Tag Archives: statistics

Survey of Prospective Students and Families

A couple weeks ago, we created a survey to be taken by people on campus tours to determine how they use the current website in an effort to improve their experience on the new site.  In just one week, we had 184 responses.  Some of the results are listed below, and are relative to the number of people who responded to each question.  Note: some percentages may not sum to 100% due to rounding.

The actual survey.

Of the 184 responses, there were:
132 (72%) prospective students
51 (28%) parents
1 (<1%) other relative

They were asked if they have visited the site: never, a few times, frequently, or other.
22 (12%) had never visited the site
15 (8%) specified they had only visited once or twice
129 (70%) visited a few times
18 (10%) were frequent visitors

They were asked to rank in order of importance (1 being most important) the following categories: admission requirements, financial aid, academics, athletics, arts, student life, campus, and events (relative ranks based on results in parentheses).
Admission Requirements (2):
30 (18%) did not find this information important
2.85 average ranking of those who did find it important.
Financial Aid (7):
83 (49%) did not find this information important
5.14 average ranking of those who did find it important.
Academics (1):
25 (15%) did not find this information important
2.00 average ranking of those who did find it important.
Athletics (5):
48 (28%) did not find this information important
4.20 average ranking of those who did find it important.
Arts (6):
74 (43%) did not find this information important
5.03 average ranking of those who did find it important.
Student Life (3):
46 (27%) did not find this information important
3.32 average ranking of those who did find it important.
Campus (4):
63 (37%) did not find this information important
3.80 average ranking of those who did find it important.
Events (8):
86 (50%) did not find this information important
6.08 average ranking of those who did find it important.

Further, 21 (13%) cared about other information, most notably information on tours, visiting, and directions.

They were next asked to rate how easily they found the information they wanted (1-hardest to 10-easiest)
7.66 average ranking

They were asked to classify the length of their average visit as: a few minutes, 10-15 minutes, 30-6- minutes, or over an hour.
50 (32%) said a few minutes
89 (57%) said 10-15 minutes
17 (11%) said 30-60 minutes
1 (<1%) said over an hour

They were given 4 adjectives (enjoyable, useful, nondescript, frustrating) and asked to check all that described their experience with the website.
39 (26%) said enjoyable
135 (89%) said useful
16 (11%) said nondescript
3 (2%) said frustrating

They were asked if they had taken the virtual campus tour.
14 (8%) had taken the virtual tour

Those who had not taken the virtual tour were asked if they might have if they knew it existed.
89 (59%) said yes

Lastly, they were asked if they would join Middlebury social networks such as Facebook or following on Twitter.
46 (28%) said yes.

2008 Web Statistics – Services (www|web)

The following data represents 2008’s summary of the most-used web applications running under our https://www.middlebury.edu and https://web.middlebury.edu websites.

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Internal (on-campus)

  1. Online Directory
  2. Online Forms – (SA PreDep)
  3. Student Ride Board

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External (off-campus)

  1. Online Directory
  2. Online Forms (Admissions, Alumni Giving, SA PreDep)
  3. Online Forms (Alumni Update)

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Combined

  1. Online Directory
  2. Online Forms (Admissions, Alumni Giving, SA PreDep)
  3. BannerWeb Scout

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Summary: The Online Directory is the most-used web application on www|web.

2008 Web Statistics – Connection Speed & Screen Resolution

The following data represents 2008’s summary of connection speed & screen resolution statistics for our http://www.middlebury.edu website.  Broadband connection speeds are considered DSL and above.

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Internal

Connection Speed: 100% – Broadband

Screen Resolution:  99% – 1024×768 or higher

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External

Connection Speed:  73% – Broadband, 24% – Unknown, 3% – Dialup

Screen Resolution:  95% – 1024×768 or higher

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Combined (Internal & External)

Connection Speed: 84% – Broadband

Screen Resolution:  98% – 1024×768 or higher

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Summary: Vast majority of visitors have broadband connection speeds and at least 1024×768 screen resolution.

2008 Web Statistics – Browser & OS

The following data represents 2008’s summary of “top three” browser & operating system statistics for our http://www.middlebury.edu website.

