Activity 2A
C&I 335
Summer, 1998
Michelle Tjelmeland
Franklin Middle School
Springfield, Illinois
Proper Evaluation Techniques
After reading the articles related to the evaluation of quality resources on the web, I came up with evaluation techniques that I plan to teach my students so they can determine if a web site is credible. Because there are many areas that need not be overlooked when using the Internet, I plan to give my students a checklist to use at each site to determine the quality of the information they find. Although acronyms like CARS (Credibility, Accuracy, Reasonableness, and Support) are helpful when evaluating the quality of a source, I have found that junior high age students need visual aids also. I have designed the following checklist to help students determine if they have found a valid source of information.
Web Site Credibility Checklist
When viewing a web site, look for the following indicators to determine if the source is reliable:
 | Credibility of the author (education, experience, title or position) |
| Organizational affiliation (well-known business, corporation, government, or non-profit organization) |
| Contact links (to other sites, home pages, or e-mails) |
| Organizational layout of web page (easy to read, navigate, quick down loading process) |
| Accuracy (current information that is updated on regular basis) |
| Proper use of English language (look for slang, incorrect use of grammar, spelling errors, and improper punctuation) |
| Consult other sources for validity (check other sources to compare info) |
Before students begin researching information on the web, I will create a power point presentation that I will highlight information on the checklist. Within the presentation, I will also include examples of sources that lack credibility, contacts, design features, and proper use of the English language, etc. Students will work in pairs to evaluate sources and find mistakes. The students will be given credit for participating in the activity and then we would have a class discussion pertaining to errors they found while evaluating source examples. Students will then be given a short quiz to assess their evaluative skills. The ultimate goal of this lesson is to ensure that students will be educated webcrawlers as they searched for information via the Internet.
