Web site evaluation: a survey of undergraduates
| Date | 01 December 2002 |
| Pages | 392-403 |
| Published date | 01 December 2002 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/14684520210452727 |
| Author | Joy Tillotson |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Library & information science |
Web site evaluation:
a survey of
undergraduates
Joy Tillotson
It is generally regarded as good practice in
writing or teaching to understand the
audience to be addressed. Relatively little has
been published in the literature about the way
in which people (other than librarians)
evaluate Web sites, although evidence is
presented that inappropriate Web sources are
used by college students (Gillette and Videon,
1998; Davis, 2002). Librarians have long
been concerned with teaching students to
evaluate library resources (e.g. Engeldinger,
1991) but there has been relatively little
investigation of how students approach
evaluation of resources before their
instruction.
One of the gaps in the literature so far is a
study of the Web site evaluation methods of a
large group of undergraduates. This study
attempts to fill that gap.
Literature review
A number of studies have investigated how
users from different populations evaluate Web
sites. The studies with academic users have all
been done with small groups while the general
population has been studied using surveys of
larger groups.
Undergraduates
Scholz-Crane (1998) studied 49 first and
second year students in an English
composition class at a US university. She
asked one group of 28 to evaluate two Web
sites using a checklist of questions based on
criteria used by librarians to evaluate Web
sites (authority, accuracy, objectivity,
currency, scope). A group of 21 were asked to
write essays evaluating the same Web sites.
The first group was found to need more
instruction in understanding the criteria they
had been given and in finding a document's
``identifying elements''. They also needed to
develop the ability to ``determine elements
not usually explicitly stated within the
document (e.g. its purpose or bias)''.
Students in the second group were found to
be using some of the criteria identified in the
literature. They most often referred to criteria
related to scope (what topics the document
covered and in what detail) and accuracy
(whether the document contained statistics,
The author
Joy Tillotson is Head of Information Services at Queen
Elizabeth II Library, Memorial University of
Newfoundland, St John's, Newfoundland, Canada.
Keywords
Web sites, Evaluation, Undergraduates, Universities
Abstract
Using a questionnaire distributed to participants in the
library instruction programmes at two Canadian
universities, the author studied students' understanding
of the need for Web site evaluation and their ability to
articulate criteria for evaluation. The results show that
students view Web sources somewhat critically and are
aware of standard Web site evaluation criteria.
Electronic access
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Refereed article received 28 June 2002
Approved for publication 25 July 2002
392
Online Information Review
Volume 26 .Number 6 .2002 .pp. 392±403
#MCB UP Limited .ISSN 1468-4527
DOI 10.1108/14684520210452727
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