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Internal

Browsers

  1. 61.7% – Internet Explorer
  2. 26.2% – Firefox
  3. 11.8% – Safari

Operating Systems

  1. 81.4% – PC
  2. 18.4% – Mac
  3. 0.1% – Linux

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External

Browsers

  1. 58.1% – Internet Explorer
  2. 26.2% – Firefox
  3. 14.2% – Safari

Operating Systems

  1. 77.4% – Windows
  2. 21.4% – Mac
  3. 0.8% – Linux

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Combined (Internal & External)

Browsers

  1. 59.6% – Internet Explorer
  2. 26.2% – Firefox
  3. 13.1% – Safari

Operating Systems

  1. 78.8% – Windows
  2. 20.1% – Mac
  3. 0.5% – Linux

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Summary: Majority of visitors using Internet Explorer on Windows.

2008 Web Statistics – Page Views & Visits

THESE STATISTICS DO NOT INCLUDE CMS EDITING TRAFFIC!

### Page Views ###

The following data represents 2008’s summary of page view statistics for our http://www.middlebury.edu website.

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Internal page views in 2008 totaled approximately 7,186,044 or 34% of the combined total of internal and external page views, for an average of 598,837 internal page views per month.

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External page views in 2008 totaled approximately 13,941,592 or 66% of the combined total of internal and external page views, for an average of 1,161,799 external page views per month.
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Combined page views in 2008 totaled approximately 21,127,636, with an average of 1,760,636 combined page views per month.

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### Visits ###

The following data represents 2008’s summary of visit statistics for our http://www.middlebury.edu website.

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Internal visits in 2008 totaled approximately 3,027,476 or 42% of the combined total of internal and external visits, for an average of 252,290 internal visits per month.

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External visits in 2008 totaled approximately 4,109,272 or 58% of the combined total of internal and external visits, for an average of 342,439 external visits per month.
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Combined visits in 2008 totaled approximately 7,135,451, with an average of 594,620 combined visits per month.
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Summary: Most web traffic to http://www.middlebury.edu comes from off-campus.  Peak days recorded close to 75,000 page views.

2008 Web Statistics – Top Content

The following data represents a high level summary of 2008’s “top ten” content areas visited on our http://www.middlebury.edu website.

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Internal (on-campus)

  1. / (homepage)
  2. /academics/
  3. /administration/
  4. /athletics/
  5. /campuslife/
  6. /about/
  7. /services/
  8. /students/
  9. /admissions/
  10. /arts/

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External (off-campus)

  1. /academics/
  2. / (homepage)
  3. /athletics/
  4. /admissions/
  5. /administration/
  6. /about/
  7. /campuslife/
  8. /alumni/
  9. /services/
  10. /jobseekers/

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Combined (Internal & External Page Views)

  1. / (homepage)
  2. /academics/
  3. /athletics/
  4. /administration/
  5. /admissions/
  6. /campuslife/
  7. /about/
  8. /services/
  9. /alumni/
  10. /students/

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Summary: Aside from the College homepage, Academics, Athletics, Admissions, and Administration are the top content areas.

2008 Web Statistics – Search

The following data represents the summary of 2008’s “top ten” search terms/keywords entered into our Google Search Appliance or GSA, (the search engine for our www.middlebury.edu website).

To improve the overall quality of search results, all of these “top ten” search terms/keywords have been entered as keymatches in the GSA, which basically bumps them to the top of relevant search results.

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Internal Searches (from on-campus)

  1. lis
  2. segue
  3. box office
  4. inb
  5. menu
  6. midd
  7. eres
  8. campus map
  9. exam schedule
  10. library

The GSA search was used approximately 358,514 times by internal users during 2008.

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External Searches (from off-campus)

  1. tuition
  2. employment
  3. lis
  4. housing
  5. campus map
  6. address
  7. bookstore
  8. museum
  9. transcript
  10. directions

The GSA search was used approximately 404,153 times by external users during 2008.

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Combined (Internal & External Searches)

  1. lis
  2. segue
  3. tuition
  4. campus map
  5. employment
  6. box office
  7. bookstore
  8. housing
  9. inb
  10. menu

In total, the GSA search was used approximately 762,667 times during 2008.

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Summary: Web site visitors use search, a lot.