development on the web: what do we communicate?
DESCRIPTION
Development on the web: What do we communicate?. Sally Kuhlenschmidt Western Kentucky University PODNetwork 2011, Atlanta, GA. Overview/Agenda. Introduction/Discussion of questions to ask Method Will skim some more peripheral data Larger database questions Website Homepage questions - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
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Development on the web: What do we communicate?
Sally KuhlenschmidtWestern Kentucky University
PODNetwork 2011, Atlanta, GA
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Overview/Agenda
• Introduction/Discussion of questions to ask• Method
– Will skim some more peripheral data– Larger database questions– Website Homepage questions
• Word Choices• Values, Images
• Observation/Discussions
“Tip” of the Hat
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What purposes should a center Web home page fulfill?
• Show of hands– which interests you most?• As you review data, think of best practices for
TLDUs to follow in home pages.
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Introduction• FD Web home pages may be primary contact
– Faculty at a distance in time/space– FD home page should reflect our values
• Language is gatekeeper-what terms do we use?• What images do we use?
– Jakob Nielsen- web usability researcher: – Web users search for answers, don’t do exploration
– (27 sec/page; no scrolling) – relationship building!
– Information snacking: What is the gain? What is the
cost to me?
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Personal Goal
• Check viability of master database of centers – 3 years later. Updated over that time.– Questions I get from researchers getting a sample.
• Test concept of taking random sample/collecting data.– For generalizability of results
• Had to rebuild my website– hoped to end up with terms for menu items.– Nontrivial– had 5,000+ pages, 3 months
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PostSecondary Level Instructors: Faculty, GTAs, Adjunct, Part-
time
Mission includes some “Pure” Pedagogy :
Seminars, Consulting.Not just on Technology but
more than Tech. Not just a list of resources.
Service Learning Units?
Definition of TLDU*
A unit, in the region (could be virtual), has been assigned teaching development responsibility by the institution
*Teaching Learning Development Unit
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Question?
• The State of TLDUs – infer from random sample• Based on their “home page” what are
– The terminology– The values (in language, programs, images)– The best practices
– Of TLDU web home pages?
• What are we accomplishing? Should we be accomplishing?
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Method• Kuhlenschmidt database
– N=1153: everything judged to be a TLDU in USA• Includes Grad Student sub-programs, tech w/ID, single
director, system office FD, multiple at a single institution, etc.
– Random sample of 10% N=121• Gathered summer/fall 2011• Note: 2 from 1 institution (U of Hawaii-Manoa), 6 from
2 state systems (Wash State, KyCC); 7 GA units.
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Procedure
• Visited each site and recorded text on site and images.– Noted Top, Left, and Right Menus; Text in the
center. – Task done by self and grad student.– I did classification by values and categorized menu
items.
Jump over slides
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Question: Error in dbase?
• 3% in 121 sample, est (estimate 38 in database).
• Sample errors were:1. Wrong unit/URL – Mississippi Valley State U.
(corrected to right one).2. Copy error of URL (Lehigh U)3. Had subpage originally (Augustana College)4. Misclassified K12 (Malone College)
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State of TLDUs: Defunct?
• 1.6% in sample of 121. 1. U New Mexico-Taos grant ended.2. [Idaho State. Functions nominally moved to
Acad Affairs. Included in data]• Estimate 19 units in database. • Checked my total sample = 19 defunct since 2007 based
on “hearsay”.
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State of TLDUs: Changes in Unit?
• 7 of 121= 6% of sample. (Estimate 67 of database have changed.)1. Tennessee Tech U– QEP became a unit2. Kirkwood CC was QIP, evolved into full center [left in
data]3. U. of Florida– shifted from provost to course design4. U. of Alabama, Birmingham– seems to be new unit.5. Mt. Hood CC – change in name, maybe unit6. Old Dominion change in name (less techno centric)7. Merged (Radford U)
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State of TLDUs: URLs?
