Website Evaluation Webquest

Website Evaluation WebQuest:
Plastics Recycling Sources

Introduction | Task | Process & Resources | Evaluation

Introduction

You are a member of a high level environmental policy advisory committee that must advise the President on a controversial topic - the risks versus the benefits of increasing our nation’s production and use of plastics. Much depends on the information that your committee reviews and the conclusions that it reaches. National policy will be determined, legislation will be enacted, businesses, workers and the environment will all be affected.

Task

Your office has been bombarded with press releases and emails from all sides of the issue. You have assigned the high school interns who work in your office the job of selecting the websites that are most frequently mentioned in this material and they have come up with a list of 4 sites. The interns are assuming that these are all good places to get information, but you know that the press will be sure to ask where you got your information and whether it can be trusted. Anyone may publish their work online but not everyone who publishes information is interested in providing data-driven, unbiased and balanced information. Some sources online are interested in promoting a product or an industry. Other sources try to sway opinions without any credible facts to backup their views.

With so much at stake, before you can make any recommendation to the President, you need a way to determine how reliable these sources are.

Process & Resources
Here is the plan:

· Your 4-member subcommittee will check out the links listed in the memo submitted by the interns.

o Each of you will be a specialist, focusing on a single criteria of the “CARD system,” described below, for evaluating the sources - Content, Authority, Reliability, Design. The strategy and questions that each evaluation specialist must remember when using the CARD system are shown below. This chart is also printable as a CARD Rating sheet in a format suitable for printing. As a specialist, you should print a copy and use it to give each site a score for your criteria.

o You will then combine your ratings and record your ideas for all four websites on the Individual Rating Worksheet. For each link, you will note strengths and weaknesses – especially regarding point of view, date of publication or authority of the author – and give your rating as a specialist.

· As a subcommittee, you will discuss which sites are the best ones for the full committee to use. You may recommend any that you determine are solid sources. What do you do when a site is not rated highly for all criteria? Should it be used?

o Put a "check" in the column of your worksheet if your team recommends the link.

o Be prepared to share your thoughts on evaluating Internet information with the whole class. Why is it important that we evaluate all information?

C = Content

* Is the information accurate? Compare it with other sources.	* Do you still need more information?
* Is it current? Is the date of creation/update given? (How important is the date for this topic?) . * Is the treatment shallow or scholarly?	* Is this the best source for this information? Books, periodicals, webpages all are "best" at certain types of information.

A = Authority

* Who is the author? * Are the author's credentials given? * Is the author an expert? * Can you contact the author? * Has the author published widely?	* For a webpage, you may have to go back to the homepage to figure out who / what agency is responsible for the site. * Do a search on the web to find out about the author / organization. * Look the site up with Network Solutions to find out who runs it / owns it
* Are the sources / bibliography given? * Are they scholarly sources? * Can you verify the sources?	* For a webpage, who links to it? (Check by using Google - in the search screen put link:webaddress) You may be able to judge a site by those that link to it.
* Are there links to other sites? * Can you make any conclusions based on the type and strength of these sites?	* Enter the author's name into a search engine to find out what else he/she might have posted.

R = Reliability

* Is it biased? * Does it present all sides of the argument / situation? * Are opinions presented as facts?	* Is it from a reliable source that has done prescreening (library, virtual library, university professor, professional journal, specialized database)
* What is its purpose? Is it investigating an issue, examining different viewpoints, or arguing a point?	* What is the domain? You can often but NOT always tell the purpose of a site by its domain: .gov .com .org .edu

D = Design

* Do the links work - both the internal navigation links and links to other sites?	* Is the site overly concerned with graphics and less about content? * Does the glitz get in the way?
* Are there errors in spelling, grammar or syntax?	* Do the colors and graphics enhance the purpose of the site?
* Is the site user-friendly and easy to use?	* Is the design of the site consistent throughout all the pages?

For additional information on how to evaluate the trustworthiness of online sites at these and other websites, visit these sites:

http://mason.gmu.edu/~montecin/web-eval-sites.htm

http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/Evaluate.html

Evaluation

How did you do? Evaluate your group work, completed chart, and contribution to the group discussion. The rubric may be used for self-assessment or teacher evaluation.

Adapted from a webquest originally designed by Ann B. Perham, Library Media Specialist, Needham High School,

Needham Massachusetts