Websites were ranked based on the following criteria:
Each criteria was given a score of 0 - 3 points. If the criteria was not available, no points were given. If the criteria was not available but the site provided information on how to obtain the service, I awarded 1 point. For criteria met but difficult to find or use I awarded 2 points. If the criteria was met, easy to find and use I awarded 3 points.
The best site was Augusta Technical located in Georgia. I found this to be a great Website, well organized, and very easy to use. I was able to find everything I needed in a short period of time. Graphics weren't amazing or exciting but nicely done and kept simple. The menus were self explanatory. All of my criteria were met. I felt like I was able to accomplish my task in an efficient and timely manner. Score 24. Augusta Technical
The number 2 site, Arapahoe Community College, was well organized and easy to navigate. All of my criteria were met, and the only reason I placed it second was because to access the course schedules you had to have a student PIN number. I thought that was unnecessary. Score 23. Arapahoe Community College
The third site was Anne Arundel Community College. This Website met all of my criteria, but was not as eye pleasing as the first two. The homepage was somewhat boring, but it worked. Online registration was available, but not directly from their site. Finding the link to take you to the offsite registration was a bit confusing. Score 21. Anne Arundel Community College
The number 4 site was Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College. This site met all of the criteria except having grades available online. The hompage was simple but functional. Things were easy to find and organized into logical subdirectories. Score 18. Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College
The fourth site, Albuquerque Technical and Vocational Institute was very eye appealing. I would have placed it fourth, but it didn't meet all of the criteria. One thing I liked about the site was the directory style menus, very similar to the layout of Yahoo! and other Web directories. Registration was not available directly online, but they did provide a downloadable form which could be mailed or faxed. Telephone registration was also available. Grades were not available online, but again the form and information was easy to find. The other downfall was that the schedule and catalog had to be downloaded to view. Score 16. Albuquerque Technical and Vocational Institute
My top five community colleges were chosen using a five point grading system for each school based upon my six point criteria list. As I went along I decided that my first criteria, download speed shouldn't be used based on the fact that download speed is affected by many variables; computer, connection, time of day, and so on. All schools were given a five because of this.
Each school was given a grade for each criteria point.
Of the 42 schools I researched, five scored 28 or more points. One school scored a perfect 30 out of 30.
I looked at a total of 30 colleges including the top five from last semester. I rated them according to my list of criteria and then compared my top five to the HCC Web page.
For the purposes of this e-mail, I will list my top five and give a brief summary. I will post my criteria list and additional comments on my web site.
HCC's web site is superior in all respects to all of the sites visited. The biggest difference I found when comparing HCC to the other sites is none of the sites visited had Faculty Web Sites or Syllabi. Only a couple had a faculty list on any kind. In addition, the HCC site appears to be more comprehensive in scope in all categories.
My search for my top 5 favorite college websites consisted of scoring the various pages as they met my criteria. The criteria that I felt was important were load time, aesthetics, online registration, online student records, student directories, and student programs or organizations.
Load time 0-10 pointsHere is what I'm looking for: 1. Speed and catchiness of homepage. 2. Navigation difficulty 3. Online registration 4. Online Catalog or bookstore 5. Checking of grades online 6. Teacher / Student Ratio 7. Extracurricular activities
Here is a list of the revised criteria I used when searching through all the community colleges beginning with the letter 'F': 1.Easy to read and understand information provided 2.Information on the progams and degrees offered, including descriptions. 3.User friendly with easy to find information 4.Campus maps and directions to the school 5.Ability to reach advisors and staff with any questions These are my top 5 college websites: 1.Frederick Community College http://www.fcc.cc.md.us/ 2.Fisher College http://www.fisher.edu/ 3.Front Range Community College http://www.frcc.cc.co.us/ 4.Foothill-De Anza Community College http://www.fhda.edu/ 5.Finger Lakes Community College http://www.fingerlakes.edu/>Even though the college website that I chose as the best wasn't the fanciest or most elaborate design, Ichose it because it provided me with all the information that I would need with the least effort.
