There are several popular methods of evaluating sources.
Each of these methods involves, knowing the credibility of the author. This is easy to check, make sure the person has a reputation that matches the expertise claimed in the source. For example, if the article is about teaching methods and education, a teacher would be a good author.
I use and recommend JSTOR's ABC's of Scholarly Sources
ABC stands for authority, bias, and content.
Additionally, the source used should fit with professorial guidelines for publication date.
Or if you prefer their PDF file, here it is
Mostly you need to know - is the author or authoring body credible, is the source objective, is the item new enough for you to use, check with your professor for guidelines on date of publication, and is the source relevant to your needs. If it is all of these things, then the source can probably be trusted to be accurate. One way to check is through lateral reading, which is just opening a new window and investigating the claims. If a claim can be verified in multiple sources, then it is probably true.
Learning objective: The student will understand and implement evaluation techniques when choosing sources to use for a project or paper.