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SPURS - guide for instructors

Evaluate Websites

Evaluating the Web

Evaluating information is intuitive for us - it is not this way for students. Require them, as part of assignments, to address authority of speaker and publication, as well as bias. For websites, this could be heading to the About page, or googling the author to learn more about their expertise or what else they have written. 
 
Consider all 5 criteria when evaluating a website
  1. Currency: When was this web site last updated? Is it current enough?
  2. Relevancy: Is this information that you are looking for? Does it talk about your topic?
  3. Authority: Who is the author? Is s/he an expert? Who is the publisher? Are they reputable?
  4. Accuracy: Is this true? Where did they get this information? Can you find evidence to back it up from another resource?
  5. Purpose: What is the purpose of this site? Is this fact or opinion based? Is it biased?

Activity

Activity example: Choose several webpages, break students into groups and have them answer a questionnaire about the webpages. Use what they learned in a class discussion. Here is an example you are welcome to adapt, but please do not use my questionnaire since it routes to my google drive.
Group 1
Group 2
Group 3
Group 4
Webpage Evaluation Form
All of these articles were found via Google using a keyword combination always including 'schizophrenia' and including either 'marijuana', 'weed', or 'cannabis'

Subjects: Rhetoric

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