The website that I found that was the absolute worst was the one for Fort Belkap College. To begin with, the website had been moved, and my server had a lot of trouble trying to find the new one. Also, the information that I was looking for was either very hard to locate, or not even there altogether. The link to this college, if anyone wants to know which one to avoid, is http://www.fortbelknap.cc.mt.us/.
Top 5 colleges criteria used: 1. Appearance and how easily navigated 2. On-line registration 3. On-line grade access 4. Course descriptions 5. Financial aid information and contacts 6. Bookstore access Points given on a scale from 1 - 5 #1 Jefferson State Community College Birmingham AL http://www.jeffstateonline.com Home page nice, patriotic theme easy to navigate 5pts On-line registration available 5pts On-line grade access available 5pts Course descriptions yes 5pts On-line book store yes 5pts Total 30pts #2 Jefferson Community College Watertown NY http://www.sunyjefferson.edu Home Page simple easy to navigate 4pts On-line registration available 5pts On-line grade access 5pts On-line course descriptions 5pts Book store no 0pts Total 24pts #3 Jackson State Community College TN http://www.jscc.cc.tn.us Nice home page simple easy to navigate 4pts On-line registration 5pts On-line grade access 5pts Course descriptions 5pts Financial aid 5pts Bookstore no 0pts Total 24pts #4 Jamestown Community College Jamestown NY http://www.sunyjcc.edu Home page plain easy to navigate 3pts On-line registration 5pts On-line grade access 5pts Course descriptions 5pts Financial Aid 5pts Bookstore No 0pts Total 23pts #5 Jacksonville State University Jacksonville, AL http://www.jsu.edu Home page simple not real easy to navigate 3pts On-line registration 5pts On-line grade
1. The appearance 2. Schedule 3. Book Store/Libary 4. Credit Hour Prices 5. Registration I gave each Criteria 5 Points for a total of 25 Points possible. For the bookstore/libary one I gave them extra points for having library research resources available and book store prices listed even if you couldn't purchase online. #1 Pick Kirtland Community College http://www.kirtland.cc.mi.us/ Total 23/25 Points #2 Pick Kellogg Community College http://www.kellogg.cc.mi.us/ Total 18/25 Points #3 Pick Kalamazoo Valley Community College http://www.kvcc.edu/ Total 17/25 Points #4 Pick Kentucky Somerset Community College http://www.somcc.kctcs.net/ Total 16/25 Points #5 Pick Kentucky Southeast Community College http://www.secc.kctcs.net/ Total 15/25 Points
Here are the questions that I ask myself when determining a good college site:
1.how quickly does it load?Here are the 5 best college sites I found in the "L's"...
#5 Little Big Horn College,MT http://www.lbhc.cc.mt.us score-9 quick load, no online registration only registration criteria, no online bookstore, only library catalog #4 Landmark College,VT http://www.landmarkcollege.org/ score-11 the site loaded quickly, had no online registration, but did offer course schedule, no online bookstore, but did offer online library resources. #3 Lake Sumter Community College http://www.lscc.cc.fl.us/ score-16 this site is great.it offers everything except online registering #2 Laramie County College http://www.lccc.cc.wy.us/ score-18 this site also offered everything except for online registration, but also had more information and interaction than the #3 college site. #1 Lee College,TX http://www.lee.edu/ score-20 In my opinion, this was the perfect site. this site met every criteria I was looking for. It was easy to follow and very informative.
Here again is my criteria list for the college sites; 1.Loading Speed 2.Viewing Catalog Online 3.Registration Online 4.Color Scheme 5.Ease of Navigation Through Site Each site is graded on a 1-5 scale, 5 being the best, for the best total score being a 25. Here are the links; 1.Yakima Valley Community College http://www.yvcc.cc.wa.us/ - 25pts 2.Ohlone College http://www.ohlone.cc.ca.us/ - 24 pts 3.Onondaga Community College http://www.sunyocc.edu/ - 22pts 4.Olympic College http://www.olympic.ctc.edu/ - 21pts 5.Yavapai College http://www.yavapai.cc.az.us/ychome.nsf/pages/home - 20pts While the scores are very close, the only real things that made the difference were the loading speed and ease of navigation. All 5 of these sites allowed you to view a catalog online, register online, and had unique and what I felt were nice color schemes, Ohlone College had a slightly slower loading speed causing a 24 instead of a 25. Onondaga was a little slower than Ohlone and also required a little more work to some of the listed criteria. Olympic and Yavapai were both even slower and still needed a few clicks to find exactly what you were looking for. All of these are great sites and were well designed.
