Review Criteria

Review Process
Upon identification of an online resource, every effort is made to determine the appropriateness of including the resource in the GSDL collection. Resources are reviewed at external reviewers to determine if they should be selected for inclusion in the GSDL.

Review Criteria
This criteria will be/has been reviewed by our advisors, and with other experts, researchers and scientists in academia and industry. These criteria reflect the defined needs of the target audience, articulate clear gender equity guidelines that are inclusive and respectful of diversity, and align with national science and gender equity standards, as well as other frameworks as appropriate.

1. General Criteria
The General criteria measures overall appropriateness of the resource and its content for inclusion in the collection and to the specific objectives of the GSDL. Relevant to the categories below, all accepted resources must:

• Domain - contain subject matter in the domains of natural sciences, pure or applied, mathematics, engineering, or technology. Other topics include educational technology and professional development topics such as assessment, evaluation tools, as well as research on teacher change, equity, and teaching methods, teacher preparation and women's studies.
• Grade level - be useful in supporting instruction in K-12 and higher education settings, in both formal/informal environments.
• Need - clearly address the aspect of gender equity in science, be appropriate for national dissemination, and compare well with existing materials that address a similar need and relate to current trends.
• Communicability - use language that is consistent for the primary audience.
• Availability - be readily available , free of cost, and in digital format. In addition, links to the resource must be in place and active for the resource to be selected. In the instance where links are not active, are inconsistently available, or are poorly maintained, the item is either not selected or is removed from the collection.
• Disposition - for resources that are submitted but not selected, the contributor will be notified that the resource was not selected for the collection and given reviewers comments.

• National Standards - conform to national content standards, available from:
  - National Academies (Center for Science, Engineering and Mathematics education) at http://www.nap.edu/books/0309053269/html/index.html
  - National Council of Teachers of Mathematics at http://standards.nctm.org/document/index.htm
  
• Scientific accuracy and credibility - be based upon recognized scientific principles and results, or empirical evidence observed directly. Resources dealing with scientific uncertainty should clearly describe the state of current knowledge and the nature of the uncertainty.
• Pedagogical effectiveness - must be considered in the context of how the item is to be used, the level of the audience to be reached, and the background of the teacher presenting the material. Pedagogies should be adapted to different learning styles, and a review of pedagogical effectiveness becomes an assessment of the match between the pedagogy presented and the intended audience.
• Ease of use for students and educators – be readily utilizable and self explanatory, offer simplicity of working with the learning resource, and note any special requirements or problems.
• Well documented - be complete and reviewable as submitted. Data file formats must be documented, a bibliography or reference list included if applicable, statements regarding the intended audience and intended use (e.g. classroom, lab, student project, etc.). Documentation should also list ancillary data required for use of the resource (e.g. a specific article, data set, image, observation, etc.).
• Robustness and sustainability - some learning resources are fragile, requiring specific operating system requirements, plug-ins or specialized software. These resources may be difficult to maintain and should be noted. Authors/submitters will be asked to identify any special system requirements that impact this criterion, and reviewers will note their experiences.

• Quality - be based on sound gender equity research and practice, and have information and content accuracy.
• Educational significance - focus on solving or alleviating significant educational barriers to gender equity (draws strategies from diverse fields), addresses federal gender equity responsibilities, and/or is an improvement over alternative approaches to the challenge.
• Gender-fairness - support variation (all men and women are not the same); inclusiveness (are about both women and men, as well as about people from different ethnic groups); affirmativeness (stress the dignity and worth of all people); representation (presents a balanced perspective); and integration (weaves together the experiences and the lives of both women and men).
• Confidence - support and recognize young women's and men's skills and abilities, inspire self-confidence and assuredness in the classroom environment and use a respectful tone.
• Collaboration - encourage exploration and inductive learning.
• - Personal identification - enable students to find a connection between their personal lives and the resource content.
• Contextuality - emphasize information contexts (histories, stories, explanations, backgrounds, etc.), contemplation and interpretation.
• Social connectivity/Inclusion - highlight the importance of the topic matter to human relationships, and provide a method for obtaining additional information (contact information, etc.)
• Graphic-multimedia concentration - represent women and men in roughly equal numbers in narrative, graphic, audio, and video content; depict people of diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds; and when women and members of marginalized groups are represented, they are presented in positions of respect and influence.

• Instructional plans - include activities, lessons, sets of lessons, and instructional units that are of a nature that would enable an educator to implement or modify instruction to meet specific teaching and learning needs. To be useful for the GSDL collection, the resource should include such elements as background information, instructional goals or objectives, concepts, procedures, or skills to be learned, lists of handouts and resources, assignments (if any), readings or specific activities, and practical guidelines for teaching and for assessing student performance.
• Support resources - must be support resources, instructional aids or media, tests, performance tasks, portfolio examples, authentic assessment tools, professional development resources, or background resources suitable for direct use by educators in the development, implementation, and assessment of instructional activities.
• Supplemental resources - supplemental resources can be in a variety of electronic formats that are directly usable with students for instructional purposes, though in some cases the resources may have not been specifically designed for instructional purposes.
• Review resources - items which educators might require as they review and evaluate the utility of instructional resources they are considering for use with students may be selected when appropriate.

• Audience appropriate - be engaging, and motivating for intended audiences. Some learning resources will motivate and inspire students more than others, and this review criteria will gauge the level and depth of student engagement and long term effect.
• Visually appealing - have a layout, topical relevance and content are engaging.
• Technically robust - be of sound quality, compatibility, durability, and use of formats accessible to users with disabilities.

• Those that do not meet the criteria outlined in the following section.
• Advertising, promotional materials and catalogs.
• Resources that link to other sites without providing added value such as search tools or organizational structures.
• Resources which are poorly developed and maintained technologically, or which provide unreliable service.