My Top 5 Picks for Community Colleges that begin with A: 1. Atlantic C.C. New Jersey, http://www.atlantic.edu/ 2. Ashland C.C., Ashland, Kentucky, http://www.ashcc.uky.edu/ 3. Ashville-Buncombe Tech C.C., Ashville, NC, http://www.asheville.cc.nc.us/ 4. Arapahoe C.C., Littleton, Colorado, http://www.arapahoe.edu/ 5. Alpena C.C., Alpena, Michigan, http://www.alpena.cc.mi.us/ I chose them based on the following. 1. Could I find my way around easily? 2. Did it have the current schedule? 3. Can I register online?
Top 5 Community College Web Sites Starting with the letter B Links provided by: U.S. Community Colleges, Alphabetic 1. Bismark State Community College (ND) Bismarck State College Homepage 2. Berkley College (NJ) Berkeley College - Home Page 3. Brazosport College (TX) Welcome to Brazosport College 4. Briarwood College (CT) Briarwood College :: Southington, Connecticut 5. Beaufort County Community College (NC) Beaufort County Community College And the absolute WORST site was: Bates Technical College (WA) Bates Technical College, Summer Quarter 2001 The attached Word file lists the criteria and scoring for the 42 CC sites begining with the letter "B"! CRITERIA Does the site provide course descriptions? Does it list all programs? Are job placement ratings shown? Are prices listed for classes? Are prices listed for books? Are currant class schedules listed? Are school phone numbers listed? Is all of this easily accessible? Was the site visually appealing?
Search Engines Used: · www.msn.com · www.overture.com Web Site Used: http://www.ulinks.com/list/community.html http://www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu Criteria and Decisions Based Upon: 1. Web accessibility and appearance · On-line Convenience and user-friendly, Form and looks 2. Site versatility · Adaptability, Resourcefulness, Usefulness 3. Updated Data · Efficient Information, Facts, Statistics, Records 4. Administrator Correspondence · Communication, Calendars, Scheduling, and Consulting Here is My Top 5: 1. Community College of Denver [Denver, Colorado, USA] http://ccd.rightchoice.org/ 2. Community College of Rhode Island [Warwick, Lincoln, Providence, Rhode Island, USA] http://www.ccri.cc.ri.us/ 3. Community College of Philadelphia [Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA] http://inet.ccp.cc.pa.us/homepage/ 4. Columbia State Community College [Columbia, Tennessee, USA] http://www.coscc.cc.tn.us/ 5. Casper College [Casper, Wyoming, USA] http://www.cc.whecn.edu/
college specs. 1. must be easy to use 2. must have numbers to call for information to enroll 3. must have classes on line for you to sign up 4. must have information on the college 5. must have all the professor's names, numbers, and e-mail adresses 1. DALLAS COUNTY COMMUNITY COLLEGE http://www.dcccd.edu/ 2. DAYTONA BEACH COMMUNITY COLLEGE http://www.dbcc.cc.fl.us/ 3. DURHAM COMMUNITY COLLEGE http://www.durhamc.on.ca/ 4. DELGADO COMMUNITY COLLEGE http://www.dcc.edu/ 5. DYERSBURG STATE COMMUNITY COLLEGE http://www.dscc.cc.tn.us/
1. Are the current schedules posted? 2. Can I apply online? 3. Extensive information on all the programs and classes. 4. Visually appealing Eastern Idaho Community College, Idaho, http://www.edu/index.cfm Eastern Iowa Community College, Iowa, http://www.eiccd.cc.ia.us/ Eastern Oklahoma State College, Oklahoma, http://www.eosc.cc.ok.us/ Edmonds Community College, Washington, http://www.edcc.edu/ Everett Community College, Washington, http://www.evcc.ctc.edu/
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, I chose 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/.
The principle things I would like to see in a Community College Website are:
1. List of courses and their descriptions
2. List of programs offered - i.e. are the courses part of an integrated program
3. Cost per credit hour
4. Accreditation
5. List of courses and their times offered for the next semester.
The following five Community Colleges best meet the criteria:
Gadsden State Community College
http://www.gadsdenst.cc.al.us
Garden City Community College
http://www.gccc.cc.ks.us
Gloucester Community College
http://www.gccnj.edu
Greenfield Community College
http://www.gcc.mass.edu
Great Basin College
http://www.gbcnv.edu
Top 5 I have selected for Community Colleges beginning with the letter "H": 1. Harford CC, MD, http://www.harford.cc.md.us 2. Henry Ford CC, MI, http://www.henryford.cc.mi.us 3. Hillsborough CC, FL, http://www.hcc.cc.fl.us 4. Holmes CC, MS, http://www.holmes.cc.ms.us 5. Hudson County CC, NJ, http://www.hudson.cc.nj.us Selection was based on the following: 1. Is it easy to navigate through the system? 2. Was the current schedule current? 3. How easy is it to register online?
