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Academic Affairs Online: A Survey Of Information Available On Websites In Higher Education

College Student Journal - September 1, 2000

Recent studies have centered on the pedagogical implications of employing Internet technology (email, the WWW, chatrooms) in college-and-university level instruction. In comparison, little research has been published with regard to using Internet technology to aid in administrative, academic issues in higher education. Although colleges and universities are increasingly using Internet resources to appeal to a diverse and computer-literate student population, our survey of 65 Virginia institutions reveals that they have not employed those resources as effectively as possible. In this article, we focus descriptively on admissions, financial aid, and academic policy websites used by students, alumni, faculty, and staff and offer suggestions on how to make those sites more informative and navigable.

Introduction

The majority of studies regarding technology and education have focused on the pedagogical implications of employing Internet technology (email journals, Web-based distance learning, chatroom lectures and discussions, for example) in instruction and in innovative methods of computer assisted instruction (CAI). To date, relatively little research has been done with regard to Internet technology and administrative, academic issues at the college and university level. The recent accreditation of Jones International University (www.jonesinternational.edu), the first accredited "cyber-university" to operate completely online, foreshadows the virtual universities predicted by Barnard (1997) and the "mega-university" described by Daniel (1997) who predicts Internet distance-learning will allow such universities to serve over 100,000 students online. And while colleges and universities have not yet achieved this reach, now is the time to examine the types of academic and administrative information available via the Internet to an increasingly diverse group of users. This article focuses on the variety of websites used by students, alumni, faculty, and staff to disseminate and retrieve necessary information regarding the institution's admissions procedures, academic policies, and financial aid.

Internet Use

Although colleges and universities have gained a valuable resource through the Internet and the World Wide Web (WWW), the Internet itself owes a great deal of its incredible proliferation over the past thirty years to colleges and universities as well. According to Zakon (1999), initial Internet developments were begun by the Department of Defense and required hosts at academic institutions including UCLA, the University of Utah, Harvard, and Stanford. In 1985, some of the first registered domains were linked to Carnegie-Mellon (cmu.edu), Purdue (purdue.edu), Rice (rice.edu) and UCLA (ucla.edu). With the arrival of Mosaic, the first commercially available web browser in 1993, the service traffic on the WWW proliferated at a growth rate of 341,634%, quickly allowing the WWW to become the most popular service available on the Internet. According to Media Metrix, education sites dominated the top 15 "trafficked" websites in 1996. Even with the increased number of commercial (.com), governmental (.gov) and organizational (.org) sites available today, education sites account for nearly 10% of the top 500 websites. Additionally, the MCI Great American Net Test (1998) revealed that 75% of US public schools have access to the WWW, that 70 million adult users are online in North America, and in the United States, 18% of users are between the traditional college ages 18 to 24. Galthbreath (1997) predicts as many as 150 million Internet users and 20,000,000 websites by 2000. Clearly, prospective and registered students, their parents, alumni, faculty, and staff are using institutional websites to gather information, "tour" a variety of campuses, and research academic and financial information.

The Study Group

Although we focused this study on institutions located in Virginia, the overall group represents a full range of characteristics at a variety of institutions, both large (James Madison, University -- 13,000 undergraduates) and small (Hampden-Sydney College -- under 1,000); major city (Richmond University), suburban (George Mason University) and rural (Longwood College); public (University of Virginia) and private (Washington and Lee). The Virginia State Council of Higher Education lists a total of 88 institutions of higher education in Virginia. This study includes the 65 institutions, including two-year community colleges, which met the following criteria:

* Serve an undergraduate student population of 500 or greater

* Provide on-campus programs

* Provide credit acceptable for transfer into a bachelor's program

* Be accredited

Of the 65 institutions meeting these initial criteria, two institutions did not have their own homepages; thus, the study was limited to 63 institutions as follow:

* 15 four-year public institutions

* 23 two-year community colleges

* 25 four-year private institutions

Of note, 62 of these institutions designed and maintain their websites "in-house," while only one site was designed professionally. The technological advantages of having a site designed and maintained professionally may ultimately be eclipsed by the practical benefits of having institutional faculty and staff maintain the site, as they will better understand not only the policies, procedures, and deadlines of that institution, but its general atmosphere and attitude as well.

The Methodology

Using a list of current, standard practices in web design, we examined the websites from each of the qualifying institutions during a two-week period. We focused on such aspects as "an emphasis on utility," and ease in navigation as stressed by Levi (1998), update and hyperlink information emphasized by Grassian (1998), and clear purpose of the site as noted by Maddux and Johnson (1997). Specifically, we centered the study on the following pages which are those most likely navigated by visitors to an institution's website:

* the Homepage

* the Admissions Page(s)

* the Financial Aid page(s)

Each page was reviewed for:

* Number of Screens (of Text and Images)

* "Hidden" Links

* Current "Last Update" Information

* Contact Information

It should be noted that the total number of screen "pages" may vary slightly depending on the Internet browser being used. In our study, we employed Netscape Communicator, for example, but Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer are other popular browsers that could yield a slightly different number of screens. We also searched for academic policies and procedures and registration information which appeared on different pages in different websites. By accessing and rating each site (rather than submitting a survey to each institution), we were able to assess the information actually available to individuals searching these sites during a two-week window of time. The data collected in this study therefore represent a single moment in cyberspace. This study also revealed great variability in design and presentation of information, not just among the institutional websites in general, but among the pages within each institution's website.

The Homepage

The homepage is the anchor of any website. As the first page viewed by visitors, it provides the first impression of that institution, and its layout and accessibility can encourage -- and likewise discourage -- a visitor's further exploration of the site. The current best practice for homepages is to limit the homepage to a single screen (page), thus making all options visible and accessible while preventing "hidden" links which may appear below the bottom of the screen. Many users are not yet sophisticated enough to persist in scrolling down a page to find additional links; consequently, they may abandon the site, rather than attempt additional navigation. Additionally, this page should provide a date noting the "last update" of the page to show visitors that the information is both relevant and current. Even the appearance of outdated information (particularly concerning deadlines and policies) is unacceptable in a medium that can and should be updated weekly (Maddux and Johnson, 1997). Finally, the homepage should provide crucial contact information (including the institution's address, phone, and email) to visitors to encourage them to ask questions and make comments. Although a "Contact Us" link, which allows visitors to simply click on that link to send email, is recommended, some browsers do not allow this process; thus, listing the full email address is imperative to provide complete and dependable contact information.

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