Critiques of Web Sites

For samples of finished critiques, click here.

You will need to locate two web sites concerned with Chaucer or with medieval studies.  The web sites must be ones which you think are worthwhile resources; they  may not be ones which are already listed on the Resources on Chaucer or Resources on the Middle Ages pages for this class.  You should then evaluate the sites and prepare thorough critiques of them; these critiques will be reviewed and discussed in class.  Finally, your full evaluations will be posted on the course web site.  Some of  the sites will also be revised and submitted to the Merlot online database so that they will be more widely available for others to use.

Locating the web sites:  It may be easiest to start with the Resources on Chaucer or Resources on the Middle Ages pages.  You can't use the sites actually listed on these pages, but the links will lead you to other pages which have their own links, and these will lead you to others, and so on. You may also use a search engine, of course--either a standard search engine like Google, or a more specialized one.   However you choose to go about it, do a little exploring.  Try to find a site that intrigues you, or that offers material not available elsewhere, or that is especially easy to use, or that targets a particular audience, etc.  Don't rush this part of the assignment--the rest of your work will be a lot easier if you have something that is really worth critiquing.

Evaluating the web sites:  You'll need to start by going through the site thoroughly.  Then evaluate it according to the following criteria:

• Provenance:  Determine who is responsible for the site--a university, an individual, an organization, a publisher or commercial company?  Is there an e-mail contact for comments, corrections and feedback? 

• Content:  Explain the focus and purpose of the site, describe the material it contains, try to determine its target audience, etc.  Is the site intended for college, for high school, for an organization like the Society for Creative Anachronism?  Does it include a lot of graphics?  Does it have timelines or historical background that are useful?  Does it include literary interpretation?  Does it make primary texts available?  Is it primarily a portal site, with links to other sites as its primary offering?  The questions you ask will vary, depending on what the particular site has to offer.

• Quality:  You've got to make a judgement here.  How good is the material?  Is it reliable?  Is it just Joe's web page, sounding off about what he thinks he knows about medieval witchcraft, or does it present reliable material?  If it offers primary texts, is there any way to check on the accuracy and integrity of the texts?  How good is the critical material?  How well selected are the links to other sites?  And so forth--this is where you will do a lot of your real thinking about the site.  

• Usefulness:  How useful is the page?  Does it just replicate what is available on dozens of other pages on the web (a lot of course web pages do this, simply as a matter of convenience for the students in the class)?  Is there material that is not easily available elsewhere?  Is the material organized in an especially useful fashion?  Even if its resources are not unique, are they especially extensive?  Is the array of material particularly helpful for a particular audience?

• Ease of Use:  How easy is it to navigate the site?  How clear is the organization?  How simple is it to find any particular item on the site?  Do you have to scroll through tons of material to find what you are looking for?  Do pages and graphics load quickly?  Does the site require special software or plug-ins?

• Site Maintenance:  Is the material on the site current?  Does it include broken or outdated links?  Does it give dates for most recent updates?  

If you want to examine other evaluations of web sites by students in undergraduate medieval literature classes, take a look at Linda Ehrsam Voigts' Engelond site; click on the "Class Picks" button at the bottom of the screen.  (You can also go directly to the "Class Picks" page by clicking here, but then you don't get to explore the rest of her site.)  You may also want to take a look at some of the peer reviews on the Merlot site--on the right-hand side of the main page, under "Browse the Collection by Subject," click on "Humanities," and then click the "Peer Review" link by any of the entries that appear.

Discussing the evaluations:  We will devote part of a class session to a "committee" review of your critiques, and to evaluating the sites for possible submission to the Merlot database.

Submitting the sites:  The process of submitting the sites to Merlot will be discussed in class, or you can go to the Merlot web site to learn about joining the site and contributing material.

Posting the evaluations:  After the critiques have been reviewed and approved by "committee" in class, the finished critiques will be posted on the class web site so that others may consult them.