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Online at Copper Mountain College: a Comparison of Five Colleges

Linda Deneher

Boise State University

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Abstract With the steadily increasing availability of online curricula in California community colleges, it is necessary for educational institutions such as Copper Mountain Community College (CMC), to monitor the offerings of other schools in the state that are also competing for the same student population. Features of the CMC Web site, in particular those located on the home page, were compared with the identical features found at four other community college campuses in California. These schools, Lake Tahoe Community College, Lassen Community College, Lemoore Community College, and Woodland Community College, were chosen randomly from all California community colleges with a population of less than 5,000 students. Results of this evaluation found features unique to CMC that have a negative impact. The first is that the word count of their home page, including all menus and associated links, is 25 times higher than the total on the lowest school observed, and three times higher than the total of the next closest school. The second negative unique feature is that CMC is the only one of the five schools currently unable to register students online or provide online access to grades. In order to provide an attractive, easy-to-use Internet portal, barriers to engagement with the website should be eliminated. Necessary changes include restructuring the content on the CMC homepage so that essential information is not obscured. Adding online registration and access to grades will make CMC more attractive to students considering pursuing their education online.

Introduction

Copper Mountain Community College (CMC) is a junior college located in Joshua Tree, California. CMC is the only school in the Copper Mountain College district. The school offers degrees and certificates in Art, Automotive Technology, Business, Communications, Computer Information Systems, Computer Science, Fire Technology, Health Sciences, Liberal Arts, Mathematics, Sciences, Social Sciences, and Spanish.

Courses include those which are fully online, hybrid, or web-enhanced, and are delivered through Blackboard with a link on the CMC Web site. In the spring term of the 2009 school year, enrollment at CMC was 2,233. During the 2008 – 2009 school year, 200 of those students took asynchronous courses taught using the Internet.

CMC’s Web site’s coverage of their online access to students through the portal of their Web site’s home page is being evaluated in relation to four other California community colleges. These four schools, Lake Tahoe, Lassen, Lemoore, and Woodland, were randomly selected from the population of all California community colleges with a student population less than 5,000. All five schools share the characteristic of serving a small student population with a correspondingly small budget.

Tables present information taken from each school’s Web site regarding accessibility to online courses as represented by ease of navigation through each school’s site, the quality of the directions, the overall appearance, the ability to take applications, register students, provide grades, and course schedules online. The evaluation discovered that of the five colleges, CMC is the only one without online access for students to registration and grades.

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Program Description

Online courses, like all courses offered at CMC, are available to anyone who is over age 18 or has graduated from high school. The college runs on the semester system with Fall, Spring, and Summer sessions comprising the school year. Courses may be taken for credit in preparation for a degree or certificate, or may be non-credit courses intended to advance personal growth. All students are required to apply online and assessment is done online through Accuplacer. A face-to-face orientation is required for all new students.

Access to online content takes place through students’ use of the CMC Web site. The CMC Web site is maintained by their Marketing Department, and the changes that will result from the findings of this evaluation are intended to increase functionality of the Web site and enrollment in online courses.

Evaluation Method

The colleges selected for comparison with CMC are all similar sizes. Larger community colleges have larger budgets, and are able to provide a higher level of services than the smaller schools. Their Web sites are correspondingly more sophisticated. The four California community colleges tabled below with CMC were randomly selected from the population of all California community colleges with a student population less than 5,000. Population statistics were located at the Web page for the California Community College’s Chancellor’s Office, Divisions, Technical Research and Information, Management Information Systems, Data Mart and Reports.

Table 1. Comparison of Student Population during the 2009 Spring Term

The websites to be compared with CMC shall be thoroughly examined by the

evaluator. Entry will be gained through each site’s home page and navigation will proceed according to the way links are arranged and connected on each site. Data will be collected through direct observation of each page, described in detail, and summarized in a table allowing for the comparison of common features. They will be identified through searches for information, text as well as links, regarding accessibility to the entire site while noting the quality of the directions, and the overall appearance of each home page. Information gathered will show whether or not they are able to accept online applications, register students, provide grades for completed courses, and course schedules.

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Results of the Observation of Each Site CMC: Navigation: Several features of the site cause difficulties regarding navigation. The drop-down menus close themselves if they are being changed at the same time a slide changes in the slideshow. A link to Blackboard is located near the bottom of the home page. The misalignment of several of the slide out links results in some selections being inaccessible from these menus. Clicking the link for Students/What do I Need to Know About an Online Class? redirects users to the home page. Directions: Sparse. Getting copies of grades requires that students download and print a form, fill it out, and fax it to CMC. The directions do not mention that the student needs to first fill out the form. Appearance: There is so much information contained on the home page that it is difficult to locate essential information, such as accessing registration information and access to grades. Items duplicated in other section of the site further distract attention from essential information. There are inconsistent font colors in all sidebar menus. Usability: Online Application: Yes Online Registration: No Online Access to Grades: No Online Schedules: Yes

Lake Tahoe Navigation: there is a large slideshow containing photographs including areas off campus, and this school is the only one to have non-campus locations featured. This focus on the surrounding area may be an effective recruitment tool in promoting attendance at Lake Tahoe. Directions: the top navigation bar contains a prominent a link to Web Services for submitting an online application, or chat with a counselor. The Web Services page has a

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concise table with links to online services, but has spacing errors in its text. The application instructions page uses red text, red background in a cautionary box, both bold and underlining making for an unfriendly feel to the page. Appearance: there is no consistent palette of colors used in text or backgrounds. The slideshow runs too fast to be seen easily, and is a distraction at that speed. Usability:

Online Application: Yes Online Registration: Yes Online Access to Grades: Yes Online Schedules: yes, also searchable. They can be mailed, if requested.