These are my picks for the top "I" community college:
Illinois Central College: http://www.icc.cc.il.us/Here are my top five "J" Community Colleges
I have chosen to review all of the Community Colleges in the United States that begin with the letter K.
To begin my search, I used the search engines MSN and Yahoo. The web site in which I received my information is www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/cc/.
There were 31 colleges listed in all, 6 where not located in the United States. From the remaining 15 I found ten web sites that were graphically appealing to the eye, neatly organized, and easy to navigate through and locate items in research.
All of the remaining 5 sites had incomplete information and / or required more surfing through their pages to find the information in which I was researching.
The worst site that I have found is the:
Katherine Gibbs College, http://www.gibbsny.comas I could not find any of the above-mentioned criteria. Also, in order to access any information, a password first needed to be acquired before you could view any more pages. You could, however, obtain a temporary password.
One of the more interesting assignments given in this class, was the assignment to research other community colleges and grade their sites. I chose to view those colleges with names beginning with the letter "L". The first thing I had to do was find a website that would give me a list of possible colleges. For this, I turned to http://www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/cc/ a site that I located by using the MSN search engine.
The next thing I had to do, was decide what things I was looking for in a good internet site. I decided on six things, with a possible score that varies from 1-8. The six things I chose were: "Is the main page interesting or boring?", "Can you find out how much each credit hour costs?", "Can you find next semester's class schedule?", "Can you register online?", "Is there an online bookstore?", and "Can you find class descriptions?"
For the question, "Is the main page interesting or boring?", there are three possible answers. Interesting (valued at three points), Average (valued at two points), and Boring (valued at one point). For all the other questions, a no would mean 0 points, and for a yes, the score given would be determined by the number of clicks necessary to get to the site. For example, if it took 1 click to find out how much each credit hour costs, then they would get 1/1 point. If it took 2 clicks, they would get 1/2 point, 3 clicks: 1/3 point, and so on.
| College Name | Main Page: Interesting or boring? | Credit hour costs? | New Semester's class schedule? | Register Online? | Online bookstore? | Class descriptions? | Total Score (1-8) |
| Long Beach City College (CA) | Interesting (3) | Yes (1/2) | Yes (1/1) | No (0/1) | Yes (1/1) | Yes (1/1) | 6.5 (Cool!) |
| Los Angeles City College (CA) | Interesting (3) | Yes (1/3) | Yes (1/1) | Yes (1/2) | Yes (1/1) | Yes (1/2) | 6.33 (Cool!) |
| Laramie County Community College (WY) | Average (2) | Yes (1/1) | Yes (1/1) | Yes (1/1) | No (0/1) | Yes (1/1) | 6 (Cool!) |
| Las Positas Community College (CA) | Interesting (3) | Yes (1/2) | Yes (1/2) | Yes (1/1) | Yes (1/2) | Yes (1/2) | 6 (cool) |
| Lake Land College (IL) | Interesting (3) | Yes (1/2) | Yes (1/2) | Yes (1/2) | No (0/1) | Yes (1/2) | 5 (cool) |
| College Name | Main page: interesting or boring? | Credit hour costs? | Next semester's class schedule? | Register online? | Online bookstore? | Class descriptions? | Total Score (1-8) |
| Labette Community College (KA) | Average (2) | Yes (1) | No (0/1) | Yes (1) | No (0/1) | Yes (1/2) | 4.5 (Ok) |
| La Guardian Community College (NY) | Interesting (3) | No (0/1) | No (0/1) | Yes (1/2) | No (0/1) | No (0/1) | 3.5 (Ok) |
| Lake City Community College (FL) | Boring (1) | No (0/1) | Yes (1/2) | No (0/1) | No (0/1) | Yes (1/2 | 2 (Blah!) |
| Lake Michigan College (MI) | Average (2) | Yes (1/3) | Yes (1/1) | No (0/1) | Yes (1/3) | Yes (1/2) | 4.16 (Ok) |
| Lake-Sumpter Community College (FL) | Average (2) | No (0/1) | Yes (1/2) | No (0/1) | No (0/1) | Yes (1/2) | 3 (Ok) |
| Lake Tahoe Community College (CA) | Interesting (3) | Yes (1/2) | Yes (1/1) | No (0/1) | No (0/1) | Yes (1/2) | 5 (Cool) |
