Douglas J. Swanson, Ed.D

Frank W. and Pauline G. Patterson Assistant Professor of Journalism

While at Oklahoma Baptist University

Journalism/ Mass Communication Program World Wide Web Sites:

Content, Functionality, and Promotional Value

Abstract

This content analysis study involved evaluation of promotionally-oriented World Wide Web sites hosted by higher education journalism/ mass communication programs. A total of 193 sites were evaluated for presence or absence of visual, operational, and informational enhancements which collectively contribute to WWW site content, functionality, and promotional value. The study found that most journalism/ mass communication programs have promotional WWW sites, but that site visual, operational, and informational enhancements vary widely. Many sites did not contain visual enhancements which are considered 'state of the art' for sites hosted by business and commercial entitites. A large number of sites contained confusing or non-functioning operational enhancements. A minimal presentation of promotional information was observed on many Web sites. Almost one-third of sites were rated as "not user friendly" because of content judged absent or inappropriate. The research suggests further study is needed to track journalism/ mass communication programs' progress in Web development and determine why programs fail to produce Web sites with more effectively-structured promotional messages.

Introduction

Many U.S. college and university journalism/ mass communication programs have embraced the technological advantages of the World Wide Web, and have launched promotionally-oriented WWW sites. These sites reach general and specific publics with information about academic programs and opportunities. Through the display of information in graphics and text, these sites help establish institutional public image, allow programs to target specific information to specific online users, and allow faculty, staff and students to have the ongoing dialogue within and across academic programs and disciplines that is critical to creating productive educational environments.

Despite the popularity of promotionally-oriented WWW sites within the discipline, however, there has been little empirical examination of sites and their contents. Almost no research effort has been dedicated to learning about their visual, operational, and informational enhancements, or about how the Web sites of different programs differ from each other. Even the most basic research to simply confirm the presence of absence of journalism/ mass communication Web sites already is outdated (See A Survey of. . . , 1995).

This research makes an effort to address some of the unanswered questions about journalism/ mass communication Web sites. It involves an examination of academic Web sites within the discipline to gather data on the visual, operational and informational enhancements used in Web displays, and the extent to which enhancements work together to bring about an online environment which has promotional value.

Literature Review

In the competitive marketplace of higher education, institutions and programs must be able to use the World Wide Web successfully as part of a strategy to promote academic offerings, build on existing strengths, and recruit the greatest number of students who are most likely to be retained to graduation. This is particularly important in journalism/ mass communication, a discipline which has been challenged on many fronts to recruit and retain the brightest students (JMC education. . ., 1995).

Promotional WWW sites for higher education programs allow competitive advantage in a marketplace with no barriers to entry, aside from technological concerns (Helmstetter, 1997). Web sites allow organizations to target specific information to specific groups (Ellsworth & Ellsworth, 1997), to change and update information easily and inexpensively (Siskind & Moses, 1996), and to increase the speed at which education consumers can gather data and the level at which they may access it (Tennant, 1996). An presence on the WWW evens out competitive disadvantages between organizations (Helmstetter, 1997), and, as a consequence of the interactive social nature of the medium, "raises the level of personal interaction" (Fisher, 1995, p. 38) between organizations and the users who seek information.

A variety of research efforts have addressed how 'effective' Web sites are created. Existing literature documents the teamwork development approach (Jagodzinsky, Cunningham, Day, Naylor, & Schobernd, 1997). Other work examines the pros and cons of style guides (McCollum, 1999; Pollard, 1997), the need to develop Web sites in accordance with surveys of user expectations and responses (Borges, Morales, & Rodriguez, 1998; Fuccella & Pizzolato, 1998), the importance of ease of navigation (Whitaker, 1998) and elements of online rhetorical 'success' (See Deloughry, 1995).