Hi class these are my top 5 college web-sites. The following was my criteria for deciding which were the top 5.
1. down load timeEach one of the criteria was given a score from 1 through 5. One being very poor and five being excelent.
The number one site was :It scored just below Portland Comm. Coll. because of the sites appearence did not impress me as much as Portland.
The number three site was:"Q" only had 5 school listed so here are the 3 I thought should be noticed. The others are not worth looking at. In order from best to least.
Queensborough Community College [Bayside, New York, USA]. This site had all the characteristics that I was looking for except search option but I very professional looking. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Quinebaug Valley Community-Technical College [Hartford, Connecticut, USA] Quinsigamond Community College [Worcester, Massachusetts, USA]
My list of community colleges were those under categories Q & R. My criteria is as follows: 1.loading time 2.overall presentation of home page 3.is it easy to navigate? 4.last update. 5.online registration 6.online classes/course materials 7.real time interactive support. 8.visitor counter. 9.availability of search option. 10.links to students web sites. 11.links to other resources. 12.free softwares. My top five selected colleges are: 1.Rio Grande college - http://www.urgrgcc.edu 2.Reading Area community college - http://www.racc.cc.pa.us 3.Rio Hondo community college - http://www.rh.cc.ca.us 4.Richard Bland college - http://www.rbc.edu 5.Rogue community college - http://www.rogue.cc.or.us
The 5 college websites that i picked that began with the letter "S" were. 1.St. Petersburg Junior College http://www.spjc.cc.fl.us/ 2.Santa Fe Community College http://www.santafe.cc.fl.us/ 3.Seminole Community College http://www.seminole.cc.fl.us/ 4.South Florida Community College http://www.sfcc.cc.fl.us/ 5.Southwestern Oregon Community College http://www.southwestern.cc.or.us/
the first four that i picked out are Florida community colleges. i picked these to show what our school site could be. my personal opinion of the HCC old site is that it looks like a 1st grader created it. but anyway the reason why i liked these sites were because they had nice graphics, they were user friendly, and had useful information about the schools that students and visitors of the site could use.
1. Does the site have a good layout? 2. Is the site easy to navigate? 3. Is the site very informative? 4. Is the site easy to read? 5. Does it have an original look?My Picks:
1. Terra State Community College http://www.terra.cc.oh.us/terra.html 2. Texarkana College http://www.tc.cc.tx.us/ 3. Three Rivers Community College http://www.trcc.cc.mo.us/default.asp 4. Tri-County Community College http://www.tccc.cc.nc.us/ 5. Tyler Community College http://www.tyler.cc.tx.us/All of these sites fit under these 5 catagories that I used. All of the "T" sites were very good but only a couple had any problem. These 5 sites just stuck out more than others
.
The following is the format and scale for the colleges beginning with the letter W.
