C.R.R.A.P Test (Website Evaluation)
- 1. YEAR 8 MEDIEVAL HISTORY UNIT ‘GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN’ USING THE INTERNET WELL
- 2. WEB RESEARCH •Have a clear idea about the information you need to find in order to complete your inquiry to a high level. •You should have worked out what you already know about the topic, what you might know (but have to check), what you need to know to compete the task and possibly what you’d like
- 3. ASK QUESTIONS ABOUT YOUR TOPIC •MAKE SURE YOUR QUESTIONS ARE OPEN- ENDED AND ASK: •Who? •What? •When? •Where? •How? •Why?
- 4. A CLOSER LOOK AT WEB RESEARCH •When you search using the internet you can get way too many results. Some of these may not be relevant or suitable or reliable. •Remember that anyone can publish something on the web.
- 5. HOW DO YOU EVALUATE A WEBSITE’S CREDIBILITY? YOU DO THE C.R.R.A.P. TEST! C IS FOR CURRENCY (is the information up to date?) • How recent is the information? • Can you locate a date when the page(s) were written/created/updated? • Based on your topic, is it current enough?
- 6. R IS FOR RELEVANCE (is the information suitable for this task?) • Does the information presented help you answer your questions on the topic? • Can you understand the information?
- 7. R IS FOR RELIABILITY (can you trust the information?) • Does it state where it got its information from? (Bibliography and references) • Does it have working external links to other useful/credible sites? • Based on your other research, is it accurate? ...complete? • Is the content primarily fact, or opinion? • Is the information balanced, or biased?
- 8. A IS FOR AUTHORITY (can you have confidence in the author/creator?) • Can you determine who the author/creator is? • What are their credentials (education, affiliation, experience, etc.)? Might they have a bias? • Is there evidence they're experts on the subject? • Is there a way to contact them? • Who is the publisher or sponsor of the site? Might they have a bias?
- 9. P IS FOR PURPOSE (why does the website exist?) • What's the intent of the website? (to persuade, to sell you something, etc.) • What is the domain? (.edu, .org, .com, etc.) How might that indicate the purpose? • Are there ads on the website? Could they be indicating a hidden purpose? • Who might benefit from a reader believing this website?
- 10. LET’S EVALUATE THIS ONE: •manhattanairport.org •How credible does it look? Use the information on the whiteboard (C.R.R.A.P. test) to assess it.
- 11. APPEARANCES CAN BE DECEPTIVE •We Googled the Manhattan Airport Foundation to see what it actually is… •Wikipedia entry •So you can’t trust everything that you read online, even if it looks credible!
- 12. USING THE LIBRARY CATALOGUE FOR RESEARCH •Open Chrome •The library catalogue is called Access It and is found on Sharepoint