The goal of this project was to develop a practical evaluation tool for high school students to use in selecting appropriate resources from the World Wide Web as information resources. The term resource was defined as anything from which information is derived, whether textual, visual, or aural in nature. Any information gathered from the World Wide Web, such as text and graphics, that supplies, supports, or aids in the research process and information gathering, were considered to be World Wide Web resources. Students who utilized the evaluation tool were then assured that their teachers would be more likely to accept their use of the Web as an information source.

Several assumptions were made prior to development of the instrument. First, it was assumed that students knew terminology associated with the Internet such as domain names (.edu, .com, .org, etc.), e-mail, ftp, list serves, World Wide Web. It was also assumed that the students could read at the 7th grade level. Other information, such as computer use and research practices, was collected through a student survey.

In addition to the development of the evaluation instrument, three other questions guided the study. The questions were: (a) do high school students search the Web before using the library, (b) do high school students prefer research on the Web over browsing through the library, and (c) do teachers and students feel that access to the World Wide Web gives them an advantage over those who do not who have access? To answer these questions, several open-ended questions were incorporated into the student survey and faculty questionnaire.

Other research interests included the effectiveness of the instrument itself in relation to students and teachers. An open-ended survey modeled after Keller's ARCS Model was developed to evaluate the attention, relevance, confidence, and satisfaction of students and teachers when using the instrument.

Formative evaluation of the project was conducted through questionnaires and interviews. Data gathered from the subject matter experts, technology coordinators, librarians, teachers, and students were used to assess whether the tool was effective in meeting its objective.