(# as appears in list)-(name of college and state location)-(load time)-(online registration)-(faculty e-mail links)-(current catalog)-(online bookstore)=(total)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 771-Wake Technical Community College (NC)-1-Y-Y-Y-Y-5 772- Waldorf College (IA)-4-Y-N-N-N-5 773- Walla Walla Community College (WA)-4-Y-N-Y-N-6 774- Wallace State Community College (AL)-3-Y-Y-N-N-5 775- Walters State Community College (TN)-4-Y-Y-Y-Y-8 776- Warren County Community College (WI)-3-Y-Y-Y-Y-7 777- Washington State Community College (OH)-4-N-Y-Y-Y-7 778- Washtenaw Community College (MI)-5-Y-Y-Y-Y-9 779-Wayne Community College (NC)-4-Y-Y-Y-Y-8 780-Wayne County Community College (MI)-4-N-Y-Y-N-6 781-Weatherford College (TX)-5-Y-Y-Y-N-8 782- Wenatchee Valley College (WA)-5-Y-Y-Y-Y-9 783- Wentworth Military Academy & Junior College (MO)-3-N-N-N-N-3 784- West Hills Community College (CA)- NOT ACCESSIBLE 785-West Shore Community College (MI)-4-Y-Y-Y-N-7 786- West Valley Mission College District (CA)-1-Y-Y-Y-N-4 787- West Virginia Northern Community College (WV)-3-N-Y-Y-N-5 788- Westork Community College (AR)-4-N-Y-Y-N-6 789- Westchester Community College (NY)-4-N-Y-Y-Y-7 790- Western Dakota Technical Institute (SD)-3-Y-Y-Y-Y-7 791- Western Iowa Tech Community College (IA)-4-Y-Y-Y-Y-8 792- Western Nebraska Community College (NE)-4-Y-N-Y-N-6 793- Western Nevada Community College (NV)-1-Y-Y-Y-Y-5 794- Western Oklahoma State College (OK)-1-N-Y-Y-N-3 795- Western Piedmont Community College (NC)-4-Y-Y-Y-Y-8 796- Western Texas College (TX)-2-Y-N-Y-N-4 797- Westmoreland County Community College (PA)-1-N-Y-N-N-2 798- Wharton County Junior College (TX)- NOT ACCESSIBLE 799- Wharton Community College (WA)-2-Y-Y-Y-N-5 800- White Pines College (NH)-2-Y-Y-Y-N-5 801- Wichita Area Technical College (KS)-3-Y-N-Y-N-5 802- Wilkes Community College (NC)-4-Y-Y-Y-N-7 803- Williamsburg Technical College (SC)-NOT ACCESSIBLE 804- Williston State College (ND)-2-Y-Y-Y-Y-6 805- Wilson Technical Community College (NC)-2-N-Y-N-N-3 806- Wisconsin Technical College System (WI)-3-Y-N-Y-N-5 807- Wood College (MS)-2-Y-N-N-N-3 808- Woodbury College (VT)-2-N-Y-N-N-3 809- Wor-Wic Community College (MD)-3-Y-N-Y-N-5 810- Worchester Technical Institute (MA)-NOT ACCESSIBLE 811- Wyoming Community College (WY)-4-Y-Y-Y-N-7--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I took the five top scores of the list to describe more in detail. There were actually five colleges with a score of eight, tying for places three to five. I took a second look at each site and chose the sites with the most information and overall best appearance.
The overall format was easy to navigate. The site contained a lot of information that students would want to know before applying. The drop down menus gave this site a unique appearance and allowed it to be simple to jump form one spot to another. The load time was quick and pages were easy to follow.
The home page was very small allowing load time to be very fast. However, the entire site held loads of information and was very easy to navigate. The site offered its information in a form of an outline allowing information to be found quickly.
This site was also somewhat easy to navigate and contained a virtual tour of the college. The load time was pretty fast and the site was divided up into sections allowing all information to be grouped together.
The initial page that the link leads to is nothing more than a picture of the college, but upon clicking on it, it leads to a page that is organized very well and contains a lot of useful information. The pictures throughout the site change frequently. The site also contains some advertisements for college related materials.
The site takes a little longer to load. It contains a lot of information and has an in-site search engine that appears right at the top. The site was pretty easy to navigate and organized quite well.
The first one is Santa Fe Community College (Gainesville) http://www.santafe.cc.fl.us/ I like this site because it is smalland concise. I like the menu at the side of of the page easy to navigate.
The second one is http://www.elgin.cc.il.us/ I chose this site because it is very clean. The colors are not bright.
