using web resources . . . in some cases they are

reluctant to even correct the spelling errors [C1].

Addressing the content-related informa-tion quality problems

This section is organized based on the content-related

information quality problems encountered, as

reported in the earlier section, and the information

quality assurance applied or suggested by the five

teacher participants during the interviews. It aims to

address the third research question: ‘‘How do teachers

address the content-related information quality prob-

lems in terms of meeting their instructional informa-

tion needs?’’

Teachers in this study were quick to point to ways

to guarantee confidence that particular web resources

meet specific content-related quality requirements.

To address verifiability problems, one participant:

retrieves and translates more reliable English web

resources that are supported by enough references [P1]

while another

revises and edits Farsi web resources which contents

are not accurate. [B1]

To address information quality problems associ-

ated with informativeness, the teachers admitted hav-

ing to rely on English web resources:

I have to retrieve and translate top English web infor-

mation resources associated with Chemistry into

Farsi language [C1].

To assure confidence in content reusability and

completeness, the teacher should

aggregate, translate and edit resources in similar

topics retrieved from various websites [M1].

To handle issues on timeliness, one participant

searches for information resources based on ‘‘cre-

ation date’’ of web information resources to exclude

out-of-date information from search results. [PL1]

All teachers admitted having to teach their students

how to evaluate web resources to address the issue on

objectivity. One remarked:

teach them critical thinking . . . need to evaluate web

resources before making decision to use the

resources. [P1]

Figure 1 presents the themes and their respective

information quality assurance that described the

approaches to quality taken by the teachers across all

five different school subjects.

Discussion

This study has shown that teachers who use online

information for classroom instruction were concerned

about the content-related quality of the information

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(such as verifiability, accuracy, informativeness, reu-

sability, completeness, timeliness and objectivity)

rather than the visual design of websites when making

credibility judgments. Verifiability of information has

been emphasized by many researchers (Kirk 1997;

Shiveley and van Fossen 1999; Grimes and Boening

2001; Naumann and Rolker 2000) to ensure high

quality of web information resources. According to

these researchers, adequate reference lists organized

based on appropriate style manuals and active hyper-

links supporting information are essential to confirm

an author’s competency and domain knowledge. Bro-

ken links and insufficient references have been criti-

cized by participants in this study, who believe in

more reliable references as providing more credible

information. Credibility is defined as perceived infor-

mation quality (Fogg et al. 2002), as such information

quality can be influenced by the verifiability of infor-

mation in the context of WBLRs.

A survey conducted by OCLC (2003) in 2001–

2002 on more than 1,000 college students in the

United States revealed that college students believe

that ‘‘accuracy’’ is the most important attribute of

information quality. The study participants believed

that the web falls considerably short in meeting this

criterion. The importance of accuracy of information

has been emphasized by many researchers in the edu-

cational context (Muirhead and Haughey 2005; Vargo

et al. 2003; Nesbit, Belfer and Leacock 2003), as well

as by website information quality framework develo-

pers (Alexander and Tate 1999; Katerattankul et al.

1999; Klein 2002). Based on the presence of this

dimension in this study, we have identified accuracy

as an important information quality dimension for

Farsi educational web resources.

Wang and Strong (1996) identified the ‘‘amount of

information’’ is as an information quality dimension.

They defined it as the ‘‘appropriate quantity or vol-

ume of available data or information’’. Naumann and

Rolker (2000), Kahn, Strong and Wang (2002) and

Klien (2002) also incorporated ‘‘amount of data’’ as

an information quality dimension in their frame-

works. Although there has been emphasis on this

dimension in previous work, it should be taken into

account that the amount of volume of information

does not support a user’s needs unless it enhances the

user’s previous knowledge about a given subject by

providing him with further information. Stvilia’s

(2006) general information quality framework defines

‘‘informativeness’’ as a characteristic of information

quality in which the user is provided with ‘‘enough

new information with no redundancy’’. By comparing

the two terms concerned with usefulness of content in

providing appropriate and enough information for the

user, we assume ‘‘informativeness’’ and ‘‘amount of

data’’ as representing the same concept. Participants

in this study acknowledged that Farsi web resources

do not provide enough information for users. Ampli-

fication of repeated information represented in

various Persian websites has been criticized by parti-

cipants as a barrier toward obtaining more useful

information from websites which are similar in sub-

ject matter. Therefore in this research we have chosen

informativeness as an information quality dimension

which can be considered as an important component

of Farsi WBLRs.

WBLRs need to be reusable in order to satisfy the

users’ needs (Johnson and Hall 2007). There is cur-

rently a high degree of interest within teaching and

learning organizations in the development of strate-

gies and processes that will support the reusability

of WBLRs. Many organizations around the world

Figure 1. Encountered content-related information qual-ity problems and recommended information qualityassurance.

Mohammadi and Abrizah: Information quality problems in Farsi web-based learning resources 11

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have focused on developing standards and protocols

that support reusability features of these resources

(Oliver et al. 2003). The Sharable Courseware Object

Reference Model (SCORM) is a popular reusability

model containing a set of development specifications

for reusable learning objects. In order to increase

usage of web based information resources, Dublin

Core has established a widely accepted technical spe-

cification for metadata for the content of digital

resources for storage within digital libraries (Polsani

2006). Participants in this study expressed their con-

cern that Farsi educational web resources are not reu-

sable for a wide range of intended users. Based on the

importance of reusability of web information for edu-

cators we propose it as an important information qual-

ity dimension for Farsi WBLRs.

According to a systematic review (Eysenbach et al.