The concept of 'user friendliness' is commonly referenced. Most of the literature which addresses whether World Wide Web sites are found to be 'user friendly' equates the term with organization of visual enhancements according to a structure (Hagerty, 1994), or theme (Corry, Frick, & Hansen, 1997), or in accordance with the visual processing of information by users (Marks & Dulaney, 1998). The issue of user friendliness has also been equated with content readability (Geske, 1997; Griffin, Pettersson, Semali, & Takakuwa, 1994) and the extent to which content is consistent with user likes and dislikes (Fucella & Pizzolato, 1998).

Certainly a Web site which is user friendly would be one which meets specific needs of a general population (Castells, 1996), as well as the needs of members of minority groups (Wright, 1997), children (Hundt, 1997; Riley, 1997), and people with physical disabilities (Laux, 1998).

Existing literature confirms the extent to which a variety of different organizations use promotional WWW sites (Aikat, 1997; Ho, 1997) and the extent to which academic Web sites may be "good" or "poor" promotional examples (A survey of... , 1995, Abstract). These research efforts and others go a long way toward helping explain WWW cause-effect relationships in a general sense, but they do not accomplish a basic need for journalism/ mass communication program administrators because they do not illustrate how academic programs are using promotional WWW sites, what site enhancements are used, and how enhancements work together to allow sites to achieve promotional goals.

The analysis of the problem at hand, coupled with a review of existing literature in this field, resulted in the development of three research questions to be addressed through content analysis study of journalism/ mass communication program Web sites:

1) To what extent do U.S. college and university journalism/ mass communication programs utilize promotionally-oriented academic program Web sites?

2) What types of visual, operational, and informational enhancements are in evidence on journalism/ mass communication program Web sites?

3) What quantitative and qualitative differences are observed among enhancements displayed by journalism/ mass communication program Web sites, and how do these enhancements affect promotional messages?

Having the additional understandings gained from this research should allow administrators in journalism/ mass communication programs to better understand the use of promotionally-oriented WWW sites and employ them more effectively in the continuing effort to build a dialogue with various publics.

Survey Method

Journalism/ mass communication programs were identified through listings in the 1998-99 Directory of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. From the approximately 400 U.S. journalism/ mass communication programs listed, 200 programs, or about 50 percent of the total, were chosen randomly for content analysis of program promotional sites.

A World Wide Web search through Yahoo, Web Crawler, Lycos and InfoSeek search engines identified 193 valid Web sites for the population for study. The remaining seven sites included one institutional server site and five different program Web sites which were returned as "file not found" during the search effort, as well as one academic program site which had content which was not promotional in nature.

Existing content analysis designs located by the author were insufficient to fully extrapolate the visual, operational, and informational elements of Web sites hosted by academic programs. Therefore, the author created a content analysis instrument and procedure similar to that used by Mitchell, 1996. The procedure identified presence or absence of 15 types of visual enhancements, 18 types of operational enhancements and 24 categories of information which are commonly found on Web sites (Vora, 1998; December & Randall, 1995). Sites were scored to receive one point for each enhancement type present, regardless of the number of instances of the enhancement which were evident. No points were given for enhancement types not present. Total site scores were calculated for visual, operational, and informational enhancements.

Content analysis of the 193 qualified World Wide Web sites was carried out between January 1-10, 1999. A content analysis form for each accessed site was completed manually as each site was accessed and analyzed. Some sites were not electronically accessible on first attempt. In each case, two additional attempts were made. All sites were accessible during the study period.

Findings

1) To what extent do U.S. college and university journalism/ mass communication programs utilize promotionally-oriented academic program Web sites?

Of the 193 journalism/ mass communication Web sites, 172 (89 %) had promotionally-oriented WWW sites which were exclusive to their academic programs--meaning their contents related only to that academic area. The remaining 21 had sites which were Web addresses where academic programs shared display space with other institutional academic programs or service areas. Table I profiles the institutions and programs which make up the qualified population for study.

