Spring 2027

Misinformation, Fake News, and Correcting False Beliefs About Science

Examines the spread of misinformation on scientific topics, including why people believe fake news, social media's role, and strategies to correct false beliefs.

offering recorded3 credits
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 Sedona Chinn3.7/5

Summary

1 / 3

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2024: 3.72 GPA, 84.0% A/AB (n=81 letter grades); Spring 2025: 3.74 GPA, 83.0% A/AB (n=88 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.83 GPA, 93.0% A/AB (n=115 letter grades).

What you’ll be able to do

  • Define and identify examples of misinformation and disinformation relating to scientific topics.

  • Explain psychological and contextual factors that lead people to believe false information.

  • Explain how traditional and online media contribute to the spread of misinformation.

  • Analyze examples of science misinformation and make arguments about the motivations of the creators/sharers and intended audience.

  • Build arguments about what effects misinformation is likely to have on science attitudes, trust in science, and democratic society supported by social science research.

  • Evaluate different strategies for correcting misperceptions and preventing the spread of misinformation.

  • Analyze and synthesize relevant scholarly literature related to misinformation and misperceptions.

  • Formulate a research proposal articulating an original research project related to the study of scientific misinformation.

Source: UW Guide

Grade history

↗
average GPA
letter grades
A
AB
B
BC
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F

All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

Satisfied Communications A or graduate/professional standing

    • Satisfied Communications A
    • graduate/professional standing
    take one
LSC 340

This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.

Prerequisite text tree
  • Any of
    • Satisfied Communications A
    • graduate/professional standing

Professors

Spring 2027
Adjusted rating
RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 4.50/5 from 2 quality ratings. The adjusted rating blends this with the UW review average (3.66/5), weighted as 20 additional ratings. Smaller samples stay closer to that average. Each captured review is counted once in the prior; this does not correct who chooses to leave a review.

RMP profile ↗ · All captured review dates; profile matched by name.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2024: 3.72 GPA, 84.0% A/AB (n=81 letter grades); Spring 2025: 3.74 GPA, 83.0% A/AB (n=88 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.83 GPA, 93.0% A/AB (n=115 letter grades). Includes jointly taught sections.

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

SEDONA CHINN is recorded teaching in Spring 2023, Spring 2024, Spring 2025, Spring 2026. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Calendar & sections

Spring 2027

Schedule loads here as you scroll.

SectionModeEnrolled / capacityWaitlist
LEC 001Classroom Instruction0 / 1000
DIS 301Classroom Instruction0 / 250
DIS 302Classroom Instruction0 / 250
DIS 303Classroom Instruction0 / 250
DIS 304Classroom Instruction0 / 250

Times are Central. Select a meeting for details; export includes recorded dates for the selected sections. Enrollment reflects scan time.

Meeting source records
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Student experience

the class

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2024: 3.72 GPA, 84.0% A/AB (n=81 letter grades); Spring 2025: 3.74 GPA, 83.0% A/AB (n=88 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.83 GPA, 93.0% A/AB (n=115 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

No workload feedback recorded.

Topics

  • Psychological factors behind belief in false information
  • Role of traditional and online media in spreading misinformation
  • Strategies for correcting misperceptions and preventing misinformation spread

Skills

  • Analyzing science misinformation and formulating evidence-based corrections

Grades

Latest available · Spring 2026— not enough history to project Spring 2027.

average GPA
A / AB grades
letter grades
Instructor

Grade distribution · % of letter grades

A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

Grades over time

Through Spring 2026

More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data

Where this course fits relative to

Latest available grades · Spring 2026 · all course levels

GPA

Higher than % of other courses in this group.

Course GPAs · red marks this course’s range

letter grades

More recorded grades than % of other courses in this group.

Typical course in this group: letter grades.

About this comparison

1280 courses over the same term, each with at least 30 recorded letter grades. Cross-listed courses count once. GPA is not a measure of difficulty or teaching quality. The typical course is the median by recorded grade count; tied values are not counted as lower. Grade counts describe course scale, not unique students or typical section size.

Descriptions compare GPA with this group’s average: at least 0.20 higher or lower; otherwise close to average. Section size uses median recorded enrollment: small up to 30, mid-sized 31–99, large 100+. Lectures and discussion/lab sections are described separately.

Sources & history

UW–Madison

Catalog & offerings

Descriptions, prerequisites, and recorded course offerings.

Catalog observation history

Observations at scan time; dates do not imply when a catalog change took effect.

Download part 1
Selected offering source records
LSC 340 · Spring 2027

Misinformation, Fake News, and Correcting False Beliefs about Science

Recorded 2026-10-14
Raw records 
[
  {
    "run_id": "20261014T203208-0851c9a1",
    "semester": "1274",
    "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00",
    "offering_id": "1274:120:026259",
    "course_id": "LSC 340",
    "course_uid": "course_9984c4bd9ce3a199efd4c312",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "026259",
    "source_subject_id": "120",
    "title": "Misinformation, Fake News, and Correcting False Beliefs about Science",
    "credits_min": 3,
    "credits_max": 3,
    "typically_offered": "Not Applicable"
  }
]
Rate My Professors

Student reviews

Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.

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No records available.

Madgrades

Grade history

Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.

Explore recorded grades
Dataset & model

Recorded 2026-10-14

View the dataset on Hugging Face
Model outputs & technical records
Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B
LLM outputs across runs
Download part 1
Full model traces

Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.

Download part 1
Model & dataset provenance 
{
  "model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "fd7f7edb9c0d4a1b50a2487ab29251120426a8087c7f374f29b07899b0f5dfdd",
  "requirements_status": "needs_review",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}