School

Abstract

Websites are important means of communication for colleges and universities. Web based presentations are replacing traditional ways of disseminating information. This study investigates 21 websites of colleges and universities located on Long Island as well as others including some Ivy League universities. The criteria used for analysis of the web pages are known as 7X2 C's analysis in 7 separate layers of website application and development. The 7x2 are: (content, context), (correctness, credibility), (currency, continuity), (completeness, coverage), (consistency, conciseness), (compelling, complement), and (community, customization).. The study concludes that all school web pages had errors to some degree that need to be corrected; some of these errors were crucial, especially related to search engine.

Keywords: Error, Website, College, University, Web Programming, Search Engine, HTML, Web Design, Information Technology

Introduction

Colleges and university web pages are important forum to reach out to prospective students, its own community, as well as providing information for the public. This means of disseminating information is replacing the traditional method of communication by college catalogs, mail, and phone. As websites are increasingly becoming the main source of information, extra care should be considered to avoid any crucial errors. How accessible, accurate, helpful, and up to date are college websites? The following study investigates all 21 Long Island colleges and universities to analyze the errors of each website according to criteria known as 7X2 C’s analysis in a separate 7 layers of web application and development. The 7 pairs of C's are: (content, context), (correctness, credibility), (currency, continuity), (completeness, coverage), (consistency, conciseness), (compelling, complement), and (community, customization). The study explores each college and university website according to the 7X2 C’s as to how each complies. The 7 layers of website application and web development will look at identification of school (what, where, when, who, whom, wow), School web appearance (clarity, animation, features), web search engine (efficiency), html code( style, appropriateness, space), web client programming(feature, coding), server data base programming(clues) , privacy and security(breach).

Due to the amount of work of and on-going project research, this study focuses on search engine layer in conjunction to some of the 7X2 C’s analysis. While this study is not exhaustive, its findings are worthwhile to look into for further clarification and possible future enhancement of college web pages.

Study Background, Long Island and Motivation

The subject of errors on web pages of Long Island colleges and universities was the class project for students of Management Information Systems in a course titled Topic in MIS during the Fall 2006 semester at SUNY Old Westbury.

Long Island is home to many unique colleges and universities and is known for its wonderful advancements in education and producing some of the most qualified graduates throughout the nation [1]. Each student was assigned two colleges, one as teamwork. Students discussed their findings during the class with live and interactive demonstrations. Their work was presented at Computer Human Error conference 2006 at CUNY Graduate Center. By study the profile of high quality web pages one can improve the design of existing web pages. The results of analysis can be used to make suggestions about how to change the site to better match high-quality sites [Ivery, Hearst].

Search Engine

Search engine plays an important role in accessing information. Instead of browsing into each page going form one link to another one can simply type the required information and get the appropriate result. The colleges and universities are divided into following categories according to the search engine:

a) school that do not have a dedicated search box and information accessed only through navigation and linkage [cwp,nass, briarcliff].

b)school that their search engine are empowered by Google only [poly, new york health professions, molloy, touro – not on homepage]

c) school that have only in-house search engine as part of their web design [cornell, ow, Nassau (only for faculty/staff, not on homepage), esc (missing faculty and courses – visible on homepage, five towns(search box not on home page), hofstra (also question search - faq), Suffolk, yale, nyit – not on homepage, merchant marine, only for courses, and must click on search not enter, webb – error on each input].

d) school that have both in-house and Google. [St. Joseph (in-house only for faculty staff, Brooklyn (own seach for different directories, farmingdale (own search for directory, Princeton (in-house for people)]

e) school that have both in-house and other commercial engine[stony(in-house for directory and UntraSeek].

Content and Context

Content refers to the volume of information on website that is informative.

Context- The material on your site is meaningful and appropriate to your site. Context gives meaning to the page’s content.

Correctness and Credibility

Correctness means information should be correct. Credibility means information should be verified and backed up by data, references and other materials.

Currency and Continuity

Currency Information should be relevant to the present.

Continuity- Information should have a vision and continue into the future.

Completeness and Coverage

Completeness- Information should be complete.

Coverage- Information should have enough volume.

Consistency and Conciseness

Consistency- Site deign should match and be recognizable throughout the site as well as be relevant and to the point.

Compelling and Complement

Web site is impressive and appealing however it should consider the reality of institution. For example, a scenery that is beautiful and belong to the college.

Community and Customization

Community- Site should be designed and cater to your audience.

customization- Site design should be mindful of your intended audience.

Conclusion and Future Remarks

Future studies are needed to better analyze the web site and involve more colleges and universities nation or world wide and create a profile for each of these school base on 7x2 C’s analysis covering all 7 web layers from school identification to server program, data base interaction, security and privacy.

Acknowledgement

Thanks to students of SUNY Old Westbury for participating in this project during class and outside the while taking Topics in MIS course in Fall semester 2006.

References

Adelphi University

Briarcliffe College

C.W. Post

Dowling College

Farmingdale State University

Five Towns College

Hofstra University

Long Island University

Molloy College

Nassau Community College

New York College of Health Professions

NYIT - New York Institute of Technology

Polytechnic University

St. Joseph's College

http://www.sju.edu/

Stony Brook University

Suffolk County Community College

SUNY Empire State College

SUNY Old Westbury

Touro Law School

US Merchant Marine Academy

Webb Institute

Brooklyn College -www.brooklyn.cuny.edu

Princeton University – www. princeton.edu

Yale

Cornell

http://www.cornell.edu/

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Accuracy of search engine information, promotion of Google’ usage in academia. Consistency between Google information and in-house search engine. Broken link, lack of content and context. In several case currency and being up-to-date was a major issue. Future study need to determine if while some pages were compelling the other pages were left alone blank ignored with white space

Keeping a web page up-to 7X2 analysis criteria requires an investment that result to a positive gain and competitive advantage.