2) What types of visual, operational, and informational enhancements are in evidence on journalism/ mass communication program Web sites?

Web sites were electronically accessed and scored individually. Presence of absence of visual, operational, and informational enhancements was recorded by category and collectively. Each of the 15 types of visual enhancements, 18 types of operational enhancements, and 24 types of informational enhancements was observed on at least one qualifying Web site. Tables II, III, and IV show the different visual, operational, and informational enhancements which were observed during content analysis, and the frequency with which those enhancements were displayed within the population of WWW sites analyzed.

Combined visual, operational, and informational enhancement scores for subject sites ranged from a low of 3 to a high of 38. The group mean was 19.26. The standard deviation was 8.29.

Visual enhancements

The most technologically simple visual enhancements were most commonly observed among Web sites. The more elaborate enhancements were far less common. Individual site visual enhancement scores ranged from a low of 1 to a high of 13. The group mean was 6.24. The standard deviation was 2.14.

Most sites could be described as 'average' in their use of visual enhancements. They were fairly common in appearance, and often lacked visual enhancements which would distinguish them from the sites maintained by competing institutions and programs. A few sites could be described as 'poor'-as evidenced through use of garish colors, oversized fonts, or odd-looking clip-art illustrations-often presented out of proportion to the desired space. Even the most basic guidelines for effective visual presentations (Fuccella & Pizzolato, 1998; Geske, 1997; Hagerty, 1995) were often flouted.

Occasionally, illustrations used as site background made text content difficult or impossible to read. One particular school of journalism site covered almost every page with background illustrations of a famous black and white photo of Edward R. Murrow. The result was an almost unreadable on-screen melding of text and illustration.

Photographs were commonly used on Web sites, and in most instances they were used sparingly, appropriately, and in good taste. A few exceptions were noted, however. One school of communication site included more than a dozen large color photos of a small building demolition project-with detailed description of the effort. Little was offered to explain the project's relevance to the academic unit. One department of communications WWW site published a detailed "tour" of the department facilities using narrative text only-no photos were found anywhere on the site. A media arts department site promoted its "all digital" radio broadcast facilities with a photograph clearly contradicting the claim.

Overall, the use of visual enhancements on program Web sites was less extensive than that found on many commercial or business promotional sites (See Ho, 1997). While nearly all journalism/ mass communication sites used common visual enhancements such as fonts, illustrations, and graphics, only a few included such high-profile, technically sophisticated enhancements as enlargeable photos, video clips, or "live" video.

Operational Enhancements

Individual site operational enhancement scores ranged from a low of 1 to a high of 12. The group mean was 4.99. The standard deviation was 2.81.

Some sites scored high in operational enhancement but did not structure or display enhancements in productive ways. Other sites used smaller numbers of enhancements, but linked more critical informational content to them-in essence, making the operational enhancements more valuable.

A key issue in application of operational enhancements is the ease of navigation through the site. Most sites were easy for the user to navigate, either by mouse clicking on posted icons or by pursuing commonly-anticipated paths (See Whitaker, 1998). A few sites were exceptionally difficult. Some had long blocks of text, rather than links to subordinate pages-forcing the user into the time-consuming and frustrating process of scrolling and reading to glean desired information. Other sites had too many levels for the user to wade through. One communication and journalism department site required the user to mouse click through four pages between the institutional site and the opening page of the journalism site.

At least one non-functional operational enhancement was found on 31 sites (16%). The opening page of one journalism department WWW site had five dead hyperlinks to lower-level pages. Occasionally, a non-functioning operational enhancement was immediately observable-an access effort would result in an immediate "file not found" message. In most cases, however, the invalid nature was not obvious. Therefore, it is possible that the actual number of non-functioning operational enhancements on program sites was larger than indicated.

