A website evaluation rubric is used to measure the quality of a website based on several factors, and different rubrics may measure different factors. You should determine your need for a website evaluation rubric because, for example, choosing a shopping website rubric when you are using a research website that has nothing to do with shopping may yield incorrect results. The website rubric should be consistent or the results may be questionable. All factors should be measureable and should not be left to personal feelings. After the rubric is finished, a good rubric will have a concise scoring system that tells you how good or trustworthy the website is.
Before choosing any website evaluation rubric, you must understand your need for the rubric. If you are looking to buy something from a website, using a shopping website rubric would measure factors needed for a good shopping experience. Using a rubric made for another purpose, such as a research rubric, may yield inaccurate results.
A website evaluation rubric should have consistent scoring or the quality of the rubric may be questionable. For example, if one question asks about the number of images on a website and then gives a low score for a high number of images, then any other questions concerning images should hold this same opinion. An inconsistent rubric may have another question that says or implies that websites with many images are better than those with fewer images.
The purpose of a rubric is to measure a website’s quality, so a website evaluation rubric should only contain questions and answers can that can be checked without the interference of personal feelings. For example, if the question is on safety, then measurable answers will mention security certificates, secure logins and advanced verification methods. Opinion-based measurements may ask if you feel safe on the website, without bringing up features that can be seen or measured.
After the scoring is finished, there should be a concise list of what each score means. Some rubrics may just say a website is good if it has 20 points, but will not explain why, nor will the rubric say what the score really means. A better rubric will explain that a score of 20 means the website can be used for research, but you may need other references to back up the information. This ensures that you know the exact quality level of the website and what you can do with the website based on its quality.
