Research universities had the most WWW sites (111 total) and, as a Carnegie group, had the largest percentage of institutions respresented on the WWW. The Carnegie Foundation reported 125 research institutions in their 1994 Technical Report and 111 of them were present in our survey - an 88.8% showing. Of these, 77 were Research I institutions and 34 were Research II.
Who created the site?
Similar to the overall findings, the WWW sites of research institutions were primarily created by Academic Computing (or a similar department), which accounted for 48 percent of the sites. Research institutions,however, were the only type of institution to show a team approach to site development - five percent of the sites were developed by committees or teams.
We found a total of 50 sites whose Campus-wide Information Server (CWIS) was the primary Webmaster, which accounted for 45% of all research university sites.
What type of information is offered?
The survey documented what type of information was offered at each site. We created eight categories to synthesize and compare this information:
Most research institutions provided general information about the institution on the site - 89 out of 111 institutions, or 80 percent, had a section pertaining to this. Access to the library and specific information about departments, schools or colleges also were popular features. Seventy-nine institutions provided library access and 80 had information available about specific areas of study.
Only 18 percent of research institutions provided information about admissions, which is lower than other types of institutions, especially when you consider the high percentage of research institutions that have a WWW site in comparison to the other types of institutions. This evidence suggests that research institutions have a different purpose with WWW sites than other types of institutions (See Issues section).
What services are available?
The services identified in the survey included a directory of faculty and students (white pages), a directory of home pages, and a campus map. As a group, research universities were strong in providing a directory service to locate faculty, students and administrators. Seventy-nine institutions (71 percent) offered white pages services. Students, faculty and staff also were more active in developing WWW home pages at research universities, 52 sites offered a service to locate home pages. Campus maps were also popular, but Research I institutions used these more frequently than Research II. Thirty-two Research I institutions had a campus map available and only nine Research II institutions offered such a service.
What qualities of hypermedia exist?
We imposed a rating system to evaluate the level of hypermedia in our survey and found that the majority of research institutions ranked a bit higher in comparison to other types of institutions; photos, clickable maps and forms were popular, as was the Òmail toÓ feature, but no online applications were offered.
last updated: May 22, 1995