Up until now, I have never formally evaluated websites as to their worthiness in the classroom.  For years, I have known within myself what constitutes a good website from a poor one, but I had never quantified such.  In an attempt to develop criteria for students to use for judgement of websites, I first thought about what sites I suggest to my students to check out and why.  Later, I will discuss three specific sites I suggest and use most often with them in my Astronomy course.  The criteria or evaluation is in the form of a rubric that outlines what I believe one should look for in excellent, good, or poor web sites.  In most cases, these web sites are evaluated based upon their appearance, content, ease of navigation or usabilty, and the availability of links to other useful and pertinent sites of interest.

Let's first discuss appearance.  The initial appearance a web site has on a student can have a lasting impression.  Does the site draw your attention to it?  If it does, chances are you will begin to scan the site for relevance.  Visuals can aid in stimulating the reader as well as help the reader to understand the site's purpose and audience.  Text should be easy to read and organized and easy on the eyes (no harsh color combinations).  Images should be included to aid in understanding (a picture is worth a thousand words).  maybe most importantly, there should be few advertisements - particularly of the "pop up" variety.  These detract from the purpose of the site which should be educational or informative in nature.

Once a web site has drwan your attention to it, the content of the site is vitally important.  Any site students use in the classroom should be relevant and not biased or motivated in any way.  The content needs to be accurate and up to date.  Accurate information can be verified either bu one's own knowledge of a topic or through additional research.  Often websites are not up to date with current information.  for example, a web site that states that Saturn has eighteen moons would be way out of date.  That was true four years ago, but the current count is sixty.  Reliable and up to date websites will often state at the bottom of the homepage when the page was last modified.  Sites whose content can be considered reliable will identify the author(s) and even their credentials.  Lastly, a good site will have very few or no spelling and grammar errors.  Care was taken to ensure that that content presented has been proofread.  Unreliable sites will often have many grammatical and spelling errors.  How reliable can a web site be if care was not taken to be sure something as simple as grammar and spelling are not correct?

One very important aspect of all good and effective websites are how easily they are navigated.  All good websites are designed with the ease of use in mind.  Good web sites are clearly organized in a logical order and topics can be linked from a home page.  Links or options that can be accessed are available from the homepage.  This allows students to be able to search additional information while having the ability to go back to where they were easily.  Also, sites that contain keyword search functions aid in ease and speed of information retrieval.  All these aspects allow students to easily find information without causing frustration or discouragement in obtaining information.

Finally, the ability of outside links to other resources is a hallmark of good and effective websites.  Many of the most reliable and accurate websites will list their sources of information for students to research.  In this way, students can cater their learning towards even more specific information relevant to them.  The accuracy of what's printed on the website can be easily verified from other sources.  the best websites will often rely on information that comes directly from professional sources (such as NASA).

The appearance, content, navigability, and availability of further information are all very basic criteria anyone could use to evaluate a website.  With experience, this evaluation can be done quickly, effectively, and without formality.  Empowering students with the ability to effectively evaluate reliable, accurate, and useful websites gives thema tool they will always use and rely on..