EVALUATING WEB SITES

Christine StewartLibrarian

Introduction

If you are like most students, you are relying heavily on resources from the Web for your research. Not all Web resources are created equal. If fact, there are great variations in the quality of the resources you access. The rule of thumb is "when in doubt, doubt." When you carefully select your resources, when you understand their strengths and limits, you create better products.

Discussion:

Why do we need to know who the author of a website is?

What are the characteristics of a "good" website with credible and/or authoritative information?

What are the characteristics of a "bad" website with unreliable and/or untrue information?

Mystery Website

We will practice filling out the evaluation worksheet using this website

The Task

You will be working in groups of four to evaluate a group of Web pages on the topic of tobacco and smoking, or cloning or another topic of your teacher's choice. Each of you will be examining sites from a different perspective. You will be ranking the sites and comparing your rankings with the rest of the class.

Resources

You will each be responsible for completing an evaluation chart, focusing on the perspective you assume within your group.

You will select five of the following Web sites from one of these two controversial areas for you to evaluate.

Cloning Sites

Bioethics and Cloning http://www.bioethics.net/cloning/cloning.php Human Cloning Foundation http://www.humancloning.org/ Cloning: Special Report: New Scientist

http://www.newscientist.com/hottopics/cloning/ Cloning is Moral (Ayn Rand Institute)

http://www.aynrand.org/medialink/cloningismoral.shtml *I Can Do That! Cloning

http://www.eurekascience.com/ICanDoThat/cloning.htm Americans for Cloning Elvis

http://www.geocities.com/americansforcloningelvis/ Cloning: are Humans Next? (scroll down to "Other Features" menu)

http://www.worldbook.com/fun/bth/cloning/html/cloning.html Scientific and Medical Aspects of Human Cloning

http://www7.nationalacademies.org/cosepup/Human_Cloning.html National Bioethics Advisory Commission

http://www.georgetown.edu/research/nrcbl/nbac/ Roslin Institute Online http://www.roslin.ac.uk/

•Enjoying Hamlet by William Shakespeare http://www.pathguy.com/hamlet.htm •Klingon Hamlet http://www.kli.org/stuff/Hamlet.html •Hamlet and his Other http://www.clas.ufl.edu/ipsa/journal/articles/psyart1999/silhol01.htm •Essays on Hamlet http://www.hamletessays.com/ •Hamlet http://library.thinkquest.org/19539/hamlet.htm •SparkNotes Hamlet http://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/hamlet/ •Hamlet and his Problems http://www.bartleby.com/200/sw9.html •Characters of Shakespear's Plays (William Hazlitt) http://www.library.utoronto.ca/utel/criticism/hazlittw_charsp/charsp_titlepage.html •The Hamlet Paradigm http://www.hamlet.org/j_s_mamoun.html

Hamlet Sites (For this one, imagine you were assigned a high school research project to develop a thesis analyzing the character of Hamlet.)

Smoking and tobacco sites:

American Nonsmokers' Rights Foundation http://www.no-smoke.org/

R.J. Reynolds http://www.rjrt.com/home.asp American Lung Association (Tobacco Control section)

http://www.lungusa.org/tobacco/ Tobacco Free Initiative (World Health Organization)

http://tobacco.who.int/ Tobacco Free Kids website  http://tobaccofreekids.org/ Big Drug's Nicotine War

http://www.forces.org/evidence/pharma/index.htm Coalition for a Tobacco Free Midlands 

http://www.tobaccofreemidlands.com/ Phillip Morris Tobacco Company page on Youth Smoking Prevention

http://www.philipmorrisusa.com/DisplayPageWithTopic.asp?ID=75 Children Opposed to Smoking Tobacco  http://www.costkids.org/

Dinosaurs (for Intermediate and Middle School Students):

Dino Directory http://flood.nhm.ac.uk/cgi-bin/dino/ Dinosauria Online http://www.dinosauria.com/ Billy Bear's Land O' Dinosaurs

http://www.billybear4kids.com/dinosaurs/long-long-ago.html Zoom Dinosaurs

http://www.EnchantedLearning.com/subjects/dinosaurs/index.html

DinoBuzz http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/diapsids/dinobuzz.html Walking With Dinosaurs http://www.bbc.co.uk/dinosaurs/ Dinorama

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/dinorama/main.html Rex Files http://www.newscientist.com/hottopics/dinosaurs/ Jason's Dinosaur Site http://members.aol.com/Ermine/index.html Barney's Games Page http://pbskids.org/barney/

The Process

Your group of 4 students will evaluate the selected Web sites.

