EDUC 5143 - Qualitative Research: Other Online Resources

It's important to remember that publishing on the web is very easy - almost anyone can do it! The problem with that is knowing what's credible (worth your time) and what's not. 

There are five main criteria that I use when evaluating a website:

• Accuracy
• Authority
• Currency
• Objectivity
• Coverage

Some of the things you want to look at or for in a website include:

• the URL (.gov, .mil, .us, .edu are usually pretty credible); 
• links to information about the author or sponsoring organization; 
• links to other sites that are credible; 
• the currency of the page (is it updated regularly?);
• no broken links.

Ultimately the researcher must be the one to determine whether or not to use information found on a website. Below are a couple of links to websites that provide some excellent guidelines for evaluating resources and websites: