How to Evaluate Online

Information

Sonja Fuchs, Web Technology Specialist

What is CRAAP

Currency

Relevance

Authority

Accuracy

Purpose

Why CRAAP?

Information overload

• Financial fraud

• Identify theft

• PR nightmare

• Tarnished reputation

• “I saw it online” doesn’t mean green light

Image by Mark Smiciklas on Flickr

When CRAAP?

Consider context

“My son wants to know where sugarbeets grow”

vs.

“What is the financial impact of the sugarbeet industry in the northern

valley?”

Image: Colin Kinner on Flickr

Currency

The timeliness of the information

When was it posted OR

updated or revised?

If it’s not possible to tell

how up to date a site is,

check it out on the

the Internet Archive

Then & Now2000 2005

20092014

Relevance

The information is what you were looking for

• Who is the intended

audience?

• Is the information at an

appropriate level (i.e. not

too elementary or

advanced)

• Have you looked at a

variety of sources before

determining this is one you

will use?

• Would you be comfortable

citing this source?

CC-BY-SA-3.0 /Matt H. Wade at Wikipedia

Authority

The source of the information

• Who is the

author/publisher/source/sponsor?

• What are the author's credentials or

organizational affiliations?

• Is the author qualified to write on the

topic?

• Is there contact information, such as a

publisher or email address?

• Does the URL reveal anything about

the author or source? (.com .edu .gov

.org, etc)

Accuracy

The reliability, truthfulness and correctness

of the content• Where does the information come from?

• Is the information supported by evidence?

• Has the information been reviewed?

• Can you verify any of the information in another

source or from personal knowledge?

• Does the language or tone seem unbiased and free of emotion?

• Are there spelling, grammar or typographical errors?

Purpose

The reason the information exists• What is the purpose of the

information? Is it to inform, teach, sell,

entertain or persuade?

• Do the authors/sponsors make their

intentions or purpose clear?

• Is the information fact, opinion or

propaganda?

• Does the point of view appear

objective and impartial?

• Are there political, ideological, cultural,

religious, institutional or personal

biases?

Questions to ask:

Do they have a tagline?

Is there a mission statement?

What kind of advertisers do they have?

Do they list any affiliations, sponsors,

partners, etc.?

Whois.com

Tells you who really is behind a website

Emails

Blogpost about online job scam

• Urgency

• No contact information

• Site has been removed

• Copyright was outdated on Web

site

• Google search showed FJW is a

scam

Who’s “the Who” or the @ in

the Email?

Pay attention to URLs

Beware of phishing/spoof emails

Photo by Matt Haughey on Flickr

Online transactions https://

Is this email legit?

• Snopes.com

• LazyTruth.com

Image by: geralt on Pixaby

Report spam

Gmail

Outlook

Yahoo

Social Media Checkmarks = verified accounts

For More Info.

• Smell test

• Is that so? Assessing the reliability of online information (eXtension webinar)

• How to Lose Your Gut

• CRAAP test print out

• How to check out any Web page

• 2:00 video on the CRAAP test

Questions? Need Help?

Web Technology Specialists

Sonja Fuchs (701) 231-6403

Bob Bertsch (701) 231-7381