John R. Henderson
phone: (607)-274-1961
jhenderson@ithaca.edu
Ithaca College Library

The Oil Crisis: a Web Site Evaluation Assignment

Consider the topic of the Oil Crisis. Take a brief look at all of the following five sites, and then select two to evaluate more thoroughly.

1. Peak Oil: True or False?
2. Peak Oil Overview
3. Peak Oil Theory – “World Running Out of Oil Soon” – Is Faulty
4. Long-Term World Oil Supply Scenarios
5. The End of the World as You Know It

When you evaluate the two sites, please address the questions after each point:

• Make sure you are in the right place : Is this site a good source for the information you need? Was the page worth visiting?
• When in doubt, doubt: Do you have good reason to believe that the information on the site is accurate? Are the facts documented?
• Consider the source: Who are the authors and who is responsible for the site? What is their expertise? What is their bias?
• Know what's happening: What is the site's purpose or point of view?
• Distinguish Web pages from pages found on the Web: Was this page designed for the Web, or is it something else, such as a government document or a journal article?

Yes, it is difficult to be both thorough and brief at the same time, but please do your best.

Please check with your instructor how to submit your answers.
Note to Instructors: I gladly grant permission for others to use or adapt this assignment. I only have one condition. Please let me know. For technical reasons, I now ask you to create your own means of collecting answers from your students instead of emailing them to me with a copy to yourself.