Website Evaluation

Since Anyone Can Publish on the Internet, What Makes a Good Site vs a Weak One?

by Golf Coast State College Library

BBC Webwise site - "Making the Most of Being Online" - (Interactive learning tool)

• Internet Basics - Your Internet Browser: Web addresses; Adress Bar and Links; Back, Forward, Refresh, and Home; History 

SOME "TECH" LINGO!

URL = uniform resource locator or Unique resource locator ("geek" terminology)
A uniform (or unique) resource locator, abbreviated URL, aka web address, is a specific character string that references back to a resource. In most web browsers, the URL of a web page is displayed in the top address bar.

For example http://en.example.org/wiki/Main_Page

(Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Url)

Domain Names

Domain names are used to identify one or more IP addresses. For example, the domain name microsoft.com represents about a dozen IP addresses. Domain names are used in URLs to identify particular Web pages. For example, in the URL http://www.pcwebopedia.com/index.html, the domain name is pcwebopedia.com.

Every domain name has a suffix that indicates which top level domain (TLD) it belongs to. There are only a limited number of these domains (7 plus country codes).
Source: Webopedia http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/D/domain_name.html

An Overview of the Domain Name System (DNS):

Domain Name Service is an Internet protocol that provides mapping between a computer's numeric address and a human-friendly name that is easy to remember. Take for example the main Stanford webserver -- www.stanford.edu. DNS translates www.stanford.edu into 171.64.14.237.

DNS names are structured in a hierarchical manner that allows for distributed administration. The highest layer are the Top Level Domain Names. TLDs, as they are often called, are the last portion of a DNS name. So, .edu in the Stanford example is the top level domain.

Currently, there are 7 TLDs plus one for each country. The first 3 can be used by anyone while that the last 4 are restricted to those who meet certain qualifications.

1. .org - used by non-profit organizations
2. .net - supposed to only be used by network providers but typically used for more
3. .com - used by commercial organizations
4. .edu - used by four year educational institutions
5. .mil - used by the United States of America Military
6. .int - used by international organizations
7. .gov - used by the United States of America government

        
    Plus country codes: for example:

     ca - Canada th - Thailand edu - USA educational        uk  - United Kingdom (see also http://www.webopedia.com/quick_ref/topleveldomains/countrycodeA-E.asp)

 Source: http://sunburn.stanford.edu/~eroberts/courses/cs181/projects/the-domain-name-system/what.html

More Perspectives On Website Evaluation:

Website Evaluation by Hartness Library, Vermont

Aliens consider website evaluation and human habits!

What about Wikipedia?  

Is that a good starting point for research?  Would it pass CRAAP tests?  Watch  
"Wikipedia: Beneath the Surface" (6:41) & you decide.

WEBSITE EVALUATION - NOW YOU TRY!

Using the acronym CRAAP - currency, relevance, authorship, accuracy, purpose - critically analyze the following topic links:

1.  Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus

2. YouTube is tricky for CRAAP - Lady Gaga teaches about the French Revolution:

  

3.  "The Whale that Ate Jaws with Dr. Ingrid N. Visser Orca Attack on Great White Shark" (49:53); listen to just a portion of this YouTube video ...

4. "Chris Hadfield Readjusts to Earthling Life" (8:24)

5. Outdoor survival sites (Diigo group folder by Ms. M-A)

6. Ancient Greece

OTHER CRAAP TUTORIALS

- Evaluating Information from the Internet (Slideshare)

- CRAAP Test for Kids.  Template and scoring guide.  Adapted from Meriam Library, California State University

 - The CRAAP Song, by University of Waikato Law Library:

- The Internet Library and the "Wayback Machine" - use this when you cannot find when a page was created or last updated. Copy the website address and paste it into the search engine 

   

ONLINE CITATION SERVICES - for the Ethical Use of Information (NO stealing someone's ideas!)

• Easybib and Cite this For Me are two others. The first one is MLA (Modern Languages Association Style) and easy! Cite this For Me offers more options, but is more challenging to use.  I listed these sites under the library blog REFERENCE theme box too.

• Salmon Arm Secondary library (SAS) offers MLA Citation Wizard.  A great starting point to learn about what information is needed to create a bibliography or MLA terminology of "Works Cited."