Several sites had numerous dead links to faculty members' e-mail addresses or professional Web sites. One university's school of media and public affairs site crowed that "Access is just one click away!" and then presented four invalid e-mail links to faculty members. A New York school of public communication's "interactive communications" faculty had no site e-mail links to faculty, and no listed postal address or telephone number for the school. Another east coast program honored a faculty member as its "digital media guru"-and then presented an e-mail link to this professor which returned the message "file not found."

One site highlighted a simple list of faculty names in the blue color associated with hyperlinks-leaving the user unsure of whether the color was used in error, or whether the names actually were links that were invalid due to some technical problem. One site barred off-campus Web site users from accessing faculty profiles or e-mail links-items which are routinely posted on other WWW sites across the breadth of the medium.

The rationale behind the use of some links on Web sites was difficult to determine. One large communications department site included links to communication programs at competing universities in nearby communities. Another department had almost no academic information on its Web site-but had dozens of links to media "fun sites" and "games."

In total, 21 sites (11 %) were operationally structured in ways which rendered them difficult to use, based on common user expectations of WWW content and features. Structural components which made these sites more difficult to use included one or more of the following: Absence of an internal directory of contents; information or links placed randomly within the site; informational frames used within other frames; minimal contrast between background color and text; lack of highlighting for hyperlinks; and presence of 'one-way' links from which users are not able to return back into the body of the site.

Informational Enhancements

Individual site informational enhancement scores ranged from a low of 1 to a high of 18. The group mean was 8.02. The standard deviation was 4.35.

Analysis of informational enhancements used on academic program Web sites is important because high levels of informational enhancement alone do not guarantee quality of content. Information offered on Web sites needs to be accurate in fact and presentation, and relevant to users' needs and wants. Information offered on Web sites should integrate with operational and visual elements to create a single unifying theme for the host site.

The analysis of WWW sites found many were lacking in the basic information users search the World Wide Web to find. One site did not name the university with which the journalism/ mass communication program was associated. Another site exclaimed "Come See Us!" and then offered no address or telephone number with which to do so. Seventy-eight sites (40%) offered no program address or phone number which potential students could use to make personal contacts for enrollment information or assistance.

Fifty-seven sites (30%) did not identify degrees offered, or requirements students must meet to complete degrees. Nine program Web sites (5 %) displayed information about Bachelor's degree offerings but displayed no information about available graduate degrees.

On the other hand, some sites offered seemingly endless detail about fairly trivial subjects, such as faculty members' pets, hobbies, and relatives. One site prominently displayed the key information item that a faculty member's great-uncle was a Titanic survivor. One university's department of media studies Web site had an "open guestbook" in which prospective students' names, addresses, phone numbers, and e-mail comments to the department and individual faculty were published. More than a dozen comments-some, fairly personal-were published on the site for anyone to read.

While typical public relations and promotions guidelines would tell communicators to 'put the best face forward,' many journalism/ mass communication Web sites display candid ignorance. "This page is Under Construction. More to come as we get better at this webpage stuff!" trumpeted one state university mass communication department site. Another site, hosted by a journalism department at a small private college, announced itself as "THE HOME OF JOURNAISM" (sic). The site also was sprinkled with punctuation errors. Twelve sites within the study population (6 % of the total) contained one or more obvious errors in text.

Outdated information was common. Among sites which displayed dates of last revision, the most current revision was reported as two days previous to the site analysis. The most dated revision was reported as 44 months earlier. The average mean time since last reported revision was 9.04 months. The standard deviation was 8.76 months. One university's journalism program site had catalog information dated 1996, with the disclaimer "a major curriculum change is taking place in Fall, 1997." Another journalism department site contained on its front page "new information" for the March, 1998 pre-registration.

Most of the journalism/ mass communication sites analyzed for information content showed at least the basic level of information prospective students and others would presumably look for-degree requirements, program news, and student organization information. A small number of sites contained technically sophisticated enhancements such as load time warnings, downloadable files, and internal search engines which are common among business and professional sites on the World Wide Web.

