Countering Digital Health Misinformation Through YouTube-Based Biology Instruction: An ADDIE Design and Evaluation of Learning Independence and Digital Literacy Outcomes

Abstract

The spread of health misinformation online is a globally recognized threat to public understanding of science, and biology classrooms are a natural, underused setting for building the digital literacy skills students need to resist it. This study developed and evaluated a YouTube-based biology learning medium on the human circulatory system, explicitly designed to build both learning independence and digital literacy -- including the ability to identify health-related hoaxes -- among eleventh-grade students at MAN Manggarai Barat, Indonesia. Using the ADDIE model (Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, Evaluation), the medium was developed and tested with 25 students, one content expert, and one media expert. Data were collected through expert validation sheets, teacher and student response questionnaires, a learning-independence questionnaire, and a digital-literacy pretest-posttest, and analyzed using descriptive criteria for feasibility and practicality and the N-Gain test for effectiveness. The medium was rated highly feasible (content validation 87.06%, media validation 89%; mean 88.03%) and highly practical (teacher response 89%, student response 89.72%). Learning independence after use reached 72.96% (good category). Digital literacy rose from a mean of 64.93 at pretest to 87.67 at posttest, N-gain = 0.63 (moderate), with 88% of students reaching at least a moderate gain. These results indicate that a purpose-built YouTube video, paired with structured follow-up activity, is a feasible, practical, and effective way to strengthen both self-directed learning and the specific capacity to evaluate online health information among secondary biology students.