NWACC Designs Site With Students in Mind

Bentonville/Rogers

www.nwacc.cc.ar.us

It took us all of about eight seconds to log onto NorthWest Arkansas Community College’s Web site and find out there are six seats left in the second summer semester section of a course called “Legal Environment of Business.”

One of our reviewers said it best, that www.nwacc.cc.ar.us “offers all of the qualities that a large university’s Web site ought to have.”

It’s fast, informative and, most importantly, students don’t have to stand in line to sign up for classes. Even applications to the college and financial aid forms may be filled out online.

It took a couple of days to get a response from our e-mail inquiry, but we did find out that the site debuted around 1996. It’s undergone three major upgrades, including the most recent one last fall.

According to its own counter, the site has received 497,235 visitors. That’s pretty good for a 10-year-old community college with an enrollment of 4,000 students. We’re told recent average page views per month have run about 300.

We did notice that the last entry was from January on the “upcoming events” page under the site’s student services link. And we think the campus is more attractive than the rotating home page photos make it look. But overall, the site is very up-to-date and navigable.

One of our designers couldn’t stop making positive comments about the site, although she was not particularly impressed with its aesthetic value. She said www.nwacc.cc.ar.us is more functional than pretty, but she was impressed enough to note a litany of strong points.

The designer liked the site’s college calendar, which runs through Summer 2002, the good map that prints well and the “functional” career services department.

She especially liked the ability to download documents and degree plans in PDF format, so that the pages are printable. “The site appears to have all of the college’s current information available, which is good compared to others who just ignore their Web sites and let them become stagnant,” she said.

Another member of our review team, a technician, said the site operates cleanly and that it apparently makes strong use of an intranet. We didn’t have access to that portion of the campus’ online presence, but the tech said it’s generally a good thing for students and personnel. He added that the EagleNet portion of the site also appeared helpful to students.

Our orientation was at DSL speed, but it’s clear that NWACC had its students in mind when it ventured onto the Internet.