Critical Evaluation Skills: Training Users to Evaluate Online Information:

Effectively, after the burden of analysing the essence of credibility in the online environment it is worth noting, that the efforts to educate and train users were under way. Many of these efforts were couched within the “digital literacy” environment wherein the movement and lead by such groups as the American Library Association, the National Institute for Literacy (Kapoun, 1998; Rosen,1998; Smith, 1997), and various healthcare agencies and consumer groups (Freeman & Spyridakis, 2004), collectively had contributed resources and standards towards achieving a more formatted method of analysing a website. More usual target of these groups was to assist Internet users in developing the skills needed to critically evaluate online information. An important starting point for the digital literacy movement was the understanding that the skills needed to determine the quality or credibility of online information are largely the same as those for evaluating information found through other sources of communication (Alexander & Tate, 1999; Brandt, 1996; Fritch & Cromwell, 2001). Basically, the literature identifies five critical criteria that users should utilize in their analyses of the credibility of an Internet-based information: this ranges from accuracy, authority, objectivity, currency, and coverage or scope (see Alexander & Tate, 1999; Brandt, 1996;Fritch & Cromwell, 2001; Kapoun, 1998; Meola, 2004;Scholz-Crane, 1998; Smith, 1997). Accuracy pinpoints the degree to which a Web site is free from errors, whether the information can be verified or confirmed offline, and the reliability of the information on the site. The authority of a Web site may be assessed by noting who authored the site and whether contact information is provided for that person or organization, what the author’s credentials, qualifications, and affiliations are, like this websites attached at the beginning of this assessment has some qualities that needs to be confirmed and whether the Web site is recommended by a trusted source. Objectivity involves identifying the purpose of the site and whether the information provided is fact or opinion, which also includes understanding whether there might be commercial intent or a conflict of interest on the part of the source, as well as the nature of relationships between linked information sources (e.g., the meaning of “sponsored links” on a Google search output page). Currency herein in relation to these sites is to know whether the information is up to date. Coverage refers to the comprehensiveness or depth of the information provided on the site. These recommendations require a range of activities on the part of users and analysts as well, from simple visual inspection of a Web site to more laborious information verification and triangulation efforts.