Rubrics and Site Evaluation

Discuss site design/evaluation criteria and share site URLs.

Since there are many variables involved in effective web pages, we will examine a generalized design and evaluation approach that will enable us to articulate what works and what doesn't in your own situation.

Pet Peeves and Pluses (review)

A good place to begin this process is by looking at other Web pages and deciding
what you think of them. List the things you think make things great or horrible.
Work on deciding what you like and don't like about the content and design.
What makes an effective web site? What draws people in and keeps them there.

Other People's Views

Some individuals think they have all the answers.

While there are a huge number of people who try to make up lists of what makes a site effective, and they all seem to come up with different things, the best approach is to look at a lot of sites, and make up your own mind. From what each of you decide is effective for your situation, you will attempt to create pages that will accomplish your stated goals.

Critique Other Sites

There are many uses for the Internet at all grade levels. Schools are connecting to the Internet at a record pace. The use of web pages is becoming more prevalent every day. Web pages are used to disseminate information to the school community, they are used by teachers for lessons. Students are creating web pages as part of an alternate assesment process as well as using it as a source of information. We will examine all of these uses. The web is an exciting, creative place for teachers and students to be. We will discuss how online publishing is currently used in your schools and take some time to look at many different styles of pages. We will pay particular attention to what seems to make sites more or less effective in various ways.

Take a moment to play purposefully.

Browse the web looking at educational sites closely related to your own area.

Bookmark and/or note URLs for excellent sites to make notes about later.

List some of the URLs you find in you WebJourney.

View Web sites with the eye of a critic (or a grader ;)

What purpose do these sites serve?

Are they school and classroom sites?

What looks interesting? Why?

If these were course projects, how would you grade the sites?

Make a list of things you think detract or contribute to each.

Try to select a site to use to use in "my favorite website" assignment.

Rubrics

A "rubric" is an "authentic assessment" tool which is designed to simulate real life activity. One special attribute of rubrics is that learners have a hand in developing their own assessment tools. You will work on developing your own idea of how your own work should be evaluated, and then formalize it into an assessment tool.

First, take a look at other people's ideas about evaluation criteria for Web pages and decide if you agree with them. Look at assessment examples and think about their strengths and weaknesses.

Here are some places for looking at examples:

Once you have reviewed other people's ideas, then it is time to develop your own short "rubric" for evaluating web sites using your own preferences and the most relevant example rubrics.