1. Accuracy -
1A. Does the information seem to be error free?
Is there anything you would question and wonder if it is true?
1B. Who is the sponsoring institution (government, University,commercial company, non-profit organization)? HINT: Look at the URL
1C. Have you ever heard of the sponsoring institution before? If you have never heard of it before, what would make you wantto trust or not trust what the site claims?
1D. Does the information mainly state an opinion or are there facts to support their claims? Does the author(s) or institution state where they have gotten any facts?
2. Authority -
2A. Is the author or source of the information identified?
2B. What are the author(s) qualifications?
Why are the author(s) an expert on the subject provided?
What do they know about the topic?
2c. Does the site exhibit proper grammar, spelling, and literary composition?
3. Objectivity
3A. What is the site’s purpose: to inform, explain, persuade or sell?
3B. Does the web site have any sponsors (ex. banner or pop-up advertisers)?
If so, what you think about the fact that the site has sponsors.
3C. Is the information presented with a minimum of personal bias (In other words does the person simply inform you on a topic or has strong feelings that may persuade you on a particular side)?
3D. If the site seems to have a bias, does it acknowledge other side(s) of the argument and does it treat those who disagree with them with respect?
4. Currency
4A. Is the content of the work up-to-date?
(NOTE: Just because a page was not updated for a few months, does not mean it is not, unless the subject demands it to be).
4B. Do the links from the site work or do a great number of links end up with error messages?
4C. Is the date of creation or most recent revision date clearly shown?
(If not, you can determine date last updated by going to the View pull down menu and selecting Page Info)
4D. If the page was last updated today, is it possible that the site is using a special tool that will ALWAYS give you today's date?
Structure of web page address/URL (Uniform Resource Locator):
www (World wide web).ChabotCollege (name of site).edu (Domain - type of organization) (edu=Higher Education)
Example: www.chabotcollege.edu
UC Berkeley's Tutorial on evaluating websites:
https://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/Evaluate.html
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DOMAIN |
TYPE OF ADDRESS |
|
.biz |
a business |
|
.com |
generally a commercial organization, business, or company |
|
.edu |
a higher-educational institution, generally in the U.S. |
|
.gov |
a government organization in the U.S. |
|
.info |
an informational site for an individual or organization |
|
.int |
an international organization |
|
.mil |
a U.S. military organization |
|
.name |
an individual |
|
.net |
suggested for a network administration, but used by a variety of sites |
|
.org |
suggested for a noncommercial community, but used by a variety of sites |
Country code (two letters) for a country or other geographic entity—include .us (United States), .fr (France), or .jp (Japan)