Divide your group into the following four specialties to cover ground more efficiently.

Job Titles

1. Content specialist

2. Authority/Credibility specialist

3. Bias/purpose specialist

4. Usability/design specialist

1. Content Specialist:

Does the site cover the topic comprehensively? Accurately? Can you understand what is being said? Is it written above

or below your level of understanding? What is unique about this site? Does it offer something

others do not? Are the links well-chosen? sufficient? Currency: Can you tell: the date the information was

created? the publication date? the date the material was last revised? Are these dates meaningful in terms of the subject matter?

Would you get better information in a book? an encyclopedia?

Would you include this site in your bibliography?

2. Authority/Credibility Specialist:

Who is responsible for this site? Who sponsors it? Hint: truncate each section of the URL back until you are able to find the sponsor.

What are his/her credentials? Have the authors of the site cited their own sources? Are the

sources documented appropriately? What is the domain name? Does it end

in .com, .gov, .edu, .org, .net? Is it a personal page? Is that a meaningful clue in evaluating the site? (You can't always

judge a web page by its suffix. Some commercial sites provide solid information. Some university sites offer less-than-serious personal pages to graduate students.)

Who else links to the site? (You can perform a link check in AltaVista or Google by entering "link:webaddress" in the search box. Is it linked to by reliable sites? What do other sites say about this one?

Would you include this site in your bibliography?

3. Bias/Purpose Specialist:

Why was this site created? (to persuade, inform, explain, sell, promote, parody, other?)

Is it a personal, commercial, government or organization site?

Is there any bias? Is only one side of the argument presented? Does it appear that any information is purposely omitted? Is there a hidden message? Is it trying to persuade you or change your opinion? Is the bias useful to you in some way?

Can you distinguish facts from opinion? Would you include this site in your bibliography?

4. Usability/Design Specialist:

Is the site easy to navigate (user-friendly)? Is there a well-labeled contents area? Do all the design elements (graphics, art,

buttons, etc.) enhance the message of the site? Is there consistency in the basic formats of each page?

Are there any errors in spelling or grammar? Do the pages appear clean, uncluttered? Do the links on the site work? Would you include this site in your

bibliography?

Group Responsibilities

Each student in the group should complete his/her own organizer through the perspective they are assigned.

As you examine each site, record any relevant information in your chart/organizer. Begin to rank the sites 1 through 5, with 1 being the best. It may be easier to think to yourself, "Which are the two best sites in the set; which are the two worst."

Each group should select a recorder to take notes on group discussion and a discussion leader, whose job it will be to make sure each member gets a chance to contribute and to lead the group toward reaching a consensus about the best and worst sites.

Be prepared to discuss/compare your group's findings and rankings with the rest of the class during the class discussion period.

Evaluation

You will be evaluated on your group work, your completed organizer, and your participation in large group discussion using this rubric. Make sure your group is able to defend its choices in the discussion ranking the sites.

Conclusion

You will find yourself using the Internet for information. The Internet is only one of a variety of information options. Remember that journals, books, videos and other sources are available as well. Evaluating information is a skill you will be using throughout your lifetime.

Evaluating Web Sites ChartEvaluator's role

____Content ___Authority/Credibility ___Bias/Purpose ___Usability/Design

Site name and URL

Strengths Weaknesses Rank

Site #1 ____________________

URL_____________

Site #2_____________________

URL_____________

Site #3 ____________________URL_______________________

Site #4 ____________________

URL_____________

Site #5 ______________________URL_______________________

In one or two sentences, defend your choice for the #1 site related to the criteria you were assigned.

Happy Hunting

On the class Wikistewartswebsiteevaluation

•Power Point Presentation

•Website Evaluation Chart

•Rubric

•Mystery Website

Remember…not everything you read on the internet is true