Evaluating Sources – Library 101 Toolkit

Student-Generated Evaluation Criteria

Title	Student-Generated Evaluation Criteria
Description	Librarians and instructors can flip an explanation of evaluation criteria by having students in the class generate a list of qualities and characteristics they think are important when selecting sources for their assignments. This will engage students in what they would look for. Librarians and instructors can help facilitate – and add to – the list generated by the students. Questions (can be adapted): What criteria do you think are important for figuring out how “trustworthy” or “reliable” a source is? How do you know to trust someone or something? What qualities would you look for in a source? What criteria would you use to figure out whether a source is helpful for you for a paper/assignment? What do you think makes a relevant/good article?
Steps	Ask students to help generate a list of criteria they think are relevant for assessing “quality” in a source. Document their criteria on a whiteboard, or a shared list, and ask students to refer to this list of criteria as they are searching for, and selecting, sources.
Tags	evaluating-sources; in-class;
Time	10 minutes (during class)
Attachments	None.

Classifying Sources: the BAAM Method

Title	Classifying Sources: the BAAM Method
Description	This is an activity that uses the framework of BAAM* as a way of helping the students to understand how they would use different kinds of sources in their research papers. BAAM is a way of classifying sources as: Background; Artifact; Argument; Method. The BAAM method is introduced to students before hands-on searching, and then afterwards, as the students begin classifying their results. Note: We have modified BAAM from Joseph Bizup’s BEAM Method. Substituting Exhibit* for Artifact.
Steps	Provide students with the worksheet. Explain the different categories, using examples which are relevant to the course content or assignment Teach the navigation/research portion of the class At the end of the allotted time, have students volunteer some of their search results and how they will be used according to the BAAM classification Ask them questions, e.g. “Who has research which is an example of ‘background’,” “Who has research which is an example of ‘artifact’,” etc.
Tags	evaluating-sources; beyond-google; in-class
Time	20-25 minutes total (1o minutes to explain concept; 10-15 minutes to discuss at end of class)
Attachments	BAAM Worksheet

Defining a Scholarly Source

Title	Defining a Scholarly Source
Description	Students will compare 3 different articles to determine which one is scholarly and will then list out the reasons why they think it is scholarly. This activity allows students to think critically about publications in order to deduce the features that give scholarly sources their scholarly nature.
Steps	Provide students with 3 articles to review related to the course content: A peer-reviewed, scholarly research article A popular source One should be somewhere in-between, such as an article written by a scholar, but not published in a journal These articles can be provided as print copies or online links to the articles Working in pairs or small groups, have the students compare the three articles for 10 minutes They should: Identify areas where the articles are different, Discuss what is scholarly, what is not? After each group has had time to review the articles ask students to tell you which article they thought was scholarly and why Note their criteria on the whiteboard If anything is missing, add it, and explain; Based on the criteria, ask them to define what a scholarly article is
Tags	Evaluating-sources; Beyond-Google; In-class
Time	20 minutes total (1o minutes examining sources; 10 minutes discussing)
Attachments	Scholarly Worksheet

Evaluating Sources: the Matrix

Title	Evaluating Sources: the Matrix
Description	This activity presents students with several categories of sources (ex. background, social media, news, scholarly/academic) and asks them to select a source and rate it using critieria about the relevance, timeliness, and authority. The source genres can be adapted to fit the kinds of sources students will be utilizing for their assignment.
Steps	Introduce the evaluation matrix to students and touch on the key criteria that they will be looking for in their sources (relevance, currency, and authority) Break students into small groups (2-3) and distribute worksheet (either online or in print) Ask students to follow the instructions and find a source related to their course topic for each source genre/category Ask students to rank the “scholarliness” of the source they select using the evaluation matrix At the end of the exercise, have students report out on one of the sources that they found and the evaluation criteria they applied to determine the quality of the source
Variation	Give students a blank matrix and ask them to evaluate sources as they conduct their own independent research on their own topic.
Tags	Evaluating-sources; In-class
Time	20 minutes total (1o minutes examining sources; 10 minutes discussing)
Attachments	Evaluation Matrix Worksheet

Identifying Stakeholders: Who Cares?

