8 Tips to Help Students Evaluate Websites

>>Narrator: The World Health Organization has actually declared an "infodemic" because of all the misinformation that's readily available on the internet. When students are searching websites, they really need to be sure that what they're reading is accurate and trustworthy. The website should load quickly and links should be efficient.

You get where you need to get in the fewest links possible. There should always be an easy way to get back to the home page. Quality websites strive to have few ads or popups.

If there are popups or advertisements, do they match the content of the website? Reputable sources work very hard to make sure there are no spelling, syntax or grammatical errors. Graphics should help to explain the content on the website.

They should not merely be decorative or have no relation at all to the content on the site. Students should check the website's source. Who actually produces the website?

Students can look at the domain name or the URL. Endings like dot-gov or dot-edu can be attributed to government and educational sites. Checking about us or the FAQs can help students determine if a site is providing factual information or if it has bias.

Students can find out if the website author is qualified by doing a Google search. A person's work experience and degrees should match the topic they're writing about. Trustworthy sites will typically provide links to other reputable sources.

Students can also check for other websites that use the current one as a reference. Students can tell that a site is biased if it includes advertisements that promote a particular point of view or if there are opinionated blogs or one-sided articles. When learning to evaluate websites, students learn about critical thinking.

They learn to interrogate information rather than simply consuming it. These skills will serve them well in the social media realm and beyond.