Content presentation on IVAʼs English version website

2011

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1. Introduction Claiming that European higher education institutions have consolidated their presence

on the web will not cause any surprise. More than that, it can also be said that there is

a general consensus on the subject that the web is a product of the European

academic environment, even though the emergence and subsequent evolution of these

web sites occurred in different ways according to characteristics specifics to cultural,

social, political and economic aspects related to each university.

 However when coming across websites of twenty-three European higher education

institutions whose native languages are not english, I was surprised by the difficulty in

finding information on their english version websites. The way universities present

themselves on the web is an essential part of their internationalization process and that

requires that both information presentation and organization are done wisely and

strategically.

Given the scenario above I propose an analysis of IVA’s english version website,

describing its main characteristics and suggesting some improvements, not according

to its layout design and usability, but regarding how content is presented.

2.  Model   This study will use Brian Detlor’s model (2000)1, originally developed to analyze

websites and portals in the corporate environment, but also suitable for the academic

context.

The model, represented by the diagram below, suggests the existence of three co-

related areas composing a website environment: a content space to facilitate

information access and retrieval, a space dedicated to communication and collective

activities, and also a coordination space where one can find services and resources

necessary to the workflow.

                                                                                                               1  Detlor, B. (2000). The corporate portal as information infrastructure: Towards a framework for portal design, International Journal of Information Management, 20(2), 91-101  

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On this matter, as a content space websites provide access to information related to

the universities including all content produced by the institution itself associated to

programs, departments, courses, etc.

Being a communication space it is necessary to help users to comprehend the

information they receive. This is done by providing information channels aiming to

facilitate communication between users and the university and among users

themselves, represented here by students, visitors, staff and faculty.

Finally, as coordination space it offers users a variety of services and resources

leading to the execution of many different tasks. Therefore a diverse set of tools should

be ready and available, assisting in the gathering of activities and workflows between

the actors involved. The coordination space brings together resources related to the

navigation experience / usability and services.

Next, the main tools and resources available in the three spaces described above will

be arranged in a table for a better viewing and comprehension of the subject.

3.  IVA’s  analysis   Main components of IVA’s english version website divided into spaces proposed by

Detlor (2000).

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IVAʼs English version website

Content space Communication

Space

Coordination space

Institutional information

(mission, vision, strategy)

Institutional e-mail

contact

Language

Information about

Undergraduate courses

Phone Book Sitemap

Information about Graduate

courses (Masters and PhD)

Physical address Search Engine

Research People Directory Library

Consultancy Facebook

Cooperations

Internationalization (Exchange

studies and information for

foreign students)

It is also important to visualize how the website is structured, especially the information

about the internationalization, because as relevant as content available is, so is how to

arrange them:

Fig. 2. IVAʼs English version website structure

On IVA’s english version website the content is divided in five main sections : about us

(embracing institutional and organizational information), research (research lines),

library (link to the library’s english version), consultancy and education (all information

regarding the internationalization process, including exchange, are assembled on the

section reserved to education).

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4.  Comparison   To deepen the analysis, I also visited twenty-three European higher education

institutions whose native language is not english. Those institutions were chosen for

having an agreement with IVA and they also had been analyzed in a previous study

according to the school internationalization.

This visualization seems relevant to investigate what contents are provided by other

universities on their english version’s websites and how all that information is

structured. The goal is to find some interesting examples that could be suggested and

somehow used on IVA’s english website.

The content space is presented homogeneously in most cases with a wide

predominance of institutional information (96%), information on both undergraduate

(96%) and graduate (96%) courses, areas / departments (96%), research (83%),

internationalization (96%) and cooperations (87%). However much information relevant

to international students and potential international students such as news (57%) and

especially events (52%) and calendar (43%) don’t share the same popularity. Other

resources as though videos (26%) and website information (17%) are poorly explored.

0%  

20%  

40%  

60%  

80%  

100%  

120%  Content Space"

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This demonstrates that in most cases examined the english version websites have

their content space based on static information, which usually does not require

frequent updates.

The analysis of the communication space reinforces what was mentioned previously

(about the content space) and clarifies the notion that universities, in general, have not

bothered yet to develop new sources of communication on their English version

websites, especially those related to the web 2.0 idea as blogs (13%), Twitter (26%)

and Facebook (43%). Paradoxically these features are widely available on their

primary language websites proving how interaction is almost inexistent on the english

versions.

0%  

20%  

40%  

60%  

80%  

100%  

120%  

Communication Space"

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For the most part the coordination space did not reveal anything new, presenting

features and options already known as language choice (91%) and search engine

(91%), although in just over half of the cases there is an english version of the library

(57%) which is essential for international students. It is also worth mentioning that

sitemaps are only available in 52% of the websites analyzed.

As in IVA’s case, creating maps covering content organization of some websites

analyzed may provide important clues on information placement and services found in

English version websites. This is also useful for visualizing how internationalization

related information is structured on each university website.

Fig. 6. Hanze University English version website structure

0%  10%  20%  30%  40%  50%  60%  70%  80%  90%  100%  

Language   Library   Search  Engine   Sitemap   Shop  

Coordination Space"

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Fig. 7. Stuttgart Media University English version website structure

Fig. 8. Latvijas University English version website structure

Fig. 9. Linnaeus University English version website structure

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Fig. 10. University of Tromsø English version website structure

Fig. 11. University of Lund English version website structure

Fig. 12. Hacettepe University English version website structure

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Fig. 13. University of Szeged English version website structure

In this study eight institutions who provide a map on their english version websites

were covered. As we can see there is no standard for the organization on

internationalization information but in general it does not appear as an exclusive

section and is included, in most cases, within both courses and programs related

content.

5.  Conclusion  

A brief analysis and comparison between IVA’s website with other twenty-three

European universities allows to point out some suggestions that may eventually be

considered for future changes and improvements.

On the positive side it is possible to claim that despite the clean cut interface IVA’s

English version website presents the main contents and features related to potential

foreign students such as institutional information, programs, courses, research and

internationalization. However the main issue detected, not only on IVA’s case but also

in most universities analyzed, is the lack of updated and dynamic content as news,

calendar and information about activities and events, which directly affects current

foreign students.

One solution would require borrowing the same type of news panel used on IVA’s

Danish version website home and presenting at least a summary of the most relevant

information for foreign students. Another solution, simpler, would be the usage of social

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networks tools as Twitter and Facebook to disseminate this type of information. Even

though there are currently three links to Facebook pages on IVA’s English version

website there are problems in all of them: - International Students at RSLIS, Fall 2010 (outdated link, there is already a new page

for 2011 students)

- IVA, Royal School of Library and Information Science (links to a non official page

without updates)

- Present and past students from RSLIS International Master's program (link is correct

but the Facebook page has not been updated in over a year)

The creation of a single IVA’s english Facebook page (in addition to a Twitter account)

dedicated to current and potential international students could solve these problems by

building official channels of communication standardizing all the information and

making it’s updating simple. Some universities analyzed already use social networks in

this context:

Through these channels it would be possible to reach potential international students

by creating events on Facebook as chat sessions for prospective students as seen on

the example below:

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Furthermore, it would be interesting if there was an emphasis indicating these

Facebook pages because on the current website there are only text hyperlinks which

are not visually attractive:

Another suggestion would be the creation of a Youtube channel offering relevant

content to current and prospective students as done by other universities analyzed:

I believe that the use of these social network channels would be an excellent

way of approaching between IVA and prospective international students. The

creation of official spaces on social networks would benefit not only because of

its high interactivity but also by how easy and frequent they can be updated as

seen in all the examples used above.