Title	Identifying Stakeholders: Who Cares?
Description	This is an exercise to get student to think and discuss different kinds of stakeholders surrounding a topic and what genres of sources those stakeholders might publish in (both formal & informal).
Steps	Beforehand, create a stakeholder chart on a topic relevant to the course content (see stakeholders example below) During class, show students an example stakeholder chart. Talk through some of the different types of stakeholders and the sources of information that the stakeholders produce (publications, etc.) Ask students to respond to: what’s listed there, who they might add as a stakeholder?what types of sources they might add? where would they find these sources (web, library)? Transition from the discussion to strategies for finding this wide variety of sources in search engines and library databases Give students a blank version of the stakeholders chart and/or ask them to tag each source that they find with a stakeholder & source type tag
Tags	Evaluating sources; In-class
Time	10 minute discussion; 10-minute reflection on student’s stakeholder / source tags
Attachments	Stakeholders Worksheet; Stakeholders Example

Pre-search: Preliminary Research

Title	Pre-search: Preliminary Research
Description	This is an activity that asks students to do some preliminary “pre-search” on their topics before their library session. Students can use the web, Wikipedia, or any source of their choosing to identify 3-4 relevant sources on their topic. Students are asked to document the sources they find, their search process, and a rating for the quality/reputability of these sources.
Steps	Assign students the worksheet leading up to an in–person library session and ask them to share or bring the completed assignment to their library session Ask students to share examples of sources they found, how they found these sources, and what they thought of the quality of the sources Variation: have students pair up and swap their papers with another student to discuss their findings first Discuss with class what their go–to sources are for presearch & what evaluation criteria they apply when finding sources online
Tags	Refining-topic; In-class
Time	20 minutes (homework); 10-15 minute class discussion
Attachments	Pre-search Worksheet; Pre-search Example

Researching a Controversy Using Wikipedia Talk Pages

Title	Researching a Controversy Using Wikipedia Talk Pages
Description	This is an activity to get students to think critically about the sources and information presented in a Wikipedia article. Students are asked to look up an article on their own topic, or a topic related to the course, and examine the content and the “Talk” page to see what issues the article has related to Wikipedia’s 3 guiding principles for content: point of view (objectivity/bias), verifiability (quality of sources cited), and evidence of original research. NOTE: This activity works best for topics (people, events) that are current public debates and/or controversial.
Steps	Ask students what role they see Wikipedia playing as a source for information in their lives (personal, academic) Introduce students to Wikipedia’s 3 core content policies: 1. Neutral Point of View; 2). Verifiability; & 3). No Original Research Pass out worksheet (or present discussion questions via a PPT slide) and ask students to take 10 minutes looking at an article on their topic (or if they don’t have topics, on a topic discussed in class). Ask them to look at both the article and the “Talk Page” in order to comment on what they discover about issues in the article related to the 3 core content policies As a class, discuss: what they find intriguing, or interesting about the controversies surrounding their article’s content; any interesting examples of controversy around unreliable sources of information cited in the Talk page
Tags	Evaluating-sources; Beyond-Google; In-class
Time	25 minutes (5 min. intro; 10 min. review of Wikipedia article; 5-10 min. discussion)
Attachments	Evaluating Wikipedia

Speed-dating Search Engines

Title	Speed-dating Search Engines
Description	This activity presents students with a variety of different search engines (web and library) on a worksheet and prompts them to do rapid research on a topic in order to compare features and scope of search engines relevant to the course topic.
Steps	Give students a worksheet, on which you direct them to several different databases which you’ve selected. Select relevant databases. Leave room for students’ notes. Explain the worksheet, let students know when the exercise will end. Tell them to start. At the end of the time, discuss results: Invite students to talk about their discoveries As they describe the usefulness (or not) of a database, write criteria on the board If there are any criteria missing, add them to your list and explain them to students.
Tags	In-class
Time	20 minutes
Attachments	Speed-dating Worksheet

Evaluating Sources: Recommended Activities from Other Sites

Title	Recommended Evaluation Activities from Other Sites
Evaluating & Complicating Audience on the Web	A lesson designed to get students thinking about the real and intended audiences of web texts by analyzing publication venues and comment replies.
Researching a Controversy Using Twitter	Students use their own Twitter accounts to follow accounts related to their research topics. Students learn the difference between library resources and online resources like daily news, blogs, and opinion.
In-Class Evaluations of Short Videos	Students work in groups to evaluate short videos using particular evaluation criteria.
Making Sense of Scholarly Journal Abstracts	A brief activity to help students understand how to read and interpret abstracts for scholarly journals.
Evaluating the Interwebz	An activity to help students to evaluate and think critically about the appropriateness of web sources for use in research.