John Silva Blog

In the Tillman article, the author describes “my key indicators of quality (my checklist).” List and describe the points in that checklist, and then describe the indicators of quality that are most important to you. What do you look for when evaluating quality? Why are those indicators most important to you?

When evaluating web sites, Tillman looks at things from a macro to a micro level of the web site. Most broadly the first thing she does is look to see if the site is a match for her information needs and how easy is to check the scope and criteria for inclusion. The next step is how easy it is to identify the author(s) of the site, how current it is, and how often the site is updated along with what was updated. Following that, she checks to see if the web site is likely to still be around for a while. Sites that are continually changed are not as reliable unless the information is archived.

The final step is to see how easy it is to access the information. Do you need a specific browser? Do you need special software? One example is the program Desire2Learn. I prefer to use Firefox for my browser but some of the plugins required for video and audio do not work with the Firefox platform.

You might look at the steps as a process diagram. If the site does not meet one step in the checklist, then you should likely move on to another web site. For example, if a site is meets your information criteria, but you can’t identify any author information, you may not have a reliable web site.

Name three steps that web users can take to confirm information that they find online.

Confirming information is similar to confirming information from other sources; you must check to see if another, unrelated source gives the same information.

Step one would be to find a similar web site, that is equally reliable, and compare the information. Step two would be to check a book on that subject and compare information. Finally in step three, you can check a reference work of some kind to verify the information. For students however, having another set of eyes check your paper and your sources is always a good idea.