QUESTIONS TO ASK WHEN EVALUATING WEBSITES

FOR CHILDREN AND YOUNG ADULTS

Denise E. Agosto, Ph.D.

I -- INFORMATION EVALUATION CRITERIA

I1.  QUALITY OF INFORMATIONAL CONTENT

·        How accurate is the information provided? 

·        Is the information primary source or secondary source? 

·        For primary source information, are the research methods adequately described and explained? 

·        For secondary source information, are the sources of information given? 

·        Is the website relatively free from typographical and grammatical errors? 

·        Is the information presented in an interesting manner, but not so creatively as to obscure its meaning? 

·        Does the website encourage ongoing learning, such as continued reflection and further investigation of the topics addressed?

I2.  LEVEL OF DIFFICULTY OF INFORMATIONAL CONTENT

·        Is the information age-appropriate? 

·        Is it overly simplified or overly technical? 

·        Is background knowledge beyond the experiences of most young people necessary to comprehend much of the content?

I3.  AUTHORITY OF AUTHORING/SPONSORING BODY

·        Is the name of the authoring/sponsoring body readily evident?

·        Is the author/sponsoring body a recognized authority in the field?

·        What are the author's/sponsoring body's qualifications for presenting the information contained in the website?

·        Is a physical address for the author/sponsoring body given, or is there some other method for verifying its existence and legitimacy?

I4.  CURRENCY OF INFORMATION

·        Is the information relatively current? 

·        Are the dates of initial site construction and most recent revisions included? 

·        Is the information updated often? 

·        Is currency highly important due to the subject matter (such as medical research) or less important (such as ancient history)?

I5.  PURPOSE OF RESOURCE

·        Is the purpose of the website (e.g. public education, product marketing, political lobbying) stated? 

·        Are any biases toward the subject matter obvious? 

·        Does the website exhibit any social biases (e.g. gender, racial, cultural, religious, age)?  

·        Is the user required to divulge personal information or to pay a usage fee? 

·        Is it obvious from the domain name where the site or page originates?

D -- DESIGN EVALUATION CRITERIA

D1.  QUALITY OF GRAPHIC AND MULTIMEDIA CONTENT

·        Are the graphics clear and easy to understand?

·        Are the audio and video components high quality?

·        Is the graphic and multimedia content likely to attract and appeal to young people?

D2.  QUALITY OF GENERAL DESIGN

·        Is the overall site design pleasing? 

·        Is the design attention grabbing, but not distracting? 

·        Is the design likely to appeal to most young people? 

·        Are the individual pages so long that excessive scrolling is necessary? 

·        Is the text easy to read (based on font appearance, size, and color)?

D3.  INCLUSION OF LINKS

·        Are there a relatively large number of links? 

·        Are the links related to the main subjects of the website? 

·        Are the links generally high quality? 

·        Are the links evaluated or described at all?

D4.  AMOUNT OF GRAPHIC AND MULTIMEDIA CONTENT

·        Does the site include much graphic and multimedia content, or is it primarily composed of plain text?

·        Is there a relatively low percentage of advertising content?

D5.  LEVEL OF INTERACTIVITY

·        Is there a relatively high level of interactivity? 

·        Is there a method for contacting the authoring/sponsoring body for questions and comments?

D6.  COMPLEXITY OF ORGANIZATIONAL SYSTEM

·        Is navigation within the website fairly easy? 

·        Are the organization and contents obvious from the opening page? 

·        Is there a link to the opening page on each subsequent page? 

·        If the website is large, is an internal search function available? 

·

W -- WORKABILITY EVALUATION CRITERIA

W1.  LOADING SPEED

·        Do all of the pages within the site load quickly? 

·        Does the graphic content load a long time after the textual content has loaded?

W2.  WORKABILITY OF LINKS

·        Are there many dead links? 

·        Do the links require helper applications or plug-ins?

W3.  GENERAL WORKABILITY

·        Is proprietary software needed?  Are helper applications or plug-ins needed? 

·        Is the site almost always available, or are there frequent periods of unavailability? 

·        Do heavy traffic and/or limited connections often preclude site access? 

·        Are there options for downloading and running text-only and non-frame versions? 

·        Are there large-print or audio options for the visually impaired?  

·        Are there textual descriptions of all graphics for screen readers? 

·        Is it necessary to change system configuration for printing purposes?

URL for this page: http://www.pages.drexel.edu/~dea22/print.html

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