Website Evaluation 2009

Website Evaluation Content adapted from: Beck, Susan. The Good, The Bad & The Ugly: or, Why It’s a Good Idea to Evaluate Web Sources . 1997. http://lib.nmsu.edu/instruction/eval.html Image courtesy of Kristen King

Spend a few minutes exploring this site. What are your general impressions of the webpage?

Five Criteria for Web Evaluation
Authority
Accuracy
Objectivity
Currency
Coverage

Authority
Is there an author? Is the author qualified?
Look for a header or footer showing affiliation.
Look at the URL. http://www.fbi.gov
Look at the domain: . edu, .com, .uk, .org, .net
Anyone can publish anything on the web.
It is often hard to determine a web page's authorship.

Are you able to identify the author of this site and/or the organization who created it? If not, how might that affect the usefulness of the information?

Accuracy
Is the information reliable and error-free?
Is there an editor or someone who verifies/checks the information?
Unlike traditional print resources, web resources rarely have editors or fact-checkers.
Currently, no web standards exist to ensure accuracy.

Does the author cite any of his sources on the site? If not, how might that affect the accuracy of the information?

Objectivity
Does the information show a minimum of bias?
Is the page designed to sway opinion?
Is there any advertising on the site?
Websites are often a “soapbox” for personal opinion.

Is there any evidence of bias on this page? If so, how might that affect the usefullness of the information?

Currency
Is the page dated?
If so, when was the last update?
How current are the links? Have some expired or moved?
Publication or revision dates are not always provided.

Is this page up to date? If not, how might that affect the usefulness of the information?

Coverage
What topics are covered?
What does this page offer that is not found elsewhere?
How in-depth is the material?
Frequently, it's difficult to determine the extent of coverage of a topic from a web page. The page may or may not include links to other web pages or print references.

Does this site provided detailed/in-depth information? If not, how might that affect the usefulness of the information?

Remember: A Good Website Has…
Authority
Accuracy
Objectivity
Currency
Coverage

http://www.schoology.com	10
http://pwoessner.com	9
https://safefiles.instructure.com	9
http://www.slideshare.net	3
http://www.pageflakes.com	3
http://sosiologiogsosialantropologisorumsand.blogspot.com	1

Website Evaluation 2009

by Patrick Woessner on Sep 23, 2009

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Website Evaluation 2009 — Presentation Transcript