Criteria for the Selection of Web-Based Materials

The topic of finding credible resources plays a very important role in our classrooms today. I often find that students don't know where to start when researching or navigating the web. They usually don't know how to determine whether or not a website is credible or may know only some of the important criteria that a credible website should have. It is important that teachers take the time to properly instruct their students on this topic.

When I took the Instructional Design course for National-Louis, I chose to develop an instructional unit on website credibility. I found that students at my school where often lost when it came to researching for their science fair project. In searching for ways to remedy this problem and planning/developing my unit, I came across a section on Kathy Schrock's website that specifically dealt with this issue. On the site I found information about the 5 W's in evaluating a website. http://kathyschrock.net/abceval/5ws.htm The 5 W's are who, what, when, where, and why.

Who: This determines who wrote the website and if they are an expert.
What: This asks what the purpose of the site is and if the info. differs from other sources.
When: This determines when the site was created and last updated.
Where: This asks where the information on the site comes from and who sponsors the site.
Why: This asks why is the information on the site useful to my research and why should I use it.

This is an easy format for students to use and could easily be made into a chart for students to use when evaluating a site. The students could answer each of the questions (who, what, when, where, and why) to determine if a site is credible. The student would know that if even one category isn't credible, that means that they shouldn't use that site.

I think it is also important to teach students what kind of search engines/meta search engines are helpful to use. This gives the students a base to start from when researching. They should also be aware of the domain names of sites (.com, .net, .edu, .org, .gov etc.) and know which ones are better to use than others. Providing the students with this kind of information will go a long way in helping them to become better researchers. It is important to give our students the best information we can about Internet safety and website credibility. This allows our students to be more aware and gives them the tools they need to succeed.