Evaluation of Internet Resources

Used in Teaching and Research   

Ad Hoc Group for Internet Standards
American Society for Theatre Research

Objective: To  review, evaluate and critique Internet resources including websites used in theatre research and teaching.There are millions of pages on the web purporting to serve educational purposes, with more added every day. Our ad hoc group is concerned with sorting through the proliferation of sites to provide guidance for researchers, teachers and students.

Justification:  Members of the American Society for Theatre Research have formed an ad hoc group for the fundamental purpose of providing content evaluation for research scholars, theatre faculty and students who use Internet resources in classroom or online teaching. We believe that reviews by ASTR scholars will make a significant contribution to the field. In addition, our reviews may assist faculty in presenting electronic materials for tenure or promotion. None of the existing library or link archives provides this service to the profession. This proposal does not replicate or conflict with any other library or web project currently in progress. 

Methods: A current member of ASTR will conduct the review and evaluation of selected websites.   The critique will provide an assessment of the site's value as a resource in teaching and research from the reviewer’s informed perspective. Since reviews may consider both content and technology, there may be more than one reviewer for each site selected.

Members of the ad hoc group will conduct the initial reviews. 

We will begin by reviewing sites that we actually use now in our own teaching and research. 

We recommend that the selection of reviewers be conducted according to long-established principles of CV review to best match qualifications for course content.  We will review the qualifications for potential reviewers.  For example, a reviewer must be an expert in Hispanic drama in order to submit a critique of a site dedicated to Teatro Campesino and Luis Valdez. 

We expect that the majority of reviewers will be members of ASTR or IFTR or SIBMAS.

We will release a statement in the ASTR newsletter and on the listserv to solicit reviewers.

We will invite a qualified scholar to conduct an evaluation if we receive an invitation or request from a creator/owner of a relevant website. What we wish to do is to ensure that qualified experts conduct the review.