Evaluating Web Sites Activity

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For this activity, you will need to work in a group of 4 to carefully examine and evaluate Web sites relating to a particular topic. Each of you must assume one of the roles below (Content Specialist, Authority/Credibility Specialist, Bias/Purpose Specialist, Usability/Design Specialist). You will need to examine the pages and assign a ranking to each of the pages. Each group will be examining the same group of Web pages. Following your small group work, we will return to the large group to compare the rankings each group has assigned to the pages.

Roles:
1. Content specialist:
Does the site cover the topic comprehensively? Accurately?
Can you understand what is being said? Is it written above or below your level of understanding?
What is unique about this site? Does it offer something others do not?
Are the links well-chosen? sufficient?
Currency: Can you tell: the date the information was created? the publication date? the date the material was last revised? Are these dates meaningful in terms of the subject matter?
Would you get better information in a book? an encyclopedia?
Would you include this site in your bibliography?

2. Authority/Credibility specialist:
Who is responsible for this site? Who sponsors it? Hint: truncate each section of the URL back until you are able to find the sponsor.
What are his/her credentials?
Have the authors of the site cited their own sources? Are the sources documented appropriately?
What is the domain name? Does it end in .com, .gov, .edu, .org, .net? Is it a personal page?
Is that a meaningful clue in evaluating the site? (You can't always judge a web page by its suffix. Some commercial sites provide solid information. Some university sites offer less-than-serious personal pages to graduate students.)
Who else links to the site? (You can perform a link check in AltaVista or Google by entering "link:webaddress" in the search box. Is it linked to by reliable sites? What to other sites say about this one?
Would you include this site in your bibliography?

3. Bias/purpose specialist:
Why was this site created? (to persuade, inform, explain, sell, parody, promote, other?)
Is it a personal, commercial, government or organization site?
Is there any bias? Is only one side of the argument presented? Is there a hidden message? Is it trying to persuade you or change your opinion?Does it appear that any information is purposely omitted? Is the bias useful to you in some way?
Can you distinguish facts from opinion?
Would you include this site in your bibliography?

4. Usability/design specialist:
Is the site easy to navigate (user-friendly)?
Is there a well-labeled contents area?
Do all the design elements (graphics, art, buttons, etc.) enhance the message of the site? Is there consistency in the basic formats of each page?
Are there any errors in spelling or grammar?
Do the pages appear clean, uncluttered?
Do the links on the site work?
Would you include this site in your bibliography?

Each of you must visit all 5 of the sites listed below and record your findings on the handout provided.

NASA Quest: What is Aeronautics?
Vehicles: Commercial Aircraft
How do things fly?
History of the Fisher-Price Airplane (Tupolev Tu-164)
Hill Aerospace Museum Education Programs

This activity was modified from Joyce Valenzia's Evaluating Web Pages Webquest: URL: http://mciunix.mciu.k12.pa.us/~spjvweb/evalwebteach.html