Lassen Navigation: this site has the most functional navigation. One large, prominent link gives access to WebAdvisor for schedules, searching and registration, and grades. Directions: enrolment process is a PDF download and the instructions are unhelpful. Appearance: this site is attractive. The slideshow is on the right side of the screen and is less distracting than the one at CMC Usability:

Online Application: Yes Online Registration: Yes Online Access to Grades: Yes Online Schedules: Yes

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Lemoore: Navigation: dropdown menus at the top are easy to utilize; but the 55 links on the home page makes rapid navigation difficult for the novice user. This site has the only stoppable slideshow. Directions: the online enrollment page has a sidebar menu showing all the steps at once, which is very convenient for first time users. Appearance: the large number of links on the home page distracts from essential information. Usability: Online Application: Yes Online Registration: Yes Online Access to Grades: Yes

Online Schedules: Yes

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Woodland: Navigation: a dropdown menu is available that contains a link with the text “Apply now!” Directions: there are application and online orientation links on the home page. A link for website suggestions makes the site feel approachable. Appearance: this page is attractive; there are two unchanging photographs of the campus with flowers. Usability: Online Application: Yes

Online Registration: Yes Online Access to Grades: Yes Online Schedules: Yes

Discussion

The purpose of this evaluation is to guide the choices and direction of Copper Mountain as it improves its Web site and its ability to provide services to its students that are similar in nature and quality with other small, California community colleges. The following similarities and differences in services were found when comparing CMC to Lake Tahoe, Lassen, Lemoore, and Woodland Community College.

As seen in the table below, CMC is the only school observed which is not currently registering students online or providing access to the grades. CMC does not mail grades to students. To get access to grades without going to the campus, students must go online and locate the PDF of the correct form. Then they need to print, complete, and sign it, and fax it to the school. The other four schools have registration and grades provided by third-party providers.

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Several things hamper usability on the site. The amount of information contained

on the CMC home page is excessive and much of it is superfluous. It is difficult to locate essential information. None one of the other schools evaluated had as much text on their home page as CMC. The word count for the home page, consisting of the home pages’ text plus all the text contained in home page menus, for CMC is 5,347, compared to Lassen at 1,613, Lemoore with 439, Woodland’s 392 and Lake Tahoe with a sparse 188. The large amount on information contained on the CMC home page stands out significantly in the chart below, and may indicate that a change in the home page could benefit by the removal of duplicated and non-essential items. In the following images of the home pages, it can be seen that the level of visual organization is less apparent at CMC than the others.

Other findings include that navigation CMC requires more steps to use compared

to all other schools. The home page has a navigation bar at the top of the page with drop down menus which all close by themselves when the image in the slideshow changes. The side menus have slide out links that are difficult to keep open which also hinders navigation. Directions on the CMC site require more steps to access that other schools, again hampered by the drop down and slide out menus that close themselves. The appearance of the menus, in particular those on the left side the pages, is inconsistent. Font colors within this menu are inconsistent and appear to be unrelated to the content of each colored selection. The link to the schedule is particularly well done. It is centrally located, marked, and the image is of good quality.

Recommendations include the following: get registration and grades online, reduce the amount of text on the home page, repair the navigation links, make the schedule searchable, and reduce the size and number of images in the slideshow. Since use of the home page is limited by the closing of the navigation links when the images

Apply Register Grades Schedules Copper Mountain Yes No No Yes

Lake Tahoe Yes Yes Yes Yes Lassen Yes Yes Yes Yes

Lemoore Yes Yes Yes Yes Woodland Yes Yes Yes Yes

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change in the slideshow, this must be fixed. The large size of the slideshow window forces users to scroll down each page for essential information, further limiting use of the CMC home page. The graphics themselves are commendable, and the site would benefit by use elsewhere.

Timeline of Evaluator Responsibilities

The evaluator shall perform the following during Week One: in a random manner, locate four California community colleges with a student

population size similar to CMC examine the home page of each site determine significant features of the sites and their home pages

The evaluator shall perform the following during Week Two: compare features of each site and determine significant characteristics compare significant characteristics noting outstanding features report all finding and results in written form on or before the specified due

date of December 8, 2009

Project Cost Evaluator’s salary: four days at $500.00 per day/$2,000.00 Computer access: four days at $100.00 per day/$400.00 Printing: $49.95 Subtotal: $2,449.95 California sales tax: 8.25% of $2,449.95/ $296.93 Total: $2,746,88 Payable in full is required upon receipt of the final report. All sales are final. No refunds.

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References

Copper Mountain Community College. www.cmccd.edu Lake Tahoe Community College. www.ltcc.ed Lassen Community College. www.lassencollege.edu Lemoore Community College. www.westhillscollege.com/lemoore/index.php Woodland Community College. www.yccd.edu/woodland California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office. https://misweb.cccco.edu/mis/onlinestat/studdemo_coll_cube.cfm