'User Friendliness'

User friendliness is a subjective, user-centered concept. It is difficult to make objective generalizations about the issue based on site content. However, the analysis of Web sites for this research did attempt to make a subjective identification of elements in each of the three enhancement categories which appeared to be blatant examples of not user friendly site content.

Visual elements which contributed to the finding included one or more of the following: Inconsistent design; incomplete visual elements; inappropriate use of color; graphic elements missing, of poor quality, or inappropriate; or, complicated frame displays. Operational elements which contributed to this finding included one or more of the following: Lengthy loading time; operational elements difficult to use; directory indistinguishable or absent; and, inoperable or confusing hyperlinks. Informational elements which contributed to this finding included one or more of the following: Excessive or insufficient amount of program information; program information perceived as outdated, irrelevant, or trivial; and, program information inaccurate-factually, grammatically, or stylistically.

Using this guideline, the reviewer determined a total of 55 sites (or, 28% of the total) to be not user friendly due to problems in any one or all three enhancement categories: Thirty of the sites (16%) were not user friendly based on visual enhancement elements. Fifty-five sites (28%) were not user friendly based on operational enhancement elements; fifty-four sites were not user friendly based on informational enhancement elements.

Discussion

The study found high levels of adoption of the World Wide Web by institutions and programs across all classification levels. It is obvious that the discipline of journalism/ mass communication has rapidly adopted the relatively new communication technology of the World Wide Web. The analysis of sites showed that the discipline is integrating WWW technology into the social order of institutions and programs in a multitude of ways, as evidenced by the large variety of operational and informational enhancements which 'connect' users with information and resources relevant to academic offerings.

The findings are consistent with existing knowledge of Web site adoption and use by business in general and education specifically (Rich, 1999; Picciano, 1994). They also are consistent with what is known of the adoption of the medium of WWW and application of the many enhancements which can be incorporated into Web sites (Bates, Chambers, Emery, Jones, McClung, & Park, 1997).

Even though many operational enhancements on program Web sites turned out to be inoperable, most institutional and academic program sites were completely electronically accessible and did fulfill their basic informational role. There is research support for the claim that much of the responsibility for invalid e-mail addresses and other links can be traced to software and hardware which has not reached optimum levels of technological sophistication (Tse et al, 1994).

Still, when reviewing the findings of the content analysis of sites, it is clear that within our discipline much more needs to be done to effectively use the WWW as a promotional medium. From the largest, most complex academic units to the smallest, journalism/ mass communication programs need to work much more effectively to plan, produce, and publish online content for the World Wide Web. It would seem that responsible administrators should be more involved in the process, to avoid the online publication of enhancements which can be interpreted by users as incomplete, trivial, improper, or-for lack of a better word-stupid. The mis-spelling of the word "journalism" is such an example. A mis-spelling of this type says something about educators and their attention to detail in a detail-oriented profession. It says 'no one notices' or 'no one cares.'

The findings also illustrate great differences between the creation and maintenance of Web sites for academic programs and the creation and maintenance of Web sites for business ventures. There is research support for the claim that those engaged in business ventures are, and would consistently be, more concerned about the visual, operational, and informational enhancements which are used on WWW sites (Helmstetter, 1997). A 'poor' quality Web site hosted by a business can generate immediate negative feedback from consumers. Consumers will express their dissatisfaction with products or services offered (Horowitz, 1996), or they may report that the site is unable to demonstrate product competitiveness versus other brands (Siskind & Moses, 1996). In the end, lost sales opportunities (Ellsworth & Ellsworth, 1997) are an immediate result.

Because academic program Web sites are not considered precursors to direct sales activity, and faculty members often report not feeling responsible for or included in institutional or academic program marketing efforts (Simerly, 1989; Ihlanfeldt, 1980), it seems not surprising that many academic Web sites fall so short of qualitative expectations in regard to enhancement content.

