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Models
for Evaluating Student Affairs Web Sites
Will
Barratt
Indiana State University
Posted: May, 11, 2001 Student
Affairs Online, 2 (Spring)
A good web site is a delight and a poor web site
is worse than no web site at all. But, what makes a good web site?
This is an evaluation question, and an answerable one. A literature
is emerging to address these kinds of evaluation questions (Center
for Instructional Technology, Academic Technology and Networks,
2000; Cornell University Libraries,
2001;and Schrock, 1998). While there are
many "best practice" statements and models of good and bad web sites
(Flanders, 2001), these are generally values
driven and developed in the absence of data.
Information Technology (IT) creates asynchronous
computer mediated interactions between people. Computer mediated
interaction does not contain valuable visual communication cues, in
contrast to face-to-face interaction. The loss of these cues can lead
to misunderstandings on many levels. The lack of feedback mechanisms,
inherent in face-to-face interaction, can severely limit
communication. Student affairs professionals can never be sure that
students are reading our web pages in the way that we intended, and
students can never be sure if we are responding to their needs.
Student Affairs is essentially student focused and interpersonal, and
our web sites should reflect our core values.
Understanding what makes a good web site is
difficult; especially understanding what makes a good web site within
a specific campuses institutional and organizational context.
Introducing the reader to multiple strategies for enhancing web site
quality is the heart of this material. All of the evaluation
questions are focused on elements that can be changed to better meet
student need.
Using multiple strategies for evaluating your web
site will result in a stronger evaluation, and consequently a better
web site. While each evaluation strategy can be used alone, the
strategies presented here were not designed to stand alone, but to
reflect different evaluation questions. Because each campus will have
a unique web site, the strategies presented here contain general
questions that form the beginning of an evaluation plan. Campus
specific questions should be developed and explored.
The strategies presented here are introduced as
models. Much as a model car is a miniature representation of a real
car, lacking size, detail and the ability to drive, these models are
miniatures of full-scale evaluation strategies. To use a full scale
evaluation, some assembly is required.
Basic Values For Student Affairs Web Sites
Our work in student affairs is values driven. In evaluating a
site, determine the basic values that should be reflected and
determine if these are reflected in the site. The following list of
basic values are proposed as a useful start in developing a list of
values to be used in evaluating student affairs web sites:
- Inclusion: All students, student groups and student
organizations must be included in material presented in the
site.
- Representation: All departments and divisions in
student affairs, and allied departments must be represented.
- Active: Content must contain active information such as
current events, schedules, names, dates, and times.
- Informative: Content must contain regulatory
information such as codes of student conduct and the student
government constitution.
- Interactive: The web site must provide mechanisms for
student interaction.
- Currency: All information must be current and none
out-of-date.
- Convenience: The site must be designed for easy
use.
- Community Building: The web site must link
appropriately to the campus, the community and the world.
- Developmental: The web site must promote student
development goals.
- Learning focused: The web site must promote appropriate
learning goals.
- Clarity: The web site must have a written set of goals
and measurable outcomes.
- Accountability: The site must contain evaluation
mechanisms such as feed back sections and counters.
- Accessibility: The web site must meet accessibility
guidelines.
Evaluating A Web Site As Campus Ecology
Environmental theory and practice is a strong tool
to examine the features of your web site (Banning,
Davies & Quick, 2000; Wallace, 2000).
Asking what, how, who, when and where questions are important in
evaluating a web site. Web pages can succumb to the same analytical
techniques as the campus environment.
The questions below reflect a human aggregate and
a perceptual model of campus. There are undoubtedly many additional
questions that can and should be asked on different campuses.
- Does your web site primarily reflect data, ideas, people or
things?
- Does this orientation reflect the diversity and reality of
your campus climate?
- Does your web site primarily reflect Realistic, Investigative,
Artistic, Social, Enterprising or Conventional people and
situations?
- Does this reflect the diversity and reality of your campus
climate?
