Department characteristics
Figures. 1A and 1C shows the student enrollment and admission options for 2014–2018 in Departments A and B. The results show that the numbers of people in Departments A and B increased from 33 to 45 and from 39 to 53 over five years, respectively. A difference from the annual approved quota exists because this study does not consider independent enrollment, international exchange students, or transfer students, and because the results are analyzed based solely on the data pertaining to national students. Figures. 1B and 1D show the overall percentage of students who were enrolled through Stars, PA, and AE&P in the two departments. The results show that the Stars, PA and AE&P admissions channels contributed 9%, 35%, and 56% of the total enrolled students (for Department A), respectively, and 23%, 33%, and 44% of the total enrolled students (for Department B), respectively. Both departments have thus adopted university assessment as the main enrollment channel.
Figure. 2 presents the geographic distribution of student sources. The results show that the majority of students enrolled in Department A are metropolitan, with 16%–20% of students coming from Taipei city, New Taipei city, and Taichung city, and 11%–15% coming from Taoyuan city. For Department B, 16%–20% of the students come from Taipei city and Taichung city, and 11%–15% of the students come from Taoyuan city and Kaohsiung city.
Website profile during PA stage
Figures. 3 (A, C, E, G) show the time-series page views before (February 26 to March 22, 2018) and after (March 23 to May 17, 2018) PA in the two departments. The average daily browsing times Before PA are slightly higher than those After PA, the page views per day are 39 and 27 times for Departments A and B, respectively. The results of Department B has the similar trend and the page views per day are 87 and 35 times, respectively.
Moreover, it also shown the percentages of students visiting each page subject (Figures. 3B, 3D, 3F and 3H). The results of Department A show that the Withdrawal webpage received the most visitors Before PA and After PA, with 36% and 49%, respectively, followed by “About Us” and “Courses and Credits.” The Withdrawal webpage means that during the data analysis, the department removed the webpage from the website. On the other hand, the results of Department B show that the visitors mostly visited the “About Us” webpage during the two phases of Before PA and After PA, with 44% and 42%, respectively, followed by “Faculty” (26%) and “Programs” (25%). Overall, the timing of the daily page views varied depending on the event; for example, the highest page views were observed on April 14 and 15, 2018, and April 21 and 22, 2018, which were interview dates at the university.
Table 1 shows the depth of the visits at the university’s website. The results for Department A showed that the main website screen received the most initial clicks by visitors to the website, accounting for 81% and 87% of the total number of people Before PA and After PA, respectively. From the main website page, 47% of visitors clicked on “Courses and Credits” and 29% clicked on “About Us.” From there, most of the visitors returned to the main webpage, accounting for 51% and 63% at Before PA and After PA, respectively, before selecting either “Program” (27%) and “About Us” (36%) Before PA and After PA, respectively. We speculate that after the visitors confirm their admission to the school, they want to have a complete understanding of the department. After interacting with three pages, the total number of views by visitors Before PA decreased from 840 to 99 and from 1,408 to 165 After PA, and the remaining number of visitors for both periods dropped to 12%.
The results for Department B show that the main website screen also received the most initial clicks by visitors to the website, accounting for 68% and 63% of the total number of people Before PA and After PA, respectively. The total views Before PA decreased from 1,750 to 248, leaving only 14% of visitors, and the total views After PA decreased from 1,823 to 202, leaving 11% of visitors, which suggests that the users leave after obtaining the necessary information (Table 1).
Figure. 4 shows the average time on the site in seconds. For Department A, the results showed that visitors spent most of their time at the “Faculty” page, while those for Department B spent most time visiting the admission list for graduate students. These findings suggest that some visitors are student of the Institute.
Website profile during the AE&P stage
For Department A, the results show that the number of visitors to “Course Information” and the “Certificate of Subjects” project peaked following the announcement on July 19 (Figure. 5). Before registering for an elective, visitors to the website first get an overview of the course information and subject credits. Online registration and distribution of electives was from July 24 to 28, 2018. In this period, visitors began to navigate to the “Teachers” page. The results show that “Faculty” is the priority item for registering for electives, and the end of the registration day attracts most people’s attention, followed by the “Program” page. It is recommended that the department completes the update of the course information before announcing the assessment results. The planning of the department’s curriculum may be related to the student’s choice of electives (Figures. 5A-D). The results for Department B showed that the average daily number of visits in the three stages of the AE&P period was 89, 102, and 21, respectively. The second stage received the highest number of page views, and “About Us” received the largest number of visitors during the three stages, followed by the “Program” plan (Figures. 5E-H).
Table 2 presents the page views of the visitors at the different subject webpages. The visitors of Department A start on the Main website, before selecting “Courses and Credits,” returning to the main website page and visiting the Program pages. The results for Department B are slightly different between the AST PLW and APR stages. After the results are announced, the majority of visitors click on the main website (57%), followed by “About Us” (40%), the main website again (25%), and “Courses and Credits” (32%). At the network registration distribution and release stage, visitors start at the main website page and then click on “Program” and “Faculty.” After interacting with three interactive pages, the total views decreased from 410 to 56, leaving only 14% of visitors, while the remaining percentages at the PLW and APR stages were 21% and 10%, respectively.
It also shown the average time spent on the site in seconds (Figure. 6). The results for Department A show that the total browsing time is longest for the Admissions Announcement for the master’s class followed by the “HACCP Course Admissions Guide” in the five days before the results of the AST were announced. The overall browsing time during second phase (PLW) showed that visitors spent most time browsing the license information; and in the third phase (APR), the visitors spent most time browsing the Study Program, followed by the Food Technician Exam. In view of Overall, the visitors to the website sought information relating to the selection of electives on the “Review Information” and “Training Qualifications” pages. Therefore, the list of examinations should be kept up to date on the website. The visitors also viewed the teacher’s professional backgrounds and items of concern. The results for Department B show that visitors stayed for more than five minutes when viewing the latest news, enrollment message (double major and adjunct), the subject and credits table, and the graduate flow tracking (five-year) survey.
User characteristics
Table 3 describes the user information and characteristics. Visitors were mainly aged between 18 and 24 years during the three visiting date ranges for Department A, and fewer were aged 25–34 years. According to statistics, the visitor groups were mainly freshmen at the university, followed by their parents. In terms of browsing tools, the visitors used desktops followed by smart phones; thus, the design of the webpage should be able to meet the usage requirements of the desktop computer and the smart phone. Among the visitors to Department B, there were slightly more women than men, and they were mainly aged 18–24 years, followed by 45–54 years.