This research affirms much about the visual, operational, and informational content of academic program Web sites-findings which had heretofore been only conjectured among online users. The research affirms that many academic program Web sites are flawed from a marketing perspective-containing visual, operational, or informational elements which detract from site content, functionality and promotional value.

Suggestions for further research

This findings of this study suggest a number of new research areas which merit development. It would be helpful for there to be an ongoing effort to evaluate the content of journalism/ mass communication program WWW sites-to see on a continuing basis how the content, functionality, and promotional value of these sites changes. After all, sites change on a daily basis-several of the sites evaluated in this research were drastically altered before the findings of the study were written. Surely there will be even greater change in the future, as resources for Web creation are advanced, technology progresses, more students and faculty become Web savvy, and institutional and program leaders see more value in Web sites.

There should be additional research to compare the visual, operational, and informational enhancements of journalism/ mass communication program Web sites with sites operated by entities in the commercial sector. In the increasingly competitive marketplace of higher education (Topor, 1997; Goldgehn, 1990), colleges and universities should be at the forefront of Web marketing and promotions technology. Our discipline demands it. Yet, the current study shows that there are many areas in which the discipline lags behind the standards already set in the business sector. Here again, further ongoing research is warranted to track the professionalism of journalism's Web applications.

Furthermore, research is needed to confirm why journalism/ mass communication programs seem to experience difficulty creating, posting, and maintaining thoroughly effective promotional World Wide Web sites. One would suspect a variety of administrative, leadership, funding, and technological issues are at work. This line of research also has not been addressed and merits further investigation.

References

A survey of college & university WWW sites (1995, May 8). Final Project Report, ComputerMediated Communication Course, Teachers College, Columbia University. New York:Columbia University Institute for Learning Technologies. (1997, March 12).

Aikat, D. (1997, August). Organizations in Cyberspace: An informational content analysis of academic, government, and commercial World Wide Web pages on the Internet. Paper delivered to the Communication Technology and Policy Division, Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, Chicago, IL.

Bates, B. J,. Chambers, L. T., Emery, E., Jones, M., McClung, S., & Park, J. (1997, August) Television on the Web, 1996: Local television stations' use of the World Wide Web. Paper delivered to the Communication Technology and Policy Division, Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, Chicago, IL.

Borges, J. A., Morales, I., & Rodriguez, N. J. (1998). Page design guidelines developed through usability testing. In C. Forsythe, E. Grose, & J. Ratner (Eds.), Human factors and Web development (pp. 137-151). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Castells, M. (1996). The information age: Economy, society and culture. Volume I: The rise of the networked society. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers.

Corry, M., Frick, T., & Hansen, L. (1997). User-centered design and usability testing of a Web site: An illustrative case study. Education Technology Research and Development, 45(4), 65-76.

December, J., & Randall, N. (1995). The World Wide Web unleashed. Indianapolis: Sams Publishing.

Deloughry, T. J. (1995, May 26). Well-appointed Web pages. The Chronicle of Higher Education, pp. A19-A21.

Ellsworth, J. H., & Ellsworth, M. V. (1997). Marketing on the Internet (2nd ed.). New York: John Wiley & Sons.

Fisher, M. A. (1995, April). Net gains. Case Currents, pp. 36-41.

Fucella, J., & Pizzolato, J. (1998, June). Creating Web site designs based on user expectations and feedback. Internetworking, 1, 1. Albuquerque, NM: Sandia National Laboratory. (1998, August 4).

Geske, J. (1997, August). Readability of body text in computer mediated communication: Effects of type family, size and face. Paper delivered to the annual meeting of the Visual Communication Division, Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, Anaheim, CA.

Goldgehn, Leslie A. (1990). Are U.S. colleges and universities applying marketing techniques properly and within the context of an overall marketing plan? Journal of Marketing for Higher Education, 3, 5-28.