- Does your web site reflect the diverse career and degree
aspirations of your students?
- Is there a 'human touch' on each page, such as a quote,
drawing, photograph or personal statement?
- Are the types of people on your campus, such as gender, age,
ethnicity, social class, faculty, student, support staff,
administration, art majors, engineers, etc. reflected visually and
in text on the web site?
- Is their material on the web site focused on the different
types of people, such as ethnic students, commuter students, older
students, etc. on your campus?
- What is the ratio of people to content on the web site?
- What is the ration of active information to reference
information on your pages. Active information is staff names,
phone numbers and events, which need to be updated regularly.
Reference information is the code of student conduct and other
regulatory information which is not subject to frequent
change.
- What is the ratio of academic material to social material on
your web site?
As an evaluation exercise to learn how students
perceive your web site, have five students from a different campus
look at all of your pages and write a brief description of your
campus based on your web pages.
Web Sites as Student Development Tools
Student development and learning provide wonderful means to
examine features of your web site. These questions should be answered
as a degree, not as yes-no questions, and specific web features
should be associated with student development and learning goals.
- What models of student development drive your web site?
- To what extent does the web site promote student
development?
- Using Chickering (1993) as a
developmental model, the following questions might be applied to a
web site:
- How is the development of purpose, such as careers,
volunteerism, reflected in the web site?
- How is the development of identity reflected in the web
site?
- To what extent does the web site promote student
autonomy?
- To what extent does the web site promote student community
development?
Evaluating Web Sites as Learning Tools
Concepts and practices of student learning are effective in
evaluating a student affairs web site. Learning is the acquisition of
knowledge and skills as the result of experience. The web site can be
seen as an experience and as providing information about experiences
on campus.
- What models of student learning drive your web site?
- Are there articulated learning goals for the web site?
- If a taxonomy of learning, such as Bloom
(1956) is part of the Student Affairs Mission, how are these
presented in the web site?
- To what extent does the web site promote student
learning?
- What knowledge base is presented or linked in the web site,
such as campus events, regulations, contact information, social
support or academic support?
- What knowledge is assumed in order to use the web site, such
as department names and organizational chart?
- What skills are presented or linked in the web site, such as
intramural sports or social skills programs?
- What skills are assumed in order to use the web site, such as
accessibility?
- What values are reflected in your web site?
- Which of Bloom's taxonomy items are covered in your web
site?
- How do we track student access of web pages and how students
use the site?
Evaluating Web Site Design and Features
Web sites can be seen as a projection of the institution's values
and structure. Most web sites in student affairs use the
organizational structure as the web structure. Unfortunately, most
students use the organization in different ways. Organizational
structure is designed for certain managerial goals; web site
structures should be designed with other goals in mind.
- What are the goals for your web site?
- Who is the target audience for your web site?
- Does your web site architecture reflect your organizational
chart or does your web site architecture reflect how students
access information?
- Is material available within three clicks?
- Can specific material be found within 30 seconds?
- Are there counters on each page?
- Is individual access tracked?
- If information is captured about student use of your web site,
is there a privacy statement?
Student Evaluation of Student Affairs Web Pages
One method of evaluating a web site is to have a novice user try
to find specific information on the site. To do this have a student
who does not know your web site try to find specific items starting
from the campus home page using only links. If these cannot be found,
then the student should use the campus search feature to find them.
Watch as the student tries to find the information, and pay attention
to how the student uses the site. If you need to answer any questions
from the student, the search is a failure, since all information and
directions for getting it should be on the web site.
The student should try to find active information that is subject
to regular changes, such as the intramural sports teams and schedule,
the name and phone number for the Director of the career center, a
photo of the CSAO, and a list of student organizations. The student
should also try to find regulatory information that is not subject to
regular changes, such as the Student Government Constitution, the
campus Code of Student Conduct, and the Student Affairs Mission
Statement. Links are an important part of any web site, and the
student should try to find links from the student affairs pages to
affiliated student affairs sites, professional organizations, and to
specific campus academic activities.
