EDU Checkup: LaGuardia Community College, Scripps College, Monash University
Saturday, February 6th, 2010It was a week of firsts. LaGuardia Community College had by far the brightest colors I have seen on an institution’s Web site. The site looked like a teacher’s store, especially with the apple in the top right corner. Beyond the graphics the larger problem was finding program information, it was mildly difficult, but just a few tweaks can make a world of difference. And not to mention there was no consistency of voice on the menu items. The code of the site was at the same level as the visuals and information, it didn’t fail completely but didn’t knock it out of the park.
Scripps College deserves the A it received. The visuals overall are clean and they actually used the right column on their homepage to push the new and events, something I have not seen before. These sections are constantly updating and it is nice to see them at a glance without having to scroll. Finding program information is not a problem at all and their code is up to industry standards. Overall Scripps has a great web presence.
Lastly, Monash University was plagued with problems from the start. The 100% width was a huge distraction and eye soar. It made the pages hard to scan and really disconnected related information. As monitors get larger over time it will make variable width sites harder to use. But worse than the design finding program information was almost impossible. I was led in a loop a few times before finding program requirements. Luckily someone is looking out for the code, it scored pretty high and raised Monash’s overall score to a D-.
If you’re interested in having your university (or one of your competitors) reviewed publicly or privately feel free to submit your site. Over half of the sites reviewed on EDU Checkup are by request.
This Week’s Reviews
| Site | Visual | Information | Code | Overall |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monash University – Episode #145 | 59 | 40 | 83 | (182/300) 60% D- |
| Scripps College – Episode #144 | 97 | 90 | 95 | (282/300) 94% A |
| LaGuardia Community College – Episode #143 | 71 | 72 | 75 | (218/300) 72% C |
Keep up up with @educheckup on twitter and RSS for more site updated in the coming weeks. Or if you prefer, an iTunes feed is available so you can get new episodes automatically.












