Evaluating Websites for Credibility

After looking at the websites I came up with a few ways to help my students decide if a website is credible.

First check the website to see if you can find an author of the website. Check the author and see what their title may be.  Do they have a  PhD or are they a high school student?  Maybe look for a biography of the author.  Check to see if the website is affiliated with an organization or university, then research to make sure that is a real organization or university.

Also, check the date that the website was last updated or posted.  This can usually found at the bottom of the website, sometimes near the author or affiliation.  Make sure it is a recent date so you know the information is up to date and not outdated. 

Read through the website and then compare that information to a couple other websites about the same topic.  If you find that the information differs, then one of the websites may not be credible.  You then need to compare with other sources to find out which is correct. 

You can also look at the URL.  This will not guarantee that the website is credible, but if it ends in .gov or .us, it is most likely credible.

These are just a few ways I will teach my students to check for the credibility of websites.  There are probably many more ways which I am not aware of yet, but as I learn them, I will add them to my list for my students to use.