Evaluating Web Page Design and Content for Accessibility
Accessibility is a campus requirement and a core student affairs
value. Building accessibility and web page accessibility should be of
equal concern. There is extensive literature and sets of
recommendations for web page accessibility. The Web
Accessibility Initiative (WAI) at the World
Wide Web Consortium (W3C) provides excellent and thorough
information and accessibility guidelines, which are summarized below.
A visit to their web site is required reading when evaluating web
pages.
Web
Accessibility Initiative (WAI) Guidelines that Web Content
Developers Must Satisfy.
In General
- Provide a text equivalent for every non-text
element.
- Ensure that all information conveyed with color is
also available without color, for example from context or
markup.
- Clearly identify changes in the natural language of a
document's text and any text equivalents (e.g.,
captions).
- Organize documents so they may be read without style
sheets.
- Ensure that equivalents for dynamic content are
updated when the dynamic content changes.
- Until user agents allow users to control flickering,
avoid causing the screen to flicker.
- Use the clearest and simplest language appropriate
for a site's content.
And if you use images and image maps
- Provide redundant text links for each active region
of a server-side image map.
- Provide client-side image maps instead of server-side
image maps except where the regions cannot be defined
with an available geometric shape.
And if you use tables
- For data tables, identify row and column
headers.
- For data tables that have two or more logical levels
of row or column headers, use markup to associate data
cells and header cells.
And if you use frames
- Title each frame to facilitate frame identification
and navigation.
And if you use applets and scripts
- Ensure that pages are usable when scripts, applets,
or other programmatic objects are turned off or not
supported. If this is not possible, provide equivalent
information on an alternative accessible page.
And if you use multimedia
- Until user agents can automatically read aloud the
text equivalent of a visual track, provide an auditory
description of the important information of the visual
track of a multimedia presentation.
- For any time-based multimedia presentation (e.g., a
movie or animation), synchronize equivalent alternatives
(e.g., captions or auditory descriptions of the visual
track) with the presentation.
And if all else fails
- If, after best efforts, you cannot create an
accessible page, provide a link to an alternative page
that uses W3C technologies, is accessible, has equivalent
information (or functionality), and is updated as often
as the inaccessible (original) page.
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Checklist for Evaluating a Student Affairs Web Site
Web sites can be designed with many things in mind such as
stakeholders, expense, color scheme, and many other web features.
Four main areas, web site navigation and design, web site technical
details, web site aesthetics and web site content will serve as a
beginning point for the evaluation process for student affairs web
pages. While complicated web site evaluation schemes exist, simple is
always a good starting point.
Presented in table form below is a checklist that includes details
for each of the four areas and which can serve as a starting point
for evaluating a web site. The point assignments are arbitrary,
but serve as a vehicle to summarize the data collection process.
Navigation and Design
|
|
|
Points
|
|
|
(4)
|
(3)
|
(2)
|
(1)
|
(0)
|
|
Material should be found within three
clicks from the home page and take no more than 30 seconds
to load, even on a slow modem.
|
3
clicks
|
4
clicks
|
5
clicks
|
6
clicks
|
7
clicks
|
|
All pages should list a most recent
update date, and have been updated within the past 12
months.
|
All
|
|
Most
|
|
Some
|
|
There should be an appropriate and
consistent tool bar/navigation set on pages.
|
All
|
|
Most
|
|
Some
|
|
It should be very easy is it to find the
Student Affairs pages from the school home page.
