Opinions of English Major Students about Their Departments' Websites

Year 2011, Volume: 2 Issue: 4, 294 - 307, 01.12.2011

Bugra Zengin Arda Arikan Duygu Dogan

Abstract

University websites serve as sharing information with students whether prospective or enrolled. Often, before entering their departments, students visit them to have an idea as to what it would be like to be a part of that university and/or department. In that sense, websites help students in deciding whether the university matches their expectations. After enrollment, websites start to serve as their representative and an interactive ground for students, academics, and administrative personnel of the university. Because schools exist for students, their opinions matter. This study aimed to have students’ opinions of their departmental websites. For the purposes of this study, students of English or related majors (i.e. English language teaching, English linguistics, English language and literature, translation studies, American culture and literature) were sent a questionnaire to find out their opinions of their departments’ official websites. The results suggest that there are a number of areas for universities and departments to improve their websites to promote themselves in a more realistic manner that suits needs of their students.

Keywords

Web design, University websites, Academic resumes, Educational marketing, Evaluation of websites, Higher education

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• Correspondence: Bugra Zengin, Assistant Professor, Department of Western Languages and
• Literatures, Faculty of Science and Letters, Namik Kemal University, Tekirdag, Turkey