The third one http://www.itec.suny.edu/default.asp it seemed very easy to get around. it looked very professional
the fourth is http://www.riverland.cc.mn.us/ the graphic were pretty cool the fifth college is http://www.isr.umich.edu/rcgd/cab/commcoll.html
1)http://www.hesser.edu/homepage.htm (Hesser Community College) Likes: the animation on the homepage , you can apply online and get a discount on the application fee 2)http://www.hccc.ntcnet.com/ (Herkimer County Community College) Likes: it's easy to read and to access links you don't have to jump around from page to page its pretty much all there. 3)http://www.hudson.cc.nj.us/ (HUDSON COUNTY COMMUNITY COLLEGE)- Likes: the homepage has a colorful page Dislikes: doesn't tell you anything really about the college once you click on the website. 4)http://www.pvcc.cc.va.us/ (piedmont virginia community college) Likes: how it was designed- colors, and buttons used. Easy to use. Dislikes: -none- 5)http://www.pccc.cc.nj.us/index.html/ (passaic county community college) Likes: animation and when you click on the icons it opens to a new screen with explaination of that icon. Dislikes: colors on home page don't seem to mix well, I would of chosen.
Community College Website Review / 11Oct2001 / Thur 19:00-21:45 Eastern Maine Technical College http://www.emtc.org/ Review: Home Page sparse - nothing to really grab attention. Good index but following pages are basic with crude graphics. Everett Community College http://www.evcc.ctc.edu/ Review: Home Page very nice - good graphics, lots of information, frames proportional, pleasing to the eye. Other pages have same attributes as Home Page. Eastern Oklahoma State College http://www.eosc.cc.ok.us/ Review: Home Page has good graphics and colors but it is one frame (they probably could have used more frames or saved some of the Home Page info for subsequent pages). It might just be my browser but the Home Page could be wider. Following pages were good but the photos were grainy and there were some black & white photos that could have been color in order to be more catchy. Eastfield College http://www.efc.dcccd.edu/ Review: Home Page is crude and basic with dated colors, poor proportions, and an irritating small banner at the top that continually changes content. The following pages are on par with the Home Page. The only bright spot is the campus map which is nicely done. At the bottom of the Home Page it says "Copyright 1996" - let's not hope this was the last time the site was overhauled but it appears to be so. Edison Community College http://www.edison.edu/ Review: Home Page is very sparse (like EMTC there is nothing to really grab attention), it is unproportional, but on the positive side it does have colors that are pleasing to the eye. Some of the following pages are good and to the point with all of the pertinent information, while alot of the others are in the PDF format which is sometimes a pain to view. Overall Review: Everett Community College is by far the best out of the five sites I reviewed. I'd hate to think that the trend out there for community colleges is toward poor website design, especially when many of them are probably teaching how to build sites.
the 5 college websites that i picked that began with the letter "S" were:
1.St. Petersburg Junior College
http://www.spjc.cc.fl.us/
2.Santa Fe Community College
http://www.santafe.cc.fl.us/
3.Seminole Community College
http://www.seminole.cc.fl.us/
4.South Florida Community College
http://www.sfcc.cc.fl.us/
5.Southwestern Oregon Community College
http://www.southwestern.cc.or.us/
the first four that i picked out are Florida community colleges. i picked these to show what our school site could be. my personal opinion of the HCC site is that it looks like a 1st grader created it. but anyway the reason why i liked these sites were because they had nice graphics, they were user friendly, and had useful information about the schools that students and visitors of the site could use.
What I looked for when I judged these sites:
1. Main Page Design"Y" had 8 schools listed so here are the ones that deserved to be noticed. In order from best to least
The way this page was set up was great. It had a scroll bar shared border on the right with detailed links on where to find anything you needed yet still used the right side of the page for design and more in depth links for special programs offered.
This site met all of my requirements. It was kind of weak with the main page design. I think whoever designed this page could definitely do a better job with the design but other than that everything was great.
This site was also great but the load speed was ridiculously slow. If it was not for such slow load speed this site may have got a better ranking out of these three colleges.
Hey Gang:
Yahoo Magazine rates colleges annually..the July 2000 issue had the 100 best wired schools. They have the top 100 community colleges and their rating agree with some of your picks. Visit:
http://www.zdnet.com/yil/content/college/college2000/rank_twoyears_1.html
You can view back issues of the magazine by visiting:
http://www.zdnet.com/yil/filters/toc/masterlist.html
Interesting: FCCJ is rated #3, Miami Dade #47, Okaloosa-Walton #51 by Yahoo Magazine. Only three of Florida's 28 made the list.
What do you think?
Taylor