I found Chris Betcher's Skype presentation a timely review of basic search syntax and the importance of discussing truth and bias in online information. I like the simplicity of Chris Betcher's 5 Factors for Evaluating a Website: Authority - Currency - Content/Purpose - Audience - Structure/Workability. However, although a list of 5 factors is easy to remember (hence its simplicity) I have not found these five factors so easy to evaluate when doing online research personally, as a parent with me children, and as a teacher with my students. I have found most students would agree and perhaps offer these five factors as those they would use to evaluate the truth and bias of information from an online site but where they struggle is having sufficient experience and expertise to accurately evaluate these five factors for the varied sources of information they encounter online. Just as Chris Betcher provided us with sample sites to evaluate and discuss as a group, we need to be doing this with our students and guide them in searching and discussing both sites that 1) are designed to entertain, to mislead, to persuade/present one side of an issue and those that 2) are designed to inform fully with factual information and open about any bias that is intended in the information presentation. Searching this topic in the web, I found the following website with a list of factors (scope, audience, author, authority/publishing body, currency, treatment, arrangement/ease of use) similar to Chris' (and others on the Internet) that also included associated questions (appropriate to HS level students) for students to ask themselves when evaluating the truth and bias of online information http://ils.unc.edu/~fents/310/#Evaluating%20Web from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill:
Information Quality Checklist
These are questions that users might ask themselves to evaluate a piece of information on the Internet. Of particular importance is the need for outside verification. Does similar information appear elsewhere, outside this one Web site? Although repeating misinformation will not make it into quality information, the inverse (finding a "fact" in only one place), can be a pointer to inaccuracies or untruths in the information.
1. Scope:
Is the information at an appropriate use level?
What is the purpose of the site?
Does it promote a position?
Is the information primary or secondary in nature?
Do the pages include links to support the ideas central to the paper?
Is the site inward-focused or outward-directed in its linking? (disinformation is often self-referencing)
2. Audience:
Audience is a key factor in evaluating site information. Information needs to be at a level that the user can understand and assimilate it. Information which is too complex or too simple is often useless.
What audience level is the site intended for?
Is it research application oriented, informational, or entertaining?
3. Author:
Is the author a known expert in the area?
Author credentials may be evaluated by traditional means, such as checking directories, publications, Who's Who, etc.
Additionally, Internet credentials can be evaluated through personal home page information or institution directory information. Using programs like "finger" or "Whois" can also help to track down electronically an author’s credentials.
If the author is not a name you are familiar with, there are unique verification tools available using the Web:
Was the page linked to another page which you are familiar with? Can you establish a clear relationship or connection between the two sites?
Does the Web site give biographical information, including the author’s position, institutional affiliation and address?
Is an e-mail address included, can you connect the individual to an institution using this?
4. Authority or publishing body:
As commercial activity has increased on the Web, marketing has also increased. Many "information" sites are thinly disguised marketing or public relations efforts created by interested corporations. Identifying the publishing body can go a long ways toward understanding the bias (if any) present in the creation of the site.
Is there an organization which has taken credit for the site which you are viewing?
Are there headers, footers, or background "watermark" which could establish a relationship to an institution?
Can you contact the Web master of the site?
What can you determine about the site by reading its URL? What is the suffix ending (.edu, .ca, .gov, .com, .net, etc.)
Backtracking is a technique for uncovering the location of the base organization. This entails eliminating files and/or folders one at a time proceeding from going from right to left. After eliminating each folder, try to connect to the site. This can take you back to the sponsoring organization of a site and also uncover related sites and folders.
Once you have identified the publisher of the site, the next determination is whether they have an inherent bias (religious affiliation, political party, industry lobby, right-to-life, etc.)
5. Currency:
Currency is of vital importance in science, medicine and similar fields. It might not be so important in languages or some of the other social sciences.
When was the site created?
When was it last updated?
Does it include the date when the information was gathered?
Is there a date of copyright?
Or a date that the research was conducted?
Is there a publication date from a conference or another journal?
How up to date are the links?
6. Treatment:
For a research document, there should be an explanation of the data which was gathered and an explanation of the research methods used to gather and interpret it.
The methodology outlined should be appropriate to the topic and should allow the study to be duplicated for verification.
If the work involves a new concept or procedure, there should be a discussion of the elements of this technique or theory and a discussion of the appropriateness and limitations of this approach.
Other sources which the document relies upon are documented in a bibliography of acceptable format and/ or connected by hyperlinks
Sources used in the preparation of the research or study are documented.
Any other related information can be identified and verified.
A bibliography is included or available.
7. Arrangement/ Ease of Use:
Does the site require proprietary software or passwords to access the information?
Are either of these easy to obtain?
Is there a cost?
Is the site user friendly?
Is the information presented in a logical, ordered manner?
Is there a clear site map or hypermedia index?
Do graphics and hypermedia add to the or detract from the quality of the site?
If multi-media is used is it appropriate for the site?
I also found a pdf checklist http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/EvalForm.pdf from University of Califormia Berkley that I like and would use with my students for them to evaluate information they find on an online site.
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