Discussion Evaluating Online Resources

Directions: There is so much information and misinformation on the web about health, nutrition, and fitness. When looking at resources, it is important to evaluate the credibility of a resource in order to determine the reliability of the information presented.

Review the document Evaluating Online Resources. Then do an online search using the words “diet” and/or “nutrition”. You can use www.google.com to do the search, or any other search engine of your choice. From the results of your search, choose three websites that you would like to evaluate. For each of the websites, answer the questions below and write a final recommendation on the website’s credibility.

Website #1:

1. What is the URL (http:// address) of the website? (1 pt)

2. As far as you can tell, what company or organization does the website belong to (i.e. WebMD, MSNBC, Juice Diet, Inc., US Department of Agriculture, etc). (1 pt)

3. What is the extension on the web address (i.e. org, gov, com, etc)? (1 pt)

4. Is the site promoting a specific product or just supplying information? (1 pt)

5. Briefly review the information on the website. Does the information seem inline with the information you learned in Section 4.1 on nutrition? Explain. (1 pt)

6. As far as you can tell, is the information based on scientific facts and from credible resources? (1 pt)

7. In terms of credibility, would you rate this website as “very credible”, “moderately credible”, or “probably not very credible”? Explain your reasoning. (2 pts)

Website #2:

1. What is the URL (http:// address) of the website? (1 pt)

2. As far as you can tell, what company or organization does the website belong to (i.e. WebMD, MSNBC, Juice Diet, Inc., US Department of Agriculture, etc). (1 pt)

3. What is the extension on the web address (i.e. org, gov, com, etc)? (1 pt)

4. Is the site promoting a specific product or just supplying information? (1 pt)

5. Briefly review the information on the website. Does the information seem inline with the information you learned in Section 4.1 on nutrition? Explain. (1 pt)

6. As far as you can tell, is the information based on scientific facts and from credible resources? (1 pt)

7. In terms of credibility, would you rate this website as “very credible”, “moderately credible”, or “probably not very credible”? Explain your reasoning. (2 pts)

Website #3:

1. What is the URL (http:// address) of the website? (1 pt)

2. As far as you can tell, what company or organization does the website belong to (i.e. WebMD, MSNBC, Juice Diet, Inc., US Department of Agriculture, etc). (1 pt)

3. What is the extension on the web address (i.e. org, gov, com, etc)? (1 pt)

4. Is the site promoting a specific product or just supplying information? (1 pt)

5. Briefly review the information on the website. Does the information seem inline with the information you learned in Section 4.1 on nutrition? Explain. (1 pt)

6. As far as you can tell, is the information based on scientific facts and from credible resources? (1 pt)

7. In terms of credibility, would you rate this website as “very credible”, “moderately credible”, or “probably not very credible”? Explain your reasoning. (2 pts)

Final Recommendations: Of the websites you reviewed, which sites would you deem as credible and which did you think were less than credible? (1 pt)