Development on the web: What do we communicate?

Sally KuhlenschmidtWestern 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

• Word Choices• Values, Images

• Observation/Discussions

“Tip” of the Hat

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.

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?

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

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

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?

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.

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

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)

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”.

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)

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)

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!

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%

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%

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!

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

(ctl@du.edu);– 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;

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

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

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.

Menu Word Choices

– Menus (Freq. /Categorization Handout)• Top, left, right (first 10; all) • Only 4 used bottom links (4%).

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?

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.

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?

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.

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.

• 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”

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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)

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).

Common themes (Handout)

• nature (esp. trees); • Architecture (buildings!); • images of technology; • logos; • office items (e.g., mugs, charts)

• Nielsen: Provide sample/quality content first.

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)

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!

Future Research

• Questions you’d like answered?

Resources• Nielsen, J. & Loranger, H. (2006). Prioritizing

Web Usability. Peachpit: Berkeley, CA. http://www.useit.com/

Thank you

• For mission statements, electronic copies• Sally.kuhlenschmidt@wku.edu• 270-745-6508• http://people.wku.edu/

sally.kuhlenschmidt/research/2011pod/

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