Description of the topic and perceived need for the instruction We wanted to design an instructional module that teaches high school students to
evaluate Internet resources for content, credibility and research value. Teachers
from various curricular areas have stated that one of the major problems with students
using the Internet to conduct research is that they think everything that is posted on the
web is “gospel.” They do not understand that “anyone” can post pages on the web, and
that “anyone” may have a very real bias in what is posted. Students need to be able to
critically analyze the information for content, credibility, and research value before they
use the source for academic papers and projects.
Description of the learner and the context of the instruction The learners are high school students who will be conducting Internet research in
various curricular areas to complete research papers and projects. They may be conducting
these searches during a class, in a research room, or in the library. Many of these students
are in regular and special needs programs where they may not already possess the skills
needed to critically analyze sources.
Learning objectives to be addressedUpon completion students should be able to access Internet sites and use
critical thinking skills to evaluate the content for credibility, and research value and make
a decision about whether or not they would use this source in their paper based on the list
of criteria they have developed.
Description of main content The content consists of:
Students are provided a hot list of sites to access and explore.
Students collect clues from each site to help determine its content value, credibility
and research value.
Students will enter an interactive, web-based tutorial where they will learn more about what makes a
website credible
Students will share and discuss their evaluations with fellow students via a bulletin
board posting or a classroom folder and develop criteria of what constituents a credible website containing
strong content and research value.
Instructional strategies used
Students explore and construct ideas about what makes one site better than another
and which would be most valuable for research purposes. They decide if any of the
sites have a potential bias, or erroneous information.
Instructional strategies require students to compare and contrast as they construct
the necessary knowledge to determine what constitutes a credible site for research
purposes.
Other instructional strategies employed include defining objectives, scaffolding,
guided discovery and providing opportunities for practice.
Prerequisites: These students should have already completed an instructional tutorial on how to use
the Internet and how to conduct effective Internet searches.
Their next step, this module, is to be able to evaluate the sources for credibility
and decide whether or not to use the source. Next, students may need instruction
on what information to use from a source and how to use it. Finally, they will need
instruction on copyright laws and documenting sources.
