Jade Jimenez
Web Research Guide
Evaluating a Web Site
Name of Site: WEDU_
URL: _https://www.wedu.org/____
Critical Questions
Who wrote/published the information
on the site?
• Who is the author/publisher?
• Does the author provide contact
information?
• What are the author's credentials?
• Is the site created or sponsored by a
reputable organization?
What information and resources does
the site provide?
Content
• What is the site's purpose: to persuade,
inform, or entertain?
• Is the information on the site objective or
biased?
• Does the site provide thorough coverage of
the topic?
• Is the information on the site well written?
Are there misspellings or grammatical errors?
• Does the site provide a works cited page?
• Does the site include multimedia elements
that help explain the topic?
My Notes
 Publisher: Florida West Coast
Public Broadcast Inc.
 Their contact information includes
their business address, phone
number, fax, staff member names,
and online forms.
 This is a big broadcasting
company the offers many different
educational opportunities for
teachers, parents, and children.
They have a lot of credentials.
 WEDU has a lot of affiliations like
PBS (Public Broadcasting
Services), FPBS (The Association
of Public Media in Florida), and
APTS (Association of America’s
Public Television Stations). They
do charity too and are partnered
with Community Foundation of
Tampa Bay and Arts Council of
Tampa-Hillsborough.
 WEDU’s purpose is to inform
people of mainly news and
weather, but they also provide
many community and local event
information. They also have a
whole section dedicated to
education.
 I don’t think there are any news
sources anymore that are
unbiased.
 They provide a lot of coverage
about every topic on their website,
from today’s weather to libraries
nearby.

Navigation
• Is the site organized and easy to navigate?
• Does the design suit the purpose?
• Are there ads that might distract me?
• Does the site take a long time to load?
When was the site created/last
updated?
• Does the site indicate when it was first
created and last updated?
• Do the links work, or do they lead to error
messages, such as “Page Not Found”?
Where does the site “live”?
 I think the information is well
written, as I imagine they probably
have a lot of article writers in their
staff. There will always be
grammatical errors and
misspellings in everyone’s work
every here and there.
 They have a closed captioning and
public files section, but there is no
cited page.
 There are a lot of different
multimedia elements such as
videos, writing, pictures, and other
tools. I think videos and writing
always help to explain a topic
better.
 The site is kind of confusing
because there is so much going
on, but it’s not too difficult to
navigate.
 I don’t like the design of the
website and it makes it a bit
difficult to navigate. I also think it’s
very outdated.
 The ads are all the way at the
bottom of the page and they’re
small, so they are not really a
direction.
 Site loading speed differs from
people to people because it is
dependent on your internet speed
and strength. It also depends on
the server hosting, but because
this is WEDU a huge business if it
takes to long to load then its your
internet.
 The site doesn’t state when they
first created it or when it was
lasted updated. They do post new
information a lot every day and
their copyright was updated as of
this year.
 I have yet to find a page not found
error
 The extension of the URL is a .org.
 This means its an organization
• What is the extension in the URL? which is generally non-commercial.
• What, if anything, does the extension tell me
about the source of the site?
Why should I use this site?  This site meets everyone’s need,
do you need to view the weather
• Do the resources on this site meet all my while seeing what events you are
needs? around. It also has a great
• Is the information verifiable, in-depth, and educational section where you can
up to date? find new books for children,
• Why is this Web site a better research libraries, and documentary options
source than some of the other sites I've
for teachers.
already visited?
 The information is very up to date
and in depth.
 Not many people think of WEDU
as a place for educational
resources and information. Most
people think its just the place to
get weather.
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