How to teach the 10 C’s for Evaluating Internet Sources
1) Help the kids guess them, by eliciting their feedback on previous experiences. Ask questions such as:
a) Have you ever had to write a research paper using the Internet to find information?
b) How successful were you at defining and finding the information you needed? What was easy about doing research over the Internet? What was hard?
c) Have you ever been taught how to do research online? What are some of the “Do’s” and “Don’ts” that you learned?
2) After they put up all their answers, summarize all the responses, then give them sticky notes that have each of the 10 C’s on them, and ask them to put each note with the comments that describe it best. So for example, if a student wrote, “DO cite your sources”, then they would put the “Citation” sticky note on it. Or if another said “DON’T use information that sounds fake”, they would put the “Credibility” sticky note on it.
3) Explain each of the 10 C’s using the students’ own words as much as possible. This means your lecture can’t be scripted ahead of time, you will have to improvise. Although you won’t feel as prepared as you usually do, the students are likely to welcome your candidness and spontaneity, as well as your respect of their own voice.
4) Show them examples of each.
a) Include good and weak examples of each of the 10 C’s.
b) This will help them construct knowledge about this topic, and make it more concrete (rather than abstract).
5) Once students get the concept of critically evaluating what online information they use, the most difficult next step when it comes to online research is creating the bibliography. Want to help your students generate an accurate bibliography without getting bogged down with all the proper periods, spaces, and semicolons? Introduce them to a free online tool for generating their Works Cited list, like www.bibme.org.
Some differentiated methods for teaching the 10 C's
· Condense them – group them into two broad categories, one called Data and the other called Metadata. The Data grouping describes what to look for in the data itself. It addresses the following C’s: Content, Context, Credibility, Critical Thinking. Then the Metadata grouping describes data about the data, which includes Copyright, Citation, and Connectivity. The focus in teaching according to this method is to reduce the number of terms the student needs to learn, and focus instead on the broad concept: that in Internet research, you need to be mindful not only of your data, but also the data that describes your data.
· Omit the ones that are less important – like Continuity, Censorship, and Connectivity – in favor of focusing on the few that matter the most. This is a way of helping the weakest students (maybe those with special needs) to digest the main jist rather than getting bogged down with so many points.
· Students who like to learn through audio/visual methods may prefer to watch a podcast about internet research, either in addition to the class activity described above, or on their own. Some good ones can be found at: http://writing.wisc.edu/podcasts/index.html#mla
Methods for assessing the students on their use of the 10 C’s:
· Tell them half their grade will come from the 10 C's as a whole (and the other half will come from the quality of their writing).
o This will keep them from getting bogged down about the individual C’s and focus instead of incorporating the values behind the criteria. They will focus on the fact that they need to cite their sources, and that their sources need to be credible and appropriate in context.
o Or you may just use this method of assessment for the weaker students, and for the others:
· Give them a checklist with all the 10 C’s and the number of points for each one. The more important ones like Content, Context, Credibility, Critical Thinking, Copyright and Citation should be given the most weight, followed by Censorship, Connectivity, and Comparability.
Ten C's For Evaluating Internet Sources
1. Content
What is the intent of the content? Are the title and author identified? Is the content
"juried?" Is the content "popular" or "scholarly", satiric or serious? What is the date of the
document or article? Is the "edition" current? Do you have the latest version? (Is this
important?) How do you know?
2. Credibility
Is the author identifiable and reliable? Is the content credible? Authoritative? Should it be?
What is the purpose of the information, that is, is it serious, satiric, humorous? Is the URL
extension .edu, .com, .gov or .org? What does this tell you about the "publisher"?
3. Critical Thinking
How can you apply critical thinking skills, including previous knowledge and experience, to
evaluate Internet resources? Can you identify the author, publisher, edition, etc. as you
would with a "traditionally" published resource? What criteria do you use to evaluate
4. Copyright
Even if the copyright notice does not appear prominently, someone wrote, or is
responsible for, the creation of a document, graphic, sound or image, and the material
falls under the copyright conventions. "Fair use" applies to short, cited excerpts, usually as
an example for commentary or research. Materials are in the "public domain" if this is
explicitly stated. Internet users, as users of print media, must respect copyright.
5. Citation
Internet resources should be cited to identify sources used, both to give credit to the
author and to provide the reader with avenues for further research. Standard style
manuals (print and online) provide some examples of how to cite Internet documents,
although these standards are not uniform.
6. Continuity
Will the Internet site be maintained and updated? Is it now and will it continue to be free?
Can you rely on this source over time to provide up-to-date information? Some good .edu
sites have moved to .com, with possible cost implications. Other sites offer partial use for
free, and charge fees for continued or in-depth use.
7. Censorship
Is your discussion list "moderated"? What does this mean? Does your search engine or index
look for all words or are some words excluded? Is this censorship? Does your institution,
based on its mission, parent organization or space limitations, apply some restrictions to
Internet use? Consider censorship and privacy issues when using the Internet.
8. Connectivity
If more than one user will need to access a site, consider each users' access and
"functionality." How do users connect to the Internet and what kind of connection does the
assigned resource require? Does access to the resource require a graphical user interface?
If it is a popular (busy) resource, will it be accessible in the time frame needed? Is it
accessible by more than one Internet tool? Do users have access to the same Internet tools
and applications? Are users familiar with the tools and applications? Is the site "viewable"
by all Web browsers?
9. Comparability
Does the Internet resource have an identified comparable print or CD ROM data set or
source? Does the Internet site contain comparable and complete information? (For
example, some newspapers have partial but not full text information on the Internet.) Do
you need to compare data or statistics over time? Can you identify sources for comparable
earlier or later data? Comparability of data may or may not be important, depending on
your project.
10. Context
What is the context for your research? Can you find "anything" on your topic, that is,
commentary, opinion, narrative, statistics and your quest will be satisfied? Are you looking
for current or historical information? Definitions? Research studies or articles? How does
Internet information fit in the overall information context of your subject? Before you
start searching, define the research context and research needs and decide what sources
might be best to use to successfully fill information needs without data overload.
The Ten C's were developed 1991-1996; a revision was made June 19, 2003. For
further information contact Betsy Richmond at . Please feel
free to use (unmodified) with attribution.