An Investigation into the User's Role in the Credibility Assessment of Web-Based Information Resources from Region one of Islamic Azad University (IAU) Faculty Member's View Point

Different studies which are carried out on the credibility assessment of Web-based information, have taken different factors and levels into account including websites, information sources, information, messages, and the context within which credibility assessment is made. There are still other factors which do not depend on the source in question, but are related to the user who searches the information, and his or her characteristics, attributes, and behaviors. In the present study, first the role and position of users in credibility assessment was reviewed through investigating 7 credibility assessment models. Then, the most important factors and criteria of the models were illustrated according to the views of faculty members.
This study used the survey and library-based methods. The population included 1975 full-time faculty members of region 1 of Islamic Azad University (IAU). Based on Cochran formula, the sample of the study included 322 participants. To test the hypotheses, one-way variance was used. The data were processed in SPSS.
Findings: The findings showed that criteria such as user’s purpose, user’s competence (knowledge of the topic information technology, the Internet, and evaluation), and motivation were among the most important criteria for the users’ credibility assessment of information, from the faculty members’ perspective.