Griffin, R. E., Pettersson, R., Semali, L., & Takakuwa, Y. (1994, October). Using symbols in international business presentations: How well are they understood? Paper presented at the 26th annual conference of the International Visual Literacy Association, Tempe, AZ.

Hagerty, R. E. (1994, October). The elements and principles of visual organization. Paper presented at the 26th annual conference of the International Visual Literacy Association, Tempe, AZ.

Helmstetter, G. (1997). Increasing hits and selling more on your Web site. New York: John Wiley & Son.

Ho, J. (1997). Evaluating the World Wide Web: A global study of commercial sites. Journal of Computer Mediated-Communication Online, 3(1). (1998, September 15).

Horowitz, B. M. (1996). Why technology management is crucial. In J. L. McCarthy (Ed.), Commerce in cyberspace: A conference report (pp. 17-19). New York: The Conference Board.

Hundt, R. E. (1997). Computers are a necessary resource for schools. In P. Winters (Ed.), Computers and society (pp. 149-153).San Diego: Greenhaven Press.

Ihlanfeldt, W. (1980). Achieving optimal enrollments and tuition revenues: A guide to modern methods of market research, student recruitment, and institutional pricing. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Jagodzinsky, C., Cunningham, J., Day, P., Naylor, S., & Schobernd, E. (1997). Cooperative Web weaving: The Team approach to Web site development at Illinois State University. Journal of Interlibrary Loan, Document Delivery & Information Supply, 8(2), 1-20.

JMC education: Responding to the challenge of change. (1995, August). Report of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication Task Force. Presented at the annual meeting of the AEJMC, Washington, DC.

Laux, L. (1998). Designing Web pages for people with disabilities. In C. Forsythe, E. Grose, & J. Ratner (Eds.), Human factors and Web development (pp.87-95). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Marks, W., & Dulaney, C. L. (1998). Visual information processing on the World Wide Web. In C. Forsythe, E. Grose, & J. Ratner (Eds.), Human factors and Web development (pp. 25-43). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

McCollum, K. (1999, July 16). Colleges revamp web pages with professional help. The Chronicle of Higher Education, p. A25.

Mitchell, B. K. (1996). Cyberspace: Its impact on the public relations functions of state departments of transportation. Unpublished Master's thesis, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK.

Picciano, A. G. (1998) Educational leadership and planning for technology (2nd ed.). Saddle River, N. J.: Merrill Publishers.

Pollard, E. (1997, July 10). Some common pitfalls on college Web sites. Smoke Signals Online. http://www.smokesig.com/smk5sig.html (1998, August 4).

Rich, C. (1999). Creating online media. Boston: McGraw-Hill.

Riley, R. W. (1997). Computer education is vital for the students of the future. In P. Winters (Ed.), Computers and society (pp. 143-149).San Diego: Greenhaven Press.

Simerly, R. G. (Ed.)(1989). Handbook of marketing for continuing education. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Siskind, G. H., & Moses, T. J. (1996). The lawyer's guide to marketing on the Internet. Chicago, IL: American Bar Association Section of Law Practice Management.

Tennant, R. (1996). Internet basics: Update 1996. ERIC Digest Report. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 392 466)

Topor, R. S. (1997, August). A marketing team for higher education. (1998, August 31)

Tse, A. C., Tse, K. C., Yin, C. H., et al (1995). Comparing two methods of sending out questionnaires: E-mail versus mail. Journal of the Market Research Society, 37(4), 441-466.

Vora, P. (1998). Human factors methodology for designing Web sites. In C. Forsythe, E. Grose, & J. Ratner (Eds.), Human factors and Web development (pp. 153-172). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Whitaker, L. A. (1998). Human navigation. In C. Forsythe, E. Grose, & J. Ratner (Eds.), Human factors and Web development (pp. 63-71). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Wright, R. (1997). Minority communities are not being denied access to the Internet. In P. Winters (Ed.), Computers and society (pp. 132-135).San Diego: Greenhaven Press.