With the abundance of information available on the Internet, it is important that students and teachers (or, for that matter, anyone using the Internet to find information) be able to critically evaluate the resources they find to ensure the information is reliable. It’s important to remember that anyone can create and add content to the Internet, and that people do so for all types of reasons and with all levels of knowledge.

There are several different “tests” people can use to help them evaluate information in print or online. These include:

• Kathy Schrock’s 5 W’s of Website Evaluation

• Who?, What?, When? Where?, Why?

• RADCAB – A mnemonic acronym for information evaluation created by Karen M. Christensson

• Relevancy, Appropriateness, Detail, Currency, Authority, Bias

• The CRAAP Test fromthe Merriam Library at USC Chico

• Currency, Relevance, Authority, Accuracy, Purpose

• EasyBib Website Evaluator

• Walks you through evaluating a website

Further Resources

• Kathy Schrock’s Guide to Everything: Critical Evaluation

• A collection of resources to help learn and teach about evaluating information

• Edutopia: Teaching Adolescents How to Evaluate the Quality of Online Information

• Article that discusses the need for and strategies for teaching middle school and high school students to critically evaluate information.

• Edudemic: How to Teach Students to Evaluate the Quality of Online Information