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Essential Skills for Teachers and Students to Evaluate the Quality,

Usability and Authenticity of Electronic Resources

Yazdan Mansourian, PhDTarbiat Moallem University

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Introduction Evaluating Information Resources

◦ Quality◦ Usability◦ Authenticity

Information Literacy Skills◦ ACRL and SCONUL Standards

Ten C's For Evaluating Sources More Criteria for Evaluation The Invisible and Deep Web

Workshop’s Outline

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A set of abilities requiring individuals to "recognize when information is needed and have the ability to locate, evaluate, and use effectively the needed information.”

Information literacy forms the basis for lifelong learning.

It is common to all disciplines, to all learning environments, and to all levels of education.

(ACRL Definition of IL)

A Quick Review of IL Skills

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An information literate individual is able to: Determine the extent of information needed, Access the needed information effectively and

efficiently, Evaluate information and its sources critically, Incorporate selected information into one’s

knowledge base, Use information effectively to accomplish a

specific purpose, Understand the economic, legal, and social issues

surrounding the use of information, and access and use information ethically and legally.

ACRL Standards

6http://www.sconul.ac.uk/

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The information literate student evaluates information and its sources critically and incorporates selected information into his or her knowledge base and value system.

ACRL Standard Three

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From Allan Kent and Harold Lancour, eds., Encyclopedia of Library and Information Science (New

York, 1979),

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Content Credibility Critical Thinking Copyright Citation

Ten C's For Evaluating Internet Sources

Continuity Censorship Connectivity Comparability Context

(Betsy, 2003)

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Evaluation Criteria

1. Purpose & Scope2. Authority & Authorship 3. Objectivity & Validity 4. Accountability & Authenticity 5. Clarity & Readability 6. Appropriateness & Relevance 7. Currency & Accuracy 8. Coverage & Comprehensiveness9. Originality & Practicability10. Accessibility & Availability

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Commercial Informative Educational Entertaining Persuasive Personal Institutional

Purpose & Scope

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Breadth: What aspects of the subject are covered? Is the resource focused on a narrow area or does it include related topics?

Depth: What is the level of detail provided about the subject?

Time: Is the information in the resource limited to certain time periods?

Format: A resource that provides links may restrict its scope to certain classes of resources.

(Smith, 1997)

More on Scope

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Who is the author? Who wrote the page? Does the author have sufficient authority to

write on the subject? Is there any way to reach the author? Is there an organizational or corporate

sponsor? Is there a credible reference list? Does the page have overall integrity and

reliability?

Authority & Authorship

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What are the author's credentials-institutional affiliation?

What is the author educational background, past writings, or experience?

Is the document written on a topic in the author's area of expertise?

Have you seen the author's name cited in other sources or bibliographies?

Is the author associated with a reputable institution?

How to Evaluate the Author

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Is the document mainly covered facts or opinions?

Does the information appear to be valid and supported by enough evidence?

Is the author's point of view objective and impartial?

Does the content reflect any sorts of bias?

Is the bias explicit or hidden in the document? And how does the bias may impact its usefulness?

Objectivity & Validity

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Is the author honest about her/his purpose and content?

Is there a way to directly contact the author?

Does the author give credit for information used?

Is there a reference list, based on a well known citation style?

How trustworthy are the cited resources? How comprehensible is the supporting

evidence?

Accountability & Authenticity

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Are the primary, rather than secondary, references used in the document?

Does the author represent authoritative sources of information?

Have all relevant and pertinent references been cited?

Have the most up-to-date references been included?

Are all the reference entries accurate and complete?

Evaluation of Citations

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How clear the information presented?

Are the paragraphs and pages well organized in the document?

Is the text precise, understandable and formatted for easy reading?

If there are graphics, do they add some values to the content?

Are there any mistakes in grammar, spelling or word usage?

Clarity and Readability

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Avoid unnecessary and difficult jargons Provide enough easy navigation tools Remove broken and dead links Keep the content up-to-date Always keep the target audience in mind Provide a form for users to contact the

author Check out the browser compatibility Keep files small for quick download

Advices for Clarity and Readability

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Text Size Alt text

◦ All non-decorative images utilise the alt attribute to provide descriptive text alternatives. You can access this text by placing the cursor over the image.

Titles on links ◦ Where appropriate, descriptive title attributes have been added to

links providing a fuller description of the destination page. Text Only Version Forms

◦ Forms contain tab keys to ensure completion in the correct order. Pop-up windows

◦ The site does not contain any pop-up windows. Built to standards Browser Compatibility

More on Readability

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Legibility Problems Non-Standard Links Flash Content That's Not Written for the Web Bad Search Browser Incompatibility Cumbersome Forms No Contact Information or Other Company Info Frozen Layouts with Fixed Page Widths Inadequate Photo Enlargement

(Nielsen, 2005)

Ten Web Design Mistakes

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Is the content appropriate for your students’ assignment?

