Evaluation of educational web-sites regarding visual design criteria and services offered the users

Ill ABSTRACT EVALUATION OF EDUCATIONAL WEB-SITES REGARDING VISUAL DESIGN CRITERIA AND SERVICES OFFERED THE USERS Özcan Özgür DURSUN Anadolu University Institute of Education Sciences Computer Education and Instructional Technology Department Supervisor: Yrd. Doç. Dr. Ayşen GÜRCAN NAMLU This research, investigated whether the educational web-sites meet the required criteria stated in the Web Design Scale. The research has been realized through the evaluation of 100 educational web-sites selected by random sampling. According to the results of the research, the educational web-sites meet only 55% of visual designing criteria and 51% of the criteria for the services offered the users, in average. It was found that the criteria, which are considered in preparing the educational web-sites, do not change related to the target-mass and the educational content. However, regarding the relations between data, meaningful results was reached. According to the results, the criteria in Web Design Scale are considered mostly in the children's and youth's web-sites. It has been seen that the web design criteria usage decrease while the users' age average increase. Furthermore, the results do not change related to the web-sites educational contents. The consistency of web sites for K-12 can be explained by the profile of the users who are mainly children and youngsters. In this research, various data analysis have been used to obtain the above results. Percentage and frequency, arithmetical average, standart deviation and Chi Square Test have been used. Microsoft Office Excel Programme and SPSS Package Programme have been used in the statistical analyses.