Application Of Web Information Quality Criteria At Gonabad University Of Medical Sciences

The Internet is an essential tool to access information in the new era, and the quality of information obtained from the web is very important. The purpose of this study, therefore, is to investigate the familiarity with and the application of criteria used to assess the quality of such data at Gonabad University of Medical Sciences. This survey study was done in the second semester of academic year 2012-2013. The population of the study consisted of all 235 bachelor students at Gonabad University of Medical Sciences. A five-item questionnaire based on the Likert scale was used for data collection; the reliability and validity of this questionnaire had been determined by similar studies. The data were analyzed using SPSS software version 20 and descriptive statistics. The results of this study revealed that most of the students paid much attention to the relevance of information (59.1%). Value-addedness (47.7%) and understandability (44.7%) enjoyed the next highest priorities. Consistency (19.1%) and credibility (12.8%) had the lowest priorities among students in terms of interest and application. The findings of this study showed that the students of Gonabad University of Medical Sciences did not pay attention to all information quality criteria in the web; rather, they paid more attention to the relevance and valueaddedness of the information while searching the web.