Is the reading level appropriate for your students?

Is the content appropriate for the age or developmental level of your students?

Is the content accurate, complete, and also well-written?

Is the content relevant to your teaching topic?

Appropriateness & Relevance

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Is the information on the page up-to-date? Can you easily find out when each page

was last updated? Are there any broken and dead links in the

document? Does the document include a date of

creation and copyright? Can you see the data of last

modifications?

Currency & Accuracy

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Does the document extensively cover the main topic? ◦ Usually we have to explore a range of resources

to obtain an overall view of various viewpoints. Is the main materials primary or secondary

in nature? ◦ Primary resources are directly obtained from the

research process. While, secondary sources are mostly based on the primary sources.

Coverage & Comprehensiveness

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Does the document present new, innovative, or insightful information?

Does the document provide the reader with new findings?

Is the material presented in a novel or unique way?

Is the document based on scientific and research-based data?

What are the practical implications of the presented findings?

Originality & Practicability

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How accessible is the document for general-purpose search engines?

Can you easily get access to the document?

Does the site usually load quickly?

Can the end user move around the site easily?

Is the document freely available for end users?

Accessibility & Availability

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The Invisible Web

The Opaque Web

The Proprietar

y Web

The Truly Invisible

WebDepth of Crawl Frequency of

Crawl

Maximum Number of Viewable

Results

Unconnected URLs

The Private

Web Formats that can not be indexed by current

generation of search enginesPassword

ProtectedPages

Fee-based Web Resources

Information Stored in Relational Databases

DynamicallyGenerated Pages

Noindex Meta tag

Robots.txt

Registration Required

Pages

Ford, N. and Mansourian, Y. (2006). “The invisible Web: an empirical study of ‘cognitive invisibility’”. Journal of Documentation, Vol. 62 No.5, pp. 584-596.

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The Invisible Web? The portion of the Web, which is hidden for

the general-purpose search engines. This part consists of material that conventional search engines either cannot, or perhaps, will not include in their indexes.

Price & Sherman (2001: 57)

First Coined by Dr. Jill Ellsworth (1996) or by Matthew Koll?

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Different Parts of the Invisible Web

Sherman and Price (2001) categorised the invisible web into four categories:

◦The Opaque Web◦The Private Web◦The Proprietary Web ◦The Truly Invisible Web

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The Opaque Web

Depth of Crawling, (Almost Visible Web) Frequency of Crawling Maximum Number of Viewable Results Disconnected URLs Broken Links, Dead Links (Linkrot)

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The Private Web

Technically indexable, but have deliberately been excluded from search engines.

Password Protected Pages

Robots.txt & noindex Meta tag

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The Proprietary Web

Registration Required Pages

Fee-based Web Resources

These databases provide users with search facilities. However, their contents are not searchable through the search engines.

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The Truly Invisible Web Formats that can not be indexed by

current generation of search engines

Dynamically Generated Pages (Deep

Web)

Deliberately Omitted Pages from Search

Engines’ Indexes

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References and Further Readings

Association of College and Research Libraries. (2000). Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education. Chicago: ACRL. [On-line] http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/acrl/standards/informationliteracycompetency.cfm (Accessed 15 November 2010)

Betsy, R. (2003), Ten C's For Evaluating Internet Sources, University of Wisconsin, http://www.montgomerycollege.edu/Departments/writegt/htmlhandouts/Ten%20C%20internet%20sources.htm (Accessed 15 November 2010)

Ford, N. and Mansourian, Y. (2006). “The invisible Web: an empirical study of ‘cognitive invisibility’”. Journal of Documentation, Vol. 62 No.5, pp. 584-596.

Kapoun, J. (1998) Teaching undergrads Web Evaluation: A guide for library instruction C&RL News (July/August 1998): 522-523, available at: http://olinuris.library.cornell.edu/ref/research/webeval.html (Accessed 15 November 2010)

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References and Further Readings (2)

Kirk, E. (1996). Evaluating Information Found on the Internet, Johns Hopkins University Website, available at: http://www.library.jhu.edu/researchhelp/general/evaluating/ (Accessed 15 November 2010)

Smith, A. G. (1997) Testing the Surf: Criteria for Evaluating Internet Information Resources. The Public-Access Computer Systems Review 8, No. 3, available at http://info.lib.uh.edu/pr/v8/n3/smit8n3.html (Accessed 15 November 2010)

Nielsen (2010), Jakob Nielsen's Website. http://www.useit.com/ (Accessed 15 November 2010)

Teaching Library Internet Workshops (2002), Evaluating Web Pages: Techniques to Apply & Questions to Ask, Berkeley University Library, http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/Evaluate.html (Accessed 15 November 2010)