This document discusses effective ways to appraise web content. It defines appraisal and explains why appraising a site is important to evaluate how well it meets organizational goals and adheres to standards of effectiveness. It recommends measuring effectiveness based on how the content contributes to a learning community and credits contributors. The document outlines goals of empowering people, providing credible research tools, and sharing knowledge. It provides a two-step process for appraisal: 1) planning by identifying attributes to measure like knowledge level, usability, relevance, actionability, and interrelatedness; and 2) creating a system like a Google Docs form to collect data on pages and make improvements based on the findings.
2. ap·praise To evaluate, especially in an official capacity. To estimate the quality, amount, size, and other features of; judge.
3. Why Appraise Your Site? Effectiveness Adherence to your organization’s goals.
4. Measure of Effectiveness Content developed becomes part of learning community. Content creators will be credited for their contributions Content contributors should believe in collaborating on content Avoid Duplication of existing content Contributors should strive to understand who their content is for CoP content will need to change and evolve
5. eXtensions Goals Empower people Provide credible, reliable, research-based tools Bestow knowledge
9. Knowledge Level What level of subject matter knowledge is needed to understand or use this page?
10. Who is Your Intended Audience? Are you putting content up that is hard to grasp? Are the needs of your audience met?
11. Page Usability On the average Web page, users have time to read at most 28% of the words during an average visit; 20% is more likely. -http://www.useit.com/alertbox/percent-text-read.html
12. Enhance the Scan Clear, descriptive headings and subheads Appropriate sentence and paragraph length Use of graphics, bullets, tables, charts, etc., where appropriate Overall readability
13. Relevance Is the content up-to-date and of current interest to its intended audience?
14. In With the New Out With the Old Outdated content takes up valuable space and should be dropped New content keeps the readers interested and coming back for more
15. Actionability Does the page provide a clear next step for its current audience, and does it facilitate that step?
16. Lead that Horse to Water If there is a next step, lead the reader down the path Not all content has a next step
24. The Easy Way Use Google Docs Create a form to collect data All data will be collected in a spreadsheet Make changes from the data Ask me for my Template