• Change in URL N=11 (9%) (est 105 of dbase)1. Oakwood U (previously no web site)2. 7 changes in URL, still accessible3. 3 moved to Intranet (U Col, Denver; Sandhills CC;
U Wisc, Platteville)
• No URL– 4 (Lakeshore Tech College, Andrews U, Johnson
C. Smith U, School Business at U Calif, Berkeley)
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Sample for Further Data
• Sample for data N=107 (88% of sample; 9% of total database)121-14=107– 4 with no URL (2 Doc, 1 Bach, 1 Assoc)– 1 misclassified (1Masters)– 3 on Intranet (1 Mast, 2 Assoc)– 1 grant ended (1 Assoc)– 5 duplicates (2 Central system offices; all Assoc)
Jump over slidesLanded safely!
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Description of Sample
Sample• Doctoral –36% (N=39)• Masters – 26% (28)• Baccalaureate – 10% (11)• Associates – 23% (25)• Special Focus –1% (1)• System –1% (1)• Med Schools –2% (2)
Database of USA TLDUs• Doc- 29%• M - 24%• Bacc – 10%• A- 28%• Sp Foc - 4.5%• System - 1%• Misc. – 3.5%
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Description of Sample
Sample• GTA programs- 6.5% (7)• “2nd” at institution – 15% (16)• HBCUs – 3% (3)• Hispanic Serving – 2% (2)• Tribal – 0% (0)• Womens - 0% (0)
Database of USA TLDUs• GTA – 8%• “2nd” – 15%• HBCUs- 2.1%• HSI – 6%• Tribal – 0%• Womens – 1%
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Results for N=107
Average Behavior &Unique BehaviorFor• Descriptives: Email/Dates• Descriptives: Menu Items• Word Frequencies: Center text, Mission, Menu• Values/Populations: All text• Images: All TLDU images
Landed safely!
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Web Site ContextResults for N=107
• Responsible party for information?– Unit vs Person email
• Time stamp?
• Context in Time– 2% (2) Dates Created– 15% (16) Modified– 1% (1-mine) Both
• Contact Info (searched site beyond home page): – 46% (49) Generic email
([email protected]);– 6.5% (7) Webform; – 27% (29) Staff emails; – 17% (18) No email. Of those 2
no phone, 1 facebook, twitter, etc. but no email.
– 2% (2) Postal mail only;
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How often are particular Menus used?
May be policy set by institution• Top Menu: 65% (70)• Left Menu: 60% (64)• Right Menu: 26% (28)• Used all 3: 2% (2)• Top & Left: 9% (10)• Top & Right: 12% (13)• Left & Right: 11% (12)
• # of menu items• Top menu
– range 4 to 9; 50% of users use 7 or fewer; 75% use 8 or fewer
• Left menu– Range 1 to 25; 50% 8 or fewer;
66% used at least 10
• Right menu– Range 1 to 42; 50% 4 or fewer;
75% 6 or fewer
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Weighted Ave. MenuHome Programs Events; Funds;
ServicesResources; Grad Studts;
About Us
Home Events
Most frequent menu items weighted by
position they occupy in menu.
Ignores “last” as important position
Calendar
About Us;Other Units
Services;Resources;News;[Specific Tech]
Events;Services
Assessment; Resources;Staff
By the way, most users look at the middle of
the page- Nielsen
GrantsAwards
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Word Choice Observations– Nielsen: Plain Language. Words that describe
users problem (not the solution)– Center Text (Frequency Handout)
• Political Vocabulary Analysis (wordcounter.com Beta!): Neutral
– Mission statements guesstimated list (N=65) • Also Neutral• 14 page document available online.
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Menu Word Choices
– Menus (Freq. /Categorization Handout)• Top, left, right (first 10; all) • Only 4 used bottom links (4%).
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Discussion:
1. Find 2-3 term(s) that describes a faculty problem or a frequent task of faculty. [If finish quickly, find a “worst case” example].
