How Can You Determine if a Site is Reliable?
Introduction
The internet contains millions of pages and sites that contain information on just about every topic you can imagine. When it's time to write a research paper, many of us now start with a web search engine. Try typing in "cancer" in a search engine and see how many sites are available that address the topic. There will be thousands. The problem is, not every web site contains reliable, unbiased information. With the development of the internet, a medium became available for anyone to post information that can be accessed by anyone on the globe. You could easily make a website yourself about anything you wanted. No one would check to see if the information you posted was accurate. So, how does a person know whether to trust the information found on websites? In this quest you are going to create an list offactors that can help a person sort out the information found on the internet.
Task
You will construct a list and ranking chart that will be used by you and others to determine the reliability of websites. Then you will use your list to judge a set of web addresses to determine which are the hoax sites and which are the real sites.
Process
1. Go to "How to Evaluate Web Resources" and read criteria used for determining the reliability of a website. Create a list from this criteria that can be used as a handy reference guide. Your list should include at least 6 things to look for on a site.
2. Now use your list to examine the following sites. In each grouping there is only ONE site that is the "real" site. The others are hoax sites, or sites of dubious information, or even satire.
Make a chart for each section where you identify the real website. Then write a short description of each that explains why you identified them as hoax websites or valid websites.
| Rescue - Which one is a rescue or play area for dogs? Site
1: The Dog Island |
Genetics - Which page gives real information about genetics? Site1:
Genochoice |
| Products - Which one would you give your money to? Site1: Buy Dehydrated Water | Endangered Animals - Which animal is really endangered? Site
1: Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus |
Medications - Which one is real? |
News Sites: Which on of these is satire? Site 1: Huffington Post |
**You must turn in the following items
- Your ranking guide, containing at least 6 attributes
- Chart that identifies real and hoax sites for each category above
Grading
| Poor ( 0 pts ) | Unsatisfactory (3 pt) | Good (4 pts) | Excellent (5 pts) | |
| Number of items | Less than 2 | 2-3 items | 4-5 items | 6 or more |
| Quality of items | Lists will not likely result in an accurate analysis of website | Some items on the list are appropriate for analyzing websites | Items, as a whole can be used to evaluate websites, list is missing some minor areas that would help determine website reliability | Items as a whole can be used to evaluate website for reliability. Good degree of accuracy and covers all major points |
| Identified real websites | 0-1 Websites identified correctly | 2-3 websites identified correctly | 4 -5 websites identified correctly | All websites identified correctly |
| Reasoning | Not included | Reasons invalid, too much reliance on intuitive reasons without giving much concrete criteria for choices | Reasons mostly valid, some reliance on "intuitive" reasons, but concrete criteria are given in most cases | Reasons given for ruling out hoax websites are valid within the context of evaluating websites, though some can be intuitively ruled out, you should include tangible reasons for ruling pages out |
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