Slide 1

Evaluating Information

Slide 2

Why Evaluate What You Find on the Web?

• Anyone can put up a web page• Many pages are not kept up-to-date• There is no quality control of the web• So…

Use the Who, What and When technique to evaluate…

Slide 3

Who?• Can you tell who wrote it ?• Is it a reputable organization,

institution or agency that you recognise?

• What are their credentials for the subject matter ? Look for links to: “About us”; “Philosophy”; “Background”; or “Biography”

• If no links or other clues truncate the URL

Slide 4

Before you click to view the page...• Look at the URL – is it a personal page or site ? • Is the domain name appropriate for the content ?

edu, com, org, net, gov, ca.us, uk, etc.

• Is it published by an entity that makes sense ? • News from its source?

www.nytimes.com

• Advice from valid agency? www.nih.gov/www.nlm.nih.gov/www.nimh.nih.gov/

Slide 5

What?• Where has the information

come from- are the sources documented?

• Does it have links to other resources?

• Is it bias or does it present a balanced viewpoint?

• Is it appropriate for your purpose?

Slide 6

When?

• When was it written?• Was it written as a one-

off or is it frequently updated?

Slide 7

Developing a checklist

• Work in groups of 4-5• Use Handout 1 to develop a checklist for

evaluating information

Slide 8

Evaluating sources on Climate Change

• In your groups, look at the sources on climate change and discuss:– Are they bias or balanced?– Are they easy to understand?– Can you rely on the facts and figures quoted?– Which would be suitable sources of information for

a policy maker?

Slide 9

• This presentation is based in part on a presentation produced by the University of California Berkely Library and on the Science on the Internet etutorial.

• The presentation is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

• You are free to modify and use this presentation for non-commercial purposes providing you retain the attribution of all images and credit INASP.

• For further information please contact inasp@inasp.info