| Lake Washington Technical College (WA) | Boring (1) | Yes (1/1) | Yes (1/1) | Yes (1/1) | No (0/1) | Yes (1/2) | 4.5 (Ok) |
| Landmark College (VA) | Boring (1) | Yes (1/1) | No (0/1) | No (0/1) | No (0/1) | Yes (1/1) | 3 (Ok) |
| Lane Community College (OR) | Boring (1) | Yes (1/2) | Yes (1/2) | No (0/1) | No (0/1) | Yes (1/3) | 2.33 (Blah!) |
| Las Vegas College (NE) | Average (2) | No (0/1) | No (0/1) | Yes (1/2) | No (0/1) | No (0/1) | 2.5 (Blah!) |
| Lee College (TX) | Average (2) | Yes (1/2) | Yes (1/2) | No (0/1) Coming Soon |
Yes (1/2) | No (0/1) | 3.5 (Ok) |
| Lehigh Carbon Community College (PA) | Interesting (3) | Yes (1/2) | Yes (1/2) | No (0/1) | No (0/1) | Yes (1/2) | 4.5 (Ok) |
| Lewis and Clark Community College (IL) | Interesting (3) | Yes (1/3) | Yes (1/2) | No (0/1) | No (0/1) | Yes (1/3) | 3.83 (Ok) |
| Lexington Community College (KY) | Average (2) | Yes (1/2) | Yes (1/2) | No (0/1) | No (0/1) | Yes (1/2) | 3.5 (Ok) |
| Lincoln Community College | Interesting (3) | Yes (1/2) | No (0/1) | Yes (1/1) | No (0/1) | No (0/1) | 3.5 (Ok) |
| Lord Fairfax Community College (VA) | Average (2) | Yes (1/2) | Yes (1/2) | No (0/1) | No (0/1) | Yes (1/2) | 3.5 (Ok) |
| Longview Community College (MO) | Average (2) | No (0/1) | Yes (1/2) | No (0/1) | No (0/1) | Yes (1/3) | 2.83 (blah!) |
| Los Angeles Harbor College (CA) | Boring (1) | Yes (1/4) | Yes (1/2) | Yes (1/4) | No (0/1) | Yes (1/2) | 2.5 (blah) |
| Los Angeles Southwest College (CA) | Interesting (3) | Yes (1/1) | Yes (1/2) | Yes (1/2) Returning students only |
No (0/1) | Yes (1/2) | 4.5 (Ok) |
| Los Angeles Valley Community College (CA) | Interesting (3) | Yes (1/4) | Yes (1/3) | Yes (1/3) | No (0/1) | Yes (1/3) | 4.25 (Ok) |
| Los Medanos College (CA) | Average (2) | Yes (1/2) | Yes (1/2) | No (0/1) | No (0/1) | Yes (1/2) | 3.5 (Ok) |
| Lousiburg Community College (NC) | Average (2) | Yes (1/2) | Yes (1/2) | No (0/1) | No (0/1) | Yes (1/2) | 3.5 (Ok) |
| Louisiana College (LA) | Interesting (3) | Yes (1/3) | No (0/1) | Yes (1/3) | No (0/1) | No (0/1) | 3.66 (Ok) |
| Lower Columbia College (WA) | Interesting (3) | Yes (1/2) | Yes (1/2) | No (0/1) | No (0/1) | Yes (1/2) | 4.5 (Ok) |
| Luzerne County Community College | Interesting (3) | Yes (1/2) | Yes (1/2) | No (0/1) | No (0/1) | Yes (1/3) | 4.33 (Ok) |
Here are the five best Community Colleges that start with the letter M.
1.Maricopa CC...Tempe AZI based my descion on the following criteria:
web site appearanceThe following were my top 5 choices of community colleges starting with the letter "O":
Ohlone College: http://www.ohlone.cc.ca.usI based my decision on the top 5 sites by the following criteria: 1. Register on-line 2. Course & program descriptions 3. Catalog 4. Tuition fees 5. Faculty information 6. School calendar 7. Hours & phone number directory ------------------------------------------------------- The 5 top sites I chose are: 1. Rainy River Community College [International Falls,Minnesota, USA] http://www.rrcc.mnscu.edu 2. Quinebaug Valley Community-Technical College [Hartford, Connecticut, USA] http://www.qvctc.commnet.edu/ 3. Red Rocks Community College [Lakewood, Colorado, USA] http://www.rrcc.cccoes.edu/ 4. Raritan Valley Community College [Raritan, New Jersey,USA] http://www.raritanval.edu/ 5. Red River Community College [Winnipeg, Manitoba,Canada] http://www.rrc.mb.ca/ --------------------------------------------------- The worst site I thought was: Rancho Santiago Community College District [Santa Ana,California, USA] http://www.rsccd.org/ They made it more complicated than it needed to be to find the information.
I picked my favorites based on style and ease of use. The following sites are the ones that caught my eye:
Taft College http://www.taft.cc.ca.usThe sites I did not care for are listed here:
Trinity Valley Community College http://www.tvcc.cc.tx.ushttp://www.victor.cc.ca.us/ http://www.vh.cc.va.us/ http://www.vistacollege.edu/ http://www.vscc.cc.tn.us/ http://www.vw.cc.va.us/
Here are my picks for the top five community colleges beginning with the letter W:
Worst Site: Several performed illegal actions when clicked on and kicked me off the net, so they all win
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