Introduction
In order to complete this activity, I interviewed IT, the woman in charge of our school’s site, and evaluated it using the rubric included in the activity materials. I used the same rubric to evaluate the site of two schools with which we compete.
Findings
I will say at the outset that I (and IT) receive a great deal of positive feedback for our school’s website. It is a point of pride for our administration and something the school thinks is important and invests both time and money in to.
School A – Our competition
The website I chose to evaluate is for a larger K-12 private school which boasts two beautiful campuses and an excellent program. Their website, however, is lacking in certain characteristics that are both easy to remedy and important.
The site is a Level 2 site in terms of content. The pages contain information which is of some interest but not compelling and describes some of the school’s programs, but not all.
Its design is only Level 1, since it is not inviting to users and the elements often interfere with one another and impede ease of use. It is a chore to locate information and a user does not want to stay long.
It is also difficult to navigate, making a visitor frustrated and confused, scoring poorly on User-friendliness as well. For example, since the school has two campuses, the first page one sees contains two links, one for each campus’s sub-page. However, there is no explanation to assist the visitor who might now know that there are two campuses or, as was the case for me, which he or she wants to read about.
The information is valid and reliable, scoring well on Accuracy of Information and being Up-to-Date, but the design flaws really detract from the site’s usability.
School B – Our website
I am proud to say that our website does well by comparison. I may be biased, but I scored it as a Level 3 site on each of the rubric’s benchmarks.
The Content is is well-written (by upper school journalism students) and fresh; several new news stories are posted every school day. The site offers a comprehensive overview of the school’s activities, including an up-to-the-minute calendar on the side of every page which includes the option to subscribe via text message, email or RSS feed.
The site’s Design and User-friendliness are impressive as well, featuring a consistent, pleasing design which makes it clear where to find information and encouraging the user to explore.
As stated above, information is always up-tp-date and accurate with dated articles and an ever-changing homepage slideshow of news.
Justifications
It is obvious to me why these differences exist: our competition has put fewer resources toward the website than we have. Their site appears to be home-grown, with inconsistent page design and some obviously out-of-date elements. Someone is coding that site by hand in their free periods.
Our website, on the other hand, is powered by a professional firm (finalsite) who charges an annual fee for their software. Additionally, the school pays a full-time employee to write and edit articles, shoot photos and video and keep the site up to date. While I can’t determine if the cost is justified, it certainly makes an impression.
Recommendation
The most obvious recommendation I can make is the incorporation of online learning tools into a school website. Our school already posts gradebook information online but why not include discussion boards, assignment dropboxes, online chat and other web 2.0 tools into the site to allow teachers to use them every day? In fact, I am inspired to make this recommendation by the experiences I’ve had as a student at Walden where all of my coursework was completed online. These tools allow teachers to extend learning beyond the classroom in terms of both time and space and free students to express themselves in new and exciting ways.