Students Rating Higher Education Websites

Rating Higher Education Websites: The Student Experience ©Robert E. Johnson, Ph.D. 2009 J.Boye Conference Aarhus 2009 November 4, 2009 Aarhus, Denmark

Who is Bob Johnson?
Higher education marketer since 1980s
Writer of monthly “Your Higher Education Marketing Newsletter”
Owner… Bob Johnson Consulting, LLC
Partner w/Gerry McGovern at Customer Carewords
Chair of Symposium for the Marketing of Higher Education, 1994 to 2003
Ph.D. in political science (UMass Amherst)

In today’s presentation…
Identifying website factors that are most important to visitors
Comparing responses from “future” or prospective students with those from current students
Where to focus website improvement efforts
If you could only make one change…

Customer Centric Index (CCI) survey…
Asks website visitors to select from 13 website attributes to identify top 3 positive or negative experiences
CCI = % of positive votes cast
4 audiences to survey:
Current students
Possible future students
Faculty and staff
Alumni

13 survey factors in 3 groups…
Information Architecture
Content
Social

Copyright © Customer Carewords Ltd.
Please choose the THREE factors from the list below that best describe your actual experience with the Enormous State University website.
Give a score of 3 to the factor which best describes your experience, 2 to the next best description, and then 1.
Please give only one score of 3, 2 and 1.
Leave the rest blank.

Investing improvement resources…

Typical voting spread…

Action priorities…

CCI at 12 schools…
10 in presentation
Ball State University
Bemidji State University
DePaul University
East Stroudsburg University
Fordham University
Lund University
Tyler Junior College
University of Manitoba
University of Missouri
University of Waterloo
2 not in presentation
University of Hertfordshire
University of Oslo
On next CCI ratings page only

11 CCI Survey Results… % External Voters…………….. % Positive Votes
76% 91.6%
74% 79.6%
70% 86.1%
67% 89.3%
62% 51.0%
61% 27.7%
52% 4.8%
45% 10.2%
11% 57.0%
3% 57.6%
0% 54.0%

More often than not…
External users were happier than internal users
Future students were happier than current students
Alumni were close to future students
High concern overall with deficiencies in:
Navigation
Search

Audience specific results…
Future Students

Areas of interest by votes received…
Information Architecture factors
4,490 votes = 49.3% of total
Content factors
Social factors

Current Students

Information Architecture factors
Content factors
Social factors

Key comparison areas… Current students vs. Future students

Top 5 factors by votes cast…
Current students
Layout (IA)
Search (IA)
Navigation (IA)
Up-to-date (Content)
Visual (IA)
Future students
Navigation (IA)
Layout (IA)
Visual (IA)
Complete (Content)
Accurate (Content)

Highest difference between positive and negative votes…
Current students
Participation
82 to 15
Recommendations
57 to 0
Navigation
62 to 24
Complete
74 to 39
Future
Visual
100 to 4
Layout
96 to 26
Contact
100 to 32
Navigation
83 to 24

Least difference between positive and negative votes…
Current students
Accurate
100 to 74
► Search
40 to 20
Language
100 to 75
Future students
Language
100 to 79
Accurate
93 to 63
Open
100 to 76

What do CCI results mean?
Difficult for one website to meet internal and external users needs
Argues for Internet and Intranet websites
Intranet users need “nuts and bolts” website that focuses on frequent task completion
Special attention to navigation & search…
Help people to quickly find things
Less focus on “beauty” & “cool”
Increased audience research

If you can make only one change… Consider this… Search + Site Map

Combine search & site map… http://www.stedwards.edu/siteindex.htm

Key challenges for higher education websites…
Acceptance of “intranet” and “internet” approach
Easier access to most important content and completion of top tasks
Greater use of web analytics
Continued growth of “web content editor” positions… the website as on “online publication”

Meeting the first challenge… http://www.devry.edu/

Thank You! Bob Johnson, Ph.D. President Bob Johnson Consulting, LLC 248.766.6425 [email_address] http://twitter.com/HighEdMarketing Customer Carewords Research for Online Marketing Success: http://www.bobjohnsonconsulting.com/customercarewords.html

Addendum Overall CCI data results

Total Results from 4 Audiences
Current students
Future students
Faculty & Staff
Alumni

Voters by audience category…
Future students… 3,342
Alumni… 1,416
Current students… 3,594
Faculty & staff… 589
Total voters… 8,941
Total votes… 26,823

Areas of interest by total votes…
IA… 14,325 votes = 53.4% of total
Visual Appeal (2,834) High: 87% Low: 57%
Layout (3,354) High: 85% Low: 61%
Speed (1,797) High: 84% Low: 49%
Navigation (3,940) High: 62% Low: 35%
► Search (2,712) High: 55% Low: 24%

Areas of interest by votes…
Content… 7,396 votes = 27.5% of total
Language (1,263) High:100%Low: 79%
Accurate (1,861) High: 100%Low: 63%
Up-to-date (2,382) High: 86% Low: 41%
Complete (1,890) High: 82% Low: 40%

Areas of interest by votes…
Social…. 4,709 votes = 17.5% of total
Open (1,590) High: 90% Low: 60%
Contact (1,871) High: 72% Low: 42%
Participation (913) High: 73% Low: 33%
Recommendations (486) High: 76% Low: 0%

Future Students

Visual Appeal (1,059) High: 93% Low: 4%
Layout (1,194) High: 96% Low: 26%
Speed (714) High: 87% Low: 41%
Search (701) High: 92% Low: 50%

Language (424) High: 100%Low: 79%
Accurate (810) High: 93% Low: 63%
Up-to-date (677) High: 86% Low: 41%
Complete (852) High: 82% Low: 40%

Open (739) High: 100%Low: 76%
Contact (575) High: 100% Low:32%
Participation (314) High: 100% Low:59%
Recommendations (228)High: 100%Low:61%

Current Students

Visual Appeal (866) High: 88% Low: 57%
Layout (1,254) High: 88% Low: 58%
Speed (812) High: 74% Low: 48%
Search (1,405) High: 40% Low: 20%

Language (480) High: 100%Low: 75%
Accurate (637) High: 100%Low: 74%
Complete (651) High: 74% Low: 39%
Up-to-date (1,018) High: 75% Low: 38%

Open (437) High: 90% Low: 50%
Contact (824) High: 78% Low: 50%
Participation (302) High: 82% Low: 15%
Recommendations (176)High: 57% Low: 0%

Students Rating Higher Education Websites

by Bob Johnson on Oct 30, 2009

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