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? Advice from valid agency?

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