Postgraduate studies websites: a framework for evaluating

This paper proposes two tools for evaluating the quality of information on postgraduate studies websites, while providing for both objective and subjective approaches to the evaluation process. On one hand, a checklist of accessibly levels, for use with Weblink Validator, W3C markup validation service and TAW, has been developed. This is complemented by questionnaire instrument, designed and field tested to assess qualitative aspects of the target websites. These tools have been field tested on postgraduate websites that enjoy Quality Mention (MC) from universities in Andalusia, Spain; and the data complied was analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). The results of these analyses yield acceptable quality values for these websites, while revealing several common flaws. A university website ranking and a website domain ranking have also been developed. The distinct quality levels of these websites are reported in cluster and principle component analyses.