Factors that effect the credibility of Non – Profit

Credibility of non – profit websites

Week 12 – Learning Portfolio item 1 – Q3

• Credibility of information – People often don’t cite the information they have used on their site because they feel it has no importance because the information is deemereliable by the creator of the website. Since these citations cannot be followed, the information can not found and therefore may be false.

• Biased – A non – profit website is usually created by a person or a group of people for a purpose. The information on their site could only be their personal opinion, not the actual truth. Online content should, where appropriate,  must show their expertise and trustworthiness (Cugelman,B. 2009)

• Design Layout – non – profit websites do not receive funding meaning they cannot spend money on a professional looking websites.  A website that does not uses the basic design elements of effectiveness, recognition etc may be deemed unreliable.

• Contact information – Non – profit websites do not have efficient contacting systems like Ebay/Apple etc so the owner of these websites often feel uncomfortable displaying their contact information online. Therefore, we do not know who has created or posted the content.

• Usability – Websites should be simple to navigate and use . If  the website appears complicated, unusable etc it often a sign that the website isn’t credible.

Reference List

Cugelman, B. Thelwall, M. & Dawes, P.  (2009) The dimensions of website credibility and their relation to active trust and behavioural impact. Communications of the Association for Information Systems.

Credibility of websites

Are websites credible?

Week 12 – Learning Portfolio item 1 – Q1

Website credibility is a serious issue in the modern age of computing and technology. As we are now using the internet in a diversity of different ways it is important to be to inspect a credible website upon arrival.

Whatever your activity is on the web whether its shopping or research, it is important for the website to establish credibility to earn your trust. As (Doncor, 2011) explains, a website design be correctly targeted against a market audience. The design will not only attract them but influence them to become your customer.

Websites can look attractive and well designed but sometimes this can be a trap as (Furman, 2008) notes that we make preconscious judgements because we are distracted by the design visuals before any real cognitive processing can take place. However, if a website has elements like familiar logos, contact information etc then its credibility is often reliable. What you are doing on the internet can often be affected by credibility.  If your researching for a project, credibility is important for reliability.

Reliability of information is another issue. The information that is gathered can often be false or incomplete. If someone does not cite the text then it could fiction or someone’s biased opinion. An example of this would be Wikipedia where it is freely open for editing, meaning that anyone can easily change the information displayed on the website. This is something to be careful of when researching for projects etc.

Reference List

Doncor. (2011) Website credibility. Retrieved from http://www.doncor.com/site/design

Furman, S. (2008). Credibility. Retrieved from http://www.usability.gov/articles/102009news.html

Wikipedia: Credible or not? You decide…….

Credibility of Wikipedia

Week 12 – Learning Portfolio item 1 – Q2 

We’ve all performed a sneaky Wikipedia copy and paste at least once in our lives for a late assignment but this doesn’t necessarily mean that it is a credible source. In fact, it isn’t. The appeal of huge amounts of sophisticated sounding information is enough to deter us from the idea of whether the information that we are using is reliable.

Academically, Wikipedia should not be used. The main problem with Wikipedia is mainly the reliability of the information. (Ollig, 2007)  Explains that the information which is given to the public, has no independent or credible confirmation.

Furthermore, using information from Wikipedia does not benefit the student as he or she needs to be able to think independently. Taking information from Wikipedia not only limits this but can also be interpreted as a form of plagiarism. However, like I previously mentioned, the attraction of Wikipedia can be irresistible. Therefore, when students see the information on Wikipedia they instantly accept no alternative but to use Wikipedia. This is because they are pleased with the information they collected because it sounds professional and reliably “credible”.

The information that is collected could be biased or incomplete. Wikipedia has also admitted that very rarely its information can be accessed.  But if accessed it can edited by anyone who uses an internet connection (Ollig, 2007) Meaning that the information that be changed from fact to fiction. Some writes don’t cite the sources they have collected, so the credibility of the information can be often affected.

Reference List

Ollig, M. (2007). The pros and cons of Wikipedia. Retrieved from http://www.helium.com/items/739484-the-pros-and-cons-of-wikipedia