Course information can be delivered
through a variety of formats:

Lectures
by teacher or guests
Textbooks
Fictional story/novels

Interviews and biographies
eyewitness accounts or commentaries
Duplicates/hand-outs
of (text) chapters, magazine articles
Original source material
as diaries, government documents,
proceedings, minutes

Electronic media
such as videos, radio programs
Internet
web site pages, discussion groups

Stahl, et al (1998) found that using multiple-text sources can only be effective if we are taught to use them properly.  As beginners, we tend to be more consistent in what information we select from short, well-constructed texts.  Longer, less structured documents tend to be more confusing.

Text books

• provide a foundation of facts and viewpoints to provide an overview
• sequence information and facts to understand issues
• create a context for comparing and understanding other sources
• are written in a neutral, objective tone

Problems with a single text
for a subject or course include:

• information is often "academic"
  lacking the drama of real life experience, adventure, and experimentation
• bias is hidden or concealed
  ignoring competing facts, priorities, minority viewpoints
• a single interpretation limits how reported facts are prioritized/sequenced
  restricting viewpoint (Euro/Caucasian) or subject testing (white male)
• original/eyewitness sources of information are secondary to interpretative accounts

Additional readings and alternative sources
of information can assist you to

• create a richer understanding
  with additional information and perspective
• interact or engage with facts, actors, circumstances
  of the material
• practice and familiarize
  yourself with new subject vocabulary and concepts
• process opposing, even conflicting,
  points of view in order to assess, evaluate, defend

Conflicting information however can impede your learning,
unless you can

• analyze it for commonalties
• reorganize or synthesize
  your model for understanding it
• consider the impact of, and evaluate, conflicts
• filter it with athe context presented in the basic text

Some Recommendations:

• Read your text
  to provide the factual framework from which to begin
  (see also Taking notes from a text book)
• Proceed to shorter, more focused sources
  of information expecially if you are inexpereinced in the subject
• Practice with multiple texts to improve your evaluative skills:
  • compare and contrast your sources
  • analyze them for bias or viewpoint
  • note when and where they were written, and how that affects the viewpoint
• Understand the connections
  between events, actors, and circumstances rather than learn a series of "facts" which can be easily be forgotten
• Use in-class or on-line discussion time
  to test your understanding and ask questions!