Exploring the relationship between web presence and web usability for universities

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to statistically explore the relationship between web usability and web presence of the universities. As a case study, five Turkish universities in different rankings which were selected from Webometrics rankings were evaluated and compared. Design/methodology/approach – Two different methods were employed for performing usability evaluation of the selected universities: a user testing was used to measure the user performance on the selected tasks and a questionnaire to assess the user satisfaction on the website use. Both usability evaluation methods were applied on the pre-determined tasks for each university by participation of 20 subjects. After the usability evaluation, the universities were ranked in terms of usability results and finally, the relationship between web usability and web presence of universities was statistically investigated by using Kendall’s rank correlation. Findings – Several common usability problems which were asserted by related previous studies were identified at the end of usability evaluation of university websites. The usability results also revealed that selected Turkish university websites suffer from numerous usability problems. Further, a strong positive correlation (p < 0.05) between the usability of the university websites and their web presences were identified. Hence, the participants showed a higher success and satisfaction while performing the tasks on the university websites which have strong web presences. Practical implications – The findings from this study have practical implications for universities. Correlation results showed that universities can improve their web usability by giving importance to their web presence volumes. Universities can estimate their web usability levels by investigating their web presence rankings and they can also raise their rankings in Webometrics ranking system by improving the usability of their websites. Moreover, university web developers can design more usable and more user-friendly websites by avoiding usability and design problems identified through usability evaluation. Originality/value – Different from the prior research efforts focussing on usability of educational web pages, this study contributes to the growing literature by statistically exploring the relationship between web presence and web usability of universities. This study is also precious from the point of view that it is one of the first attempts to evaluate and compare usability levels of a set of universities’ websites from Turkey.

Does Google Favour its own Platforms in Search Visibility?

“…In the second decade of the 21st century, web presence became crucial for educational institutions, as a means of scholarly communication, a distance learning tool, an open forum for community engagement, and universal showcase for attracting talents. As a result, visitors achieve greater success and satisfaction while performing tasks on university websites that have strong web presences (Peker, Kucukozer-Cavdar & Cagiltay, 2016). In other words, the web presence for higher education institutions not only has a lead generation role, but it is also in the function of SERP branding.…”

Impact of University Website Usability on Satisfaction: A Structural Equation Modelling Approach

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“…Each of the above-mentioned stakeholders needs a different piece of information according to their requirement which should be easily accessible. Hence, website will play a crucial role in accessing accurate information (Manzoor et al, 2012; Peker et al, 2016). And by keeping users’ expectations and requirements in consideration, a website should be designed and developed accordingly (Zaphiris & Kurniawan, 2007).…”

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