2. Find 2-3 terms that express faculty development values (and be able to explain why).
3. Observations/comments on what you found.4. Were the terms the same or different?
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Values• Frequency of references to topics covered in
typical POD conference– Teaching—did they use that specific word? – Scholarship – did they mention word or close synonym– Technology – did they mention word or 1 ex– Assessment – did they mention word or 1 ex– Diversity – did they use word or close synonym– Sustainability – did they use word or close synonym– Organizational Development – looked for leadership,
admin training. Concluded I was unsure.
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Don’t look ahead
• What percentage of TLDU home pages do you think do express these values?
• For those who are fast: How well does your website home page do?
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Results• Teaching – 86% (92) use word “teaching”. Of
those 8 use only in title (leaves 78.5%). • Technology – 68% (73)• Scholarship – 48% (51) (Sample terms: 14x
SOTL, research, grant, writing). – Even though includes “non-research” schools I
found references on those to research involvement.
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continued
• Assessment – 57% (61).– My impression: We avoid
the word.– Only 9 “Assessment”
• design tests, • clickers, • formative, fac & student• Assurance of Lg.,• evaluation, • Eportfolio,• FD needs assess, • reflection….
• Diversity – 21% (23) e.g.,– 1 SafeZone; – 1 of Hawaii; – 1 women of color; – 1 minority; – 1 universal design, – 1 Social Justice.
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• Sustainability – 1% (1) “Green Teaching”• Organizational Development? – hard to say
– Estimated 19% (20); leadership (5); accreditation (2); curriculum; program eval; emergency plans; consultation for programs; prospective faculty program
– ? Mentoring; sabbaticals; health & wellness; “cultivating institutional culture” ; “strengthen org as whole”
Jump over slides
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Particular Populations
• Addressing particular populations– Part-time/adjunct faculty mentioned on 20% (21)
• Yet are 25% of faculty nationally* (179,135 “not on tenure” of 728,125). 1/4th of our faculty.
– Regional faculty 6% (6)– Graduate Students 21% (22)
• GA programs were poor about providing contact info• 36% of sample were doc schools. Other unit?
– [1 mentioned an undergrad TA program]– Internationalism (big on my campus) 13% (14)
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Images• Could relate to Nielsen “relationship building”• Also convey message/instruction about who
faculty are in looks/in actions• 24% (26) had no image of their own.
– May appear beneath institution image.
• Slideshows 17% (18) – personally annoying unless controllable.
• 51% (55) had people on them, mostly groups (2% of the 55 had only 1 or 2 people).
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Common themes (Handout)
• nature (esp. trees); • Architecture (buildings!); • images of technology; • logos; • office items (e.g., mugs, charts)
• Nielsen: Provide sample/quality content first.
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Diversity in Images
A few more details are in online handout.
My impressions
% on Homepage Postsecondary Ed Employees (http://nces.ed.gov/)
N=635 people N=728,125*Female 40% (252) 43% (312,857)Male 60% (383) 57% (415,268)
N=6614 N=3,723,419**Asian/Pacific Islander
5% (32) 6% (208,842)
Black 13% (86) 10% (366,324)Hispanic 0.3% (2) 6% (220,794)White 82% (544) 69.5% (2,586,098)
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Observations/Discussion• Handout w/ more unique ideas1.Primarily “push” on web, analogous to
lecture. How do we do more active learning with our websites/home pages?
• E.g., “See Also” (Nielsen), Comment forms, connecting faculty, Challenges
2.What are your best practice ideas? Both improvement & praise
Landed safely!
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Future Research
• Questions you’d like answered?
Resources• Nielsen, J. & Loranger, H. (2006). Prioritizing
Web Usability. Peachpit: Berkeley, CA. http://www.useit.com/
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Thank you
• For mission statements, electronic copies• [email protected]• 270-745-6508• http://people.wku.edu/
sally.kuhlenschmidt/research/2011pod/
• QR Code generator: http://zxing.appspot.com/generator/