*Main link - not a pull down menu
item.
|
Home
page
link*
|
Second
page
link
|
Menu
item
link
|
|
No
link
|
|
Material should be organized or indexed
by function (department).
|
All
depts.
|
|
Most
depts.
|
|
Some
depts.
|
|
Material should be organized or indexed
by population being served - Information for students,
faculty and staff.
|
All
|
|
2 of
3
|
|
Stdts.
only
|
|
Sum
of points in each column
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Navigation
and Design Points
|
|
|
|
Technical Details
|
|
|
Points
|
|
|
(4)
|
(3)
|
(2)
|
(1)
|
(0)
|
|
There should be a search function for the
pages or site.
|
Yes
|
|
|
|
No
|
|
There should be a feedback section for
pages or site.
|
Yes
|
|
|
|
No
|
|
There should be page counters on all
pages.
|
Yes
|
|
|
|
No
|
|
Pages should meet accessibility
standards.
|
Yes
|
|
Most
|
|
No
|
|
Pages should reside on a fast server.
|
Fast
|
|
Med.
|
|
Slow
|
|
Pages should load quickly at 28.8
baud.
|
Fast
|
|
Med.
|
|
Slow
|
|
All links should be active.
|
All
|
|
|
|
Most
|
|
Sum
of points in each column
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Technical
Details Points
|
|
|
|
Aesthetic Appropriateness
|
|
|
Points
|
|
|
(4)
|
(3)
|
(2)
|
(1)
|
(0)
|
|
There should be a consistent 'look and
feel' within the site.
|
All
|
|
Many
|
|
Some
|
|
There should be school and division
identification throughout the site.
|
All
|
|
Many
|
|
Some
|
|
The pages should be appropriately
attractive.
|
All
|
|
Many
|
|
Some
|
|
Sum
of points in each column
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Aesthetic
Appropriateness Points
|
|
|
|
Content
|
|
|
Points
|
|
|
(4)
|
(3)
|
(2)
|
(1)
|
(0)
|
|
Information should be provided for all
types of current, prospective and alumni students, faculty
and staff.
|
All
|
|
3 of
5
|
|
1 of
5
|
|
Care should be taken to not overemphasize
any student sub-population.
|
All
|
|
Many
|
|
Some
|
|
Student affairs functional areas should
be covered broadly.
|
All
|
|
Many
|
|
Some
|
|
Student affairs functional areas should
be covered in depth.
|
Deep
|
|
Some
|
|
None
|
|
Academic material should be well
integrated into the student affairs pages.
|
Fully
|
|
Some
|
|
None
|
|
Material must be current and
accurate.
|
All
|
|
Many
|
|
Some
|
|
Department or division home page should
list contact names, numbers and E-mail addresses for
important people, as well as hours of operation.
|
All
|
|
Many
|
|
Some
|
|
Department or Division Mission is
available.
|
Yes
|
|
|
|
No
|
|
Sum
of points in each column
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Content
Points
|
|
|
|
Total
Evaluation Score
|
|
References
Banning, J. H., Davies, T. G.,
& Quick, D. G., (2000) The campus web visit, Student Affairs
Online,1(Fall). Available at http://www.studentaffairs.com/ejournal/Fall_2000/art3.html
Bloom, B. (1956). Taxonomy of
educational objectives. New York, David McKay Company, Inc.
Center for Instructional
Technology, Academic Technology and Networks(2000). Evaluating web
sites for educational uses: Bibliography and checklist,
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC. Available at:
http://www.unc.edu/cit/guides/irg-49.html
Chickering, A, &
Rieser, L. (1993) Education and Identity (2nd Ed.) San
Francisco: Jossey-Bass
Cornell University Libraries
(2001) Evaluating Web Sites: Criteria and Tools, Available at:
http://www.library.cornell.edu/okuref/research/webeval.html
Flanders, V. (2001) Web
Pages That Suck.com. Available at http://www.webpagesthatsuck.com/
Schrock, K., (1998)
Evaluation of World Wide Web sites: An annotated bibliography,
ERIC EDO-IR-98-02 http://ericir.syr.edu/ithome/digests/edoir9802.html
Wallace, H. (2000). Campus
ecology theory and websites: One example of applying traditional
student affairs theory to technology, Student Affairs Online,
1(Fall). Available at http://www.studentaffairs.com/ejournal/Fall_2000/art4.html
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