Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

How do I start?

What is good design?

What is credible content?

How do I know if the author is credible?

Does this site facilitate learning and encourage the visitor to explore issues?

What kinds of prior knowledge is required to use this site properly?

Is there flexibility in using the tools in this site - are they "stand-alone" tools?

What makes a site "educationally sound"?

What is the one most important aspect of a site that ensures it is credible?

How many links to other sites are required to ensure this site is credible?

How do I start?
Evaluating web sites is a requirement for teachers. The best place to start is to ensure you have the list of URL's you wish to visit and evaluate. Print off a copy of the checklist from this site and visit your first URL.

What is good design?
"Design well done is a dynamic and creative process, not a mechanically applied technique. All the principles in the world cannot guarantee that what is designed will be effective, attractive, motivating or even acceptable." according to Malcolm Fleming & W. Howard Levie. Thus, good design follows the principles but the creators have a license to use good judgement. Users may find an aesthetically pleasing and dynamic web site more effective where as other users may find the corporate web site more appealing. Design of an Educational web site should reflect the needs and aptitudes of the potential audience whether it be educators/students or parents.

What is credible content?
Content refers to "the subject or ideas contained in something written, said, or represented�" (Cambridge University Press, 2001). Credible content refers to content that is based on reliable facts, research based findings and sited findings.

Ensuring the site provides this type of content ensures its credibility. Finally, Listing resources that were used to provide accurate content are essential when creating an informational and educational web site.

How do I know if the author is credible?
First, the author of the web site should have followed the guidelines for Credibility provided here in the toolkit. Thus, if the authors' credentials are listed on the site there should also be a way to contact the author. Further readings / research conducted by the same author is a good check point as well.

Does this site facilitate learning and encourage the visitor to explore issues?
According to Malcolm Fleming and W. Howard Levie,

Content-based orienting activities influence how and what a learner perceives and processes. Highly explicit activities, such as pre-instructional objectives, influence the perceived importance attributed to related information in very specific ways.

Cognitive orienting activities, such as advance organizers, attempt to stimulate, induce, or provide a framework to facilitate subsumption of lesson information. Cognitive orienting activities provide a more abstract and non-specific perspective than behavioral activities.

Integrative orienting activities often promote learning of both higher level learning and supporting information. Such activities may, for instance, pose a broadly defined problem, but cue the learner to the types of information requird to resolve the problem.

Any web site that has references to other web sites usually encourages the visitor to investigate further the findings of the current site. Links to other credible sites are a good indicator or a site that would encourage its' visitors to search deeper / more intensively into the subject.

What kinds of prior knowledge is required to use this site properly?
A well-designed web site should not require the user to have any prior knowledge. Thus our site "Educational Web Site Toolkit" does not require a user to have any prior knowledge. The site is self-contained. Each tool can be used by itself or in conjunction with the others.

Is there flexibility in using the tools in this site - are they "stand-alone" tools?
Yes, each tool in this site can be used as a "stand-alone" tool. Any number of tools can be used when evaluating the site of your choice. However, to get an overall / complete picture all of the evaluation tools should be used before you say that the site you are investigating is "educationally or pedagogically" sound. If you require further tools please look through the links section that will enable you to inspect other web site design criteria pages.

What makes a site "educationally sound"?
The web site should meet its pedagogical objectives. To ascertain whether the objectives are indeed realized, they should be expressed in explicitly behavioral format; behaviors are easier to test than the affective domain.

A valid and reliable evaluation instrument must be constructed that informs the learner whether objectives have been met. Built-in remedial loops will correct unwanted outcomes.

Some features of a sound web site:

• A clear statement of performance objectives
• A clear statement of performance objectives
• Strategies that allow students/parents/educators to realize objectives
• Use of external hyperlinks where appropriate
• Use of illustrations, video and audio where appropriate
• Interactivity to help capture student's attention and create non-passive situations (effective design to appeal to the potential audience)
• An evaluation device for students to use
• A feedback mechanism on the evaluation procedure
• Remedial loops to correct ineffective learning

What is the one most important aspect of a site that ensures it is credible?
Teachers are more likely to use the information they find on an educational web site if the author has the theoretical and practical credentials. Therefore, the authors' credentials becomes the most important aspect for credibility. These credentials may be displayed on a separate page or on the main page of the site itself.

How many links to other sites are required to ensure this site is credible?
A minimum of three links are required to ensure a site is credible. One link / email address link for the author or the site, one link / email address for the web master or designer of the site and last but not least one link to another site that addresses a similar content.

The more links a site has the more educationally valuable the site becomes for research and findings. The more links to other sites the more that a visitor to the site is encouraged to keep investigating the material or research deeper into the topic all of which makes the site your currently using more valuable to the users.