2002) of numerous empirical studies assessing the

quality of information provided by websites from con-

sumers’ perspectives, about 90 percent of the evaluated

websites have been criticized for providing incomplete

information. Evaluators of the examined websites have

asserted that completeness is a critical quality dimen-

sion for web resources. Similarly, completeness has

been identified as a critical quality dimension by

researchers in terms of WBLRs (Nesbit et al. 2003) and

information quality frameworks (Dedeke 2000; Kahn,

Strong and Wang 2002; Song and Zahedi 2006). It con-

firms the notion that ‘‘the more complete the informa-

tion, the higher quality the information is’’ that has

been emphasized by the community of web users (Risk

and Petersen 2002). Based on the literature and our

participants’ verification of the importance of this

dimension, we identify ‘‘completeness’’ as a key infor-

mation quality dimension for Farsi WBLRs.

Timeliness or currency has been considered as

another important attribute, as appreciated by respon-

dents in the OCLC 2001–2002 study (OCLC 2003) as

well as some other studies (Strong et al. 1997; Alex-

ander and Tate 1999; Grimes and Boening 2001;

Recker, Dorward and Nelson 2004; Kay and Knack

2005). Shiveley and van Fossen (1999) found that

unlike some types of information, such as literature

and visual museum exhibits where currency is not

an important issue, this attribute has a critical role

in assessing the quality of educational web sites.

Similarly, participants in this study intensively

emphasized the importance of timeliness of educa-

tional web resources. Therefore timeliness has to be

taken into account when assessing the information

quality of Farsi WBLRs.

Kirk (1997) wrote that variety of viewpoints

related to a specific topic can reduce the trustworthi-

ness of web resources, as the structure of the Internet

allows for easy self-publication. In order to assess a

website for objectivity, researchers (Alexander and

Tate 1999; Shiveley and van Fossen 1999) have

developed a checklist. Objectivity has been identified

as one of the important component of information

quality frameworks (Strong et al. 1997; Wang and

Strong 1996; Kahn, Strong and Wang 2002). Knight

(2008) found that more than one quarter (28 percent)

of the respondents in her study reported frequent

encounters with web resources that are biased in

nature. A high percentage (89 percent) stated encoun-

tering information of this kind leads to negative

effects on their perception of the information quality

of the resource, and nearly half of them (42 percent)

regularly encountered web resources that do not

attempt to sustain their own arguments on a topic.

Based on our findings, which are supported by the lit-

erature, objectivity is to be considered an important

information quality dimension for Farsi WBLRs.

Conclusion

This paper is an exploration of the quality problems

associated with Farsi web-based learning resources

as perceived by high school teachers in a single school

in Tehran. It extends existing research on the informa-

tion quality of web resources to the under-researched

domain of Iranian classrooms and contributes to the

literature that focuses on non-English web-based

instructional materials. This qualitative interview-

based study highlights 11 themes associated with

information quality problems, namely accessibility,

verifiability, accuracy, informativeness, reusability,

timeliness, metadata, completeness, authority, inter-

activity and objectivity. Seven of these themes con-

tribute to the content-related quality problems that

might discourage Iranian secondary school educators’

intention to continue to use web-based learning

resources for classroom use. Although the teachers

have ways to guarantee confidence that particular web

resources meet specific content-related quality

requirements, they very often have to rely on English

language web resources and translate them into Per-

sian language.

The success of most websites today depends on

whether users perceive them to be of quality or cred-

ible. If users think a site lacks credibility – that the

information and services cannot be trusted – they will

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abandon the site and seek to fill their needs in other

ways, as was the case of some of the participants in

this study. Because fraud and low-quality information

are perceived to be a growing problem in the online

world, creating a usable website is no longer suffi-

cient. Iranian web designers must design educational

web sites for credibility as well, and this includes

populating the sites with credible contents. Not only

might the information quality dimensions highlighted

in this study help them, but increased theoretical

understanding can also translate into practical insights

that will benefit professionals who seek to design

websites for credibility. In future research we plan

to continue analyzing the quality of information of

Farsi WBLRs, both qualitatively and quantitatively,

to gain a better understanding of how information

quality choices and assessments are made by the Per-

sian secondary school educators; and how they can be

approximated by quantitative measures and captured

into baseline target models of information quality

assessment.

Acknowledgement

We deeply acknowledge the University of Malaya for sup-

porting this research under the grant PS407-2010B and Pro-

fessor Dr Gary Eugene Gorman for his valuable input in the

presentation of this article.

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About the authors

Faegheh Mohammadi is a Lecturer at the Faculty of Edu-

cation and Psychology, University of Tabriz, Iran. She

graduated with BSc from Tabriz Medical University and

MLIS degree from Iran University of Medical Science

(IUMS) both in medical library and information science.

Currently she is a doctoral student at the University of

Malaya. Her research interests include information quality

assessment, web-based learning resources, children’s digi-

tal libraries and distance learning. Contact: Department of

Library and Information Science, Faculty of Computer Sci-

ence and Information Technology, University of Malaya,

50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Tel þ60172647620.

Email: faeghehmohammadi@yahoo.com

Dr A. Abrizah is an Associate Professor at the University

of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur. She graduated with a BSc in

Mohammadi and Abrizah: Information quality problems in Farsi web-based learning resources 15

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Environmental Engineering from Temple University, Phi-

ladelphia in 1988, and obtained her MLIS degree in 1998

and PhD in 2007 from the University of Malaya. She has

authored many conference and journal papers related to

technologies in libraries. She is the editor of the Malaysian

Journal of Library and Information Science. Contact:

Department of Library and Information Science, Faculty

of Computer Science and Information Technology, Univer-

sity of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Tel.þ603-

7967 6392. Email: abrizah@um.edu.my

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