Criteria for Web Site Evaluation

Slide 1: Criteria for web site evaluation © Oksana Hlodan, 2007

Slide 2: Evaluation focus on content: • quality • credibility • usability

Slide 3: • Who? • What? • When? • Where? • Why?

Slide 4: Who? • Who wrote the page? • What are the author’s credentials? • Is the author’s bio provided? • If not, can I find it? (e.g., link)

Slide 5: Who? About Us: “… since we are after all a grass roots and ad hoc undertaking by an all-volunteer consortium, to…”

Slide 6: Who?

Slide 7: What? • What is the purpose? • Is it first or second-hand info? • Is content vetted? • Are sources/facts documented? • Is the science accurate? • Do links lead to quality pages?

Slide 8: What? Please note: I didn’t write this stuff, I received the contents of this page on a floppy disc sometime in 1996. (Science Made Stupid web site)

Slide 9: What?

Slide 10: When? • When was it created? • When was it last updated? • Do broken links get fixed/updated?

Slide 11: When? Sizing up genomes: Amoeba is king By Edward R. Winstead February 12, 2001, Genome News Network

Slide 12: Where? • Where is “about us”? • Is sponsorship reputable? • Do others link to the site? • Do they endorse the site?

Slide 13: Where?

Slide 14: Where? About the Center “Access Excellence has been rated by School Zone’s panel of 400 teachers.”

Slide 15: Where?

Slide 16: Why? • Why should I use this info? • Why is this site/page better than another? • Why should I verify the info on other sites?

Slide 17: Why?

Slide 18: Why encourage students to evaluate web sites?

Slide 19: Number of web sites: 100,000,000 over Netcraft, Nov. 2006

Slide 20: A recent study revealed that fewer than 10% of students check accuracy of online information. University of Connecticut and Clemson University, 2005

Slide 21: Internet evaluation skills = scientific research skills!

Slide 22: Internet research skills = scientific research skills • Questioning • Synthesizing • Planning • Evaluating • Reporting • Gathering • Sorting

Slide 23: Student Activity Distribute evaluation worksheets to students Pick a newsy issue, e.g., GM corn, for their searches Have students search different domans: com, edu, org, gov Discuss evaluation results with class

Slide 24: Resources • Kathy Shrock’s Guide for Educators http://school.discovery.com/schrockguide/eval.html • Purdue University Tutorial http://www.lib.purdue.edu/ugrl/staff/sharkey/interneteval/ • Widener University Tutorial & Excercises http://www3.widener.edu/Academics/Libraries/Wolfgram_Memoria • Web Evaluation by Pam Berger http://www.infosearcher.com/infosearcher/articles/evaluatingweb1