IRIS 42: Information and Research Instruction Suite for two-year colleges

Evaluating in the Real World

Quality isn't a beauty contest

In this module we showed you an easy example. The truth is, it may not always be easy to find the truth about a Web site.

Thumbs us or thumbs down? Question the validity of every web site. What makes it even more challenging for you is that there are many sites that appear to meet evaluation criteria, but are in fact, not credible. A lot of spoof web sites (like malepregnancy.com) meet every single evaluation criteria on the surface. But when you dig a little deeper and apply the A.S.P.E.C.Ts, you realize it's all glitz.

Evaluating Web sites isn't a beauty contest. Avoid the temptation to automatically think a site is credible because it "looks good." The opposite is just as true -- there are a lot of great sites that aren't flashy or visually appealing. The real beauty of a Web site is how well it meets the evaluation criteria and what kind of ideas and information it provides.

 

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