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A discussion of website evaluation criteria and the role of educators
at The Web and Critical Thinking, panel presentation, December 3, 1998.

The Internet does not teach research skills. Over-emphasizing technology neglects such basic skills as reading, critical thinking, evaluating, outlining, organizing an argument, analyzing, and scholarly writing. People can neither absorb knowledge nor contribute to it without these academic capabilities.

Doran, K. (1995). "The Internot: helping library patrons understand what the Internet is not (yet)"
Computers in Libraries 15(6). p22(3).

The explosion of portrayals of the worldwide web in the popular media has resulted in our students coming to us "knowing" much more about the web than ever before. Educators have been somewhat forced in the last several years to incorporate some web resources into their teaching. My experiences as a reference librarian have made it clear that not many students know what they are looking at as they use the web, or have the critical skills to evaluate what they see. Our responsibility as educators is to teach these skills before we send students to "get information off the Internet." If not, they will continue to do just that -- haphazardly download information, not knowing its provenance or intrinsic relevance or value.

Sites Outlining Criteria

The Good, The Bad & The Ugly: Why It's A Good Idea to Evaluate Web Resources
http://lib.nmsu.edu/instruction/evalcrit.html

Evaluating Web Sites for Educational Use: Bibliography and Checklist
http://www.unc.edu/cit/guides/irg-49.html
Checklist for Evaluating Web Resources
http://library.usm.maine.edu/guides/webeval.html
Evaluating Web Resources at Lake Forest College
http://www.lib.lfc.edu/internetsearch/evalweb.html
This site is interesting because it provides a good and questionable example of each of the criteria it presents.
All of these sites employ lists of criteria that force one to VERIFY a site's accuracy, authority, objectivity, currency, and coverage.

At the very least we must make sure our students can:

  • determine the author or source of a site
  • determine the authority or affiliation of the site and/or its author
  • ascertain the currency of the site and when it was last updated
  • make contact with the site's manager, author, or creator
  • and, most simply -- KNOW WHERE THIS INFORMATION COMES FROM (not simply "the Internet")
TEST SITE
http://www.wpunj.edu/library/bi/bogus/cancercure.html
Dihydrogen Monoxide Research Division
http://www.dhmo.org/
Oklahoma Association of Wine Producers
http://web.fvdes.com/Web_Eval_TL/OKWine2/okawp.html 		Kurt W. Wagner - David & Lorraine Cheng Library --
http://www.wpunj.edu/library
William Paterson University of New Jersey
 updated: 24-Feb-2003 1:37 PM