Evaluation of elementary schools Web sites

ABSTRACTTHE EVALUATION OF ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS WEB SITESNuray KURTDEDE FİDANElementary Education ProgramAfyon Kocatepe University The Institute of Social SciencesMay, 2006Adviser: Prof. Dr. Mustafa ERGÜNIn this descriptive study, the following question was investigated: What featuresshould an elementary school website have?Based on a literature review and pre analysis, two evaluation scales, calledContent Criteria of Web Sites and Appropriateness for Basic Web Design Principlesand Convenience for Use Criteria, were developed. According to these two scales, someschools in the U.S.A and Turkey were evaluated.In the study, elementary schools? websites in Turkey were investigated in termsof terms of technical designs and contents, and they were compared with elementaryschools? websites in the U.S.A. to determine their development levels and deficiencies.The population of the study is the elementary schools in the U.S.A and Turkeythat have webs site and a total of 200 sample schools, 100 from Turkey and 100 fromthe U.S.A., were randomly selected among those schools. By thematic analysis method,the schools were evaluated in terms of contents of websites, basic design principles andease of use. The evaluation criteria were described and whether the websites had thosecriteria were determined based on a likert scale.It was found that there were no systematic studies to establish standards fordesigning and developing school websites in Turkey, although technology has advanceddramatically still school websites are simple and school websites are not regularlyupdated. Also, in Turkish schools websites, there were no library web pages for teachersand students to utilize, no academic calendar, course schedules and course contents. Itwas seen that the school websites did not have adequate information on parents?associations. In terms of design techniques, Turkish school websites were consideredcomplicated.