Website Analysis: Visual Appearance and Content
Preface: While conducting online research many times students may not have the right tools to judge whether or not a website is reliable or credible. When looking to gather information about a specific topic students may become overwhelmed by a websites appearance and completely disregard if the information is accurate or even if it comes from a credible source. Having taught 9th and 10th grade English I have seen how quick students are to judge a website as being a source they may want to use by simply looking at its cool colors or graphics. Appearance has a huge impact on the type of websites students are more likely to return to. Websites that are visually appealing tend to take preference over those that have a more basic presentation, regardless of content accuracy and reliability. This is why I would like to create a lesson plan that will help students compare and contrast different websites, their visual appearance and their content in order to decide which sources are valuable and which are not trust worthy.
Lesson Plan: Website Analysis: Visual Appearance and Content
For this activity the topic of choice is Greek Mythology, however lesson can be modified and used for different topics.
Objective: In this activity you will have an opportunity to visit and explore different websites about Greek Mythology. We will look at different websites and record our initial impressions based strictly on visual appearance. After we will discuss which websites were you feel might be more reliable and credible based on what you saw. We will then read some information regarding credibility and accuracy of these websites and their sources. For the next step we will view these same websites once more and pay closer attention to the information presented. You will have an opportunity to record your impressions about the content of the websites. Finally you will compare your answers (visual appearance) and (content) and you will decide if the visual appearance of a website is a good indicator of the credibility and accuracy of the information presented.
Activity:
First you will take a survey that will help determine your familiarity with analyzing different websites based on different criteria. The survey can be found at the bottom of this page.
Step 1: You will look at the following websites:
http://www.greekmythology.com/
http://www.greekmythology.com/
http://www.mythweb.com/
http://homepage.mac.com/cparada/GML/
http://www.desy.de/gna/interpedia/greek_myth/greek_myth.html
http://www.pantheon.org/areas/mythology/europe/greek/articles.html
Then you will answer these questions for all of the websites:
1. Does the website contain bright colors and designs? Describe
2. Are the letters in the titles of different sections bigger than the rest of the text? Describe
3. Does the website’s main page include images or pictures of any sort? Describe
4. Based on how this website looks, would you visit this page again? Why?
Step 2: Now we will read some information that will give you an idea of what characteristics or pieces of information to look for when evaluating a website.
Step 3: After you have finished reading through these two websites, make your own list of 4 criteria for evaluating the same sites we looked at in the beginning of this activity.
Example:
1. Does the page present information on a topic in an objective manner?
2. Is the name of the creators or authors of the web page found on the website?
3. Is the information of the website current? Look for info about when page was last updated.
4. Does the information appear to come from a scholarly or academic source?
Step 4: Now you will have an opportunity to see more detailed facts and information on the website by visiting a website that tracks website traffic and provides an insight into statistics of how many visitors a specific page receives, what they have to say, contact info of web page creators and more.
The website is called Alexa.com
http://www.alexa.com/
Copy and paste the addresses to the websites we have been evaluating and read the information for each website.
For each website make sure to check for
1.Traffic Statistics (How many times or page is viewed)
2. Contact information (Owner of page, location, etc)
3. Reviews (What other people have to say about that specific website)
Step 5: Now that you have gathered all of your information answer the following questions.
Preface: While conducting online research many times students may not have the right tools to judge whether or not a website is reliable or credible. When looking to gather information about a specific topic students may become overwhelmed by a websites appearance and completely disregard if the information is accurate or even if it comes from a credible source. Having taught 9th and 10th grade English I have seen how quick students are to judge a website as being a source they may want to use by simply looking at its cool colors or graphics. Appearance has a huge impact on the type of websites students are more likely to return to. Websites that are visually appealing tend to take preference over those that have a more basic presentation, regardless of content accuracy and reliability. This is why I would like to create a lesson plan that will help students compare and contrast different websites, their visual appearance and their content in order to decide which sources are valuable and which are not trust worthy.
Lesson Plan: Website Analysis: Visual Appearance and Content
For this activity the topic of choice is Greek Mythology, however lesson can be modified and used for different topics.
Objective: In this activity you will have an opportunity to visit and explore different websites about Greek Mythology. We will look at different websites and record our initial impressions based strictly on visual appearance. After we will discuss which websites were you feel might be more reliable and credible based on what you saw. We will then read some information regarding credibility and accuracy of these websites and their sources. For the next step we will view these same websites once more and pay closer attention to the information presented. You will have an opportunity to record your impressions about the content of the websites. Finally you will compare your answers (visual appearance) and (content) and you will decide if the visual appearance of a website is a good indicator of the credibility and accuracy of the information presented.
Activity:
First you will take a survey that will help determine your familiarity with analyzing different websites based on different criteria. The survey can be found at the bottom of this page.
Step 1: You will look at the following websites:
http://www.greekmythology.com/
http://www.greekmythology.com/
http://www.mythweb.com/
http://homepage.mac.com/cparada/GML/
http://www.desy.de/gna/interpedia/greek_myth/greek_myth.html
http://www.pantheon.org/areas/mythology/europe/greek/articles.html
Then you will answer these questions for all of the websites:
1. Does the website contain bright colors and designs? Describe
2. Are the letters in the titles of different sections bigger than the rest of the text? Describe
3. Does the website’s main page include images or pictures of any sort? Describe
4. Based on how this website looks, would you visit this page again? Why?
Step 2: Now we will read some information that will give you an idea of what characteristics or pieces of information to look for when evaluating a website.
- Read about the “5 Criteria for Evaluating a Web Page”:
- Also read “Evaluating Web Pages: Techniques to Apply and Questions to Ask”
Step 3: After you have finished reading through these two websites, make your own list of 4 criteria for evaluating the same sites we looked at in the beginning of this activity.
Example:
1. Does the page present information on a topic in an objective manner?
2. Is the name of the creators or authors of the web page found on the website?
3. Is the information of the website current? Look for info about when page was last updated.
4. Does the information appear to come from a scholarly or academic source?
Step 4: Now you will have an opportunity to see more detailed facts and information on the website by visiting a website that tracks website traffic and provides an insight into statistics of how many visitors a specific page receives, what they have to say, contact info of web page creators and more.
The website is called Alexa.com
http://www.alexa.com/
Copy and paste the addresses to the websites we have been evaluating and read the information for each website.
For each website make sure to check for
1.Traffic Statistics (How many times or page is viewed)
2. Contact information (Owner of page, location, etc)
3. Reviews (What other people have to say about that specific website)
Step 5: Now that you have gathered all of your information answer the following questions.
- Where your initial impressions about judging websites correct?
- Would you say there is any correlation between a websites appearance and its content?
- What would you say is the best way to judge the content and accuracy of a website?
- What tools and techniques did you learn, and would you say that you would apply these in the future?
| survey.doc |
