Introduction to LRC Services: CE Faculty: Websites
Digital Literacy
Websites - including government sites, pages from regulatory bodies and associations - can offer important sources of data. They can also be a rich source of content beyond text - images, videos, chart, graphs, etc. Advanced digital literacy skills enable the life-long learner to actively contribute to scholarship, to understand the value of information, to define and recognize authority. The LRC can work with your students to develop the digital literacy skills to treat information searching like strategic exploration.
Evaluating Websites - For Students
When performing research in books at the LRC or in LRC-subscribed databases, you can be reasonably confident that you are using good sources. But when visiting other websites, it's not always so clear whether the information is appropriate for your research. When in doubt, use the CRAAP test, and consider the following aspects of the information:
Currency: the timeliness of the information
Relevance: the importance of the information for your needs
Authority: the source of the information
Accuracy: the reliability, truthfulness, and correctness of the content
Purpose: the reason the information exists
To read more about the questions you should be asking, see the original CRAAP test from California State University, Chico.
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Michener Institute of Education at UHN, 2018.