As an intelligent consumer of information, you need to critically analyze each resource and determine whether it should be included into your final product. This process is particularly important for online resources as anyone with access to a device (e.g., smartphone, tablet, netbook, etc.) and the Internet can publish his/her ideas online.
Kathy Schrock, an educator who actively collaborates with Discovery School, developed an easy to use evaluation guide called the 5 W's of Website Evaluation. Questions about the resource's authenticity and integrity are centered around five categories -- Who? What? When? Where? and Why? By using this simple framework, you can quickly and easily evaluate each resource and determine whether it should be included in your final product.
The essential questions for each category are highlighted below and you can also download a PDF version to use during the research process. As you consider whether a particular site has merit consider the following questions:
Kathy Schrock, an educator who actively collaborates with Discovery School, developed an easy to use evaluation guide called the 5 W's of Website Evaluation. Questions about the resource's authenticity and integrity are centered around five categories -- Who? What? When? Where? and Why? By using this simple framework, you can quickly and easily evaluate each resource and determine whether it should be included in your final product.
The essential questions for each category are highlighted below and you can also download a PDF version to use during the research process. As you consider whether a particular site has merit consider the following questions:
Who?
What? When? Where? Why? |
"Who wrote the pages and are they an expert? Is a biography of the author included? How can I find out more about the author?"
"What does the author say is the purpose of the site? What else might the author have in mind for the site? What makes the site easy to use? What information is included and does this information differ from other sites?" "When was the site created? When was the site last updated?" "Where does the information come from? Where can I look to find out more about the sponsor of the site?" "Why is this information useful for my purpose? Why should I use this information? Why is this page better than another? (Kathy Schrock's the Five W's of Website Evaluation (2012)" |
Based on the responses to these questions, you may decide that a website needs to be removed from your list of credible resources. You may also need to cycle through the research process and expand your search for credible, reliable, and relevant sites.
Website Checklists & Guides
After you discover an online resource, more questions may emerge about the author and the overall quality of the content. The Sheridan Libraries at the University of Johns Hopkins maintains a great site on evaluating resources and in particular focuses on three important areas: authorship, publishing body, and timeliness of the published piece. As you become a sophisticated researcher, this site is an excellent resource. Need a more structured an easy way to document and evaluate each resource? Check out the following guides which walk you through the evaluation process. These tools can be printed or completed electronically and used to assess a variety of resources:
- University of California at Berkeley Library
Web Evaluation Checklist
Joe Barker, from the Teaching Libraries at UC Berkley, developed a one-page, easy to use checklist that walks users through the evaluation process. - University of Maryland Checklist for Evaluating Websites
The University developed a simple checklist to guide the evaluation process. You can enter your answers online and then print a copy for your records or to share with your teacher.
- Alexa: The Web Information Company
Interested in learning more about a particular website? Enter the site name into Alexa to uncover information such as statistics on use, rank domestically and internationally, as well as overall ratings by users.