How to judge an educational source

Identify the claim and the author

First state the exact claim you want to check. Find who wrote the material, their relevant expertise and who published it. A university name or professional-looking design does not make every statement correct. Look for an editorial process, references and a way to distinguish evidence from opinion or promotion.

Trace the evidence

Follow a claim back to its cited study, official documentation or primary data. Read enough to understand the sample, method and limitations. A study showing two things are associated does not by itself prove one causes the other. Compare an important claim with another independent source, not a page repeating the same press release.

Check date and context

A grammar explanation may remain useful for years; software installation steps may become outdated quickly. Check the publication date and the version of the technology being described. For statistics, identify the population, time period and units. A percentage without a denominator can give a misleading impression.

Understand open licenses

Publicly readable does not mean unrestricted reuse. CC BY generally requires attribution; CC BY-SA adds share-alike conditions; NC restricts commercial uses and ND restricts distributing adaptations. Public-domain status can vary by jurisdiction. Record the title, author, license and changes before reusing material, and obtain appropriate advice when commercial permission is unclear.

References & further study

• UNESCO — Recommendation on Open Educational Resources (2019).
• Creative Commons — explanations of the six Creative Commons licenses and attribution guidance.
• Association of College & Research Libraries — Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education (2016).