It is easy to lose sight of the context in which information is created, especially on the internet – we all get laser-focused on finding a specific source and lose sight of how and why that source was created. In this module, you will learn to “read” and decode your the URLs of your search results in order to better understand the sources your search is returning. This module consists of the following activities: 

1. Internet Domains resource – how to read URLs

2. Decoding URLs quiz (4 points)

3. Search activity (4 points) 

4. Brief reflection (2 points)

Internet Domains

Read this resource from the University of Washington Libraries. Link to “Internet Domains” guide: https://guides.lib.uw.edu/research/evaluate/domains

You will need to understand this content before completing the rest of the activities in this module.

Decoding URLs Quiz 

Complete the following quiz on Decoding URLs. Be sure to enter your name so you get credit for the quiz.

*Note to instructors: we’ve included a link to the quiz template that you can duplicate using Microsoft Forms.

Search Activity and Blog Post

Choose two keywords or phrases and do a basic Google search with them.

Select two of your results and write a brief post including the following information:

First, tell us what words you searched for. Then, put in each link that you investigated and answer these questions about each one (you will have two sets of answers, one for each URL):

1. What is the domain suffix and what does it tell you about this source?
2. What is the domain name and what does it tell you about this source?
3. What is the title of the page you visited, and what does it tell you about this source?

Remember that you are investigating the URL and what you can learn about the source. We don’t want to know what you learned about the topic of your research, rather we want to know what you learned about the individual sources/links you investigated.

*Note to instructors: we had students post on our class website, but this could just as easily be a Padlet or Jamboard post.

Brief Reflection

For this module you learned how to break down URLs that you find online. Write up a brief reflection about your experiences with these activities.

For your post, identify the following:

• One thing that you learned from this module that was new(ish) to you.
• One thing you still have questions about