Intranet Survey - Students report

SURVEY REPORT - From one of the students
School Web Development Survey

In order to realize the opportunities and needs of the target audience, we were to carry out a survey. This survey was known to be the School Web Development Survey. Created through Survey Monkey, the electronic survey immediately collates data and sorts the information. In terms of the survey, there has been a response of 173 people. In terms of those who took part in the survey, 17.3% (30 participants) in year 9, 19.7% (34 participants) in year 10, 20.2% (35 participants) in year 11, 23.7% (41 participants) in year 12 and 19.1% (33 participants) in year 13. In terms of the responses we had, the largest amount of responses came from year 12 with 23.7% whereas in year 9, there was lowest response with 17.3%, a 6.4% difference. Out of the 173 people who have partaken in this survey, 86.5% had answered ‘Yes’ to using the Intranet.

General Closed Questions – Accessing the Intranet

In regards to the closed questions in the survey, the response rate was quite reasonable. In terms of the intranet, the response rate was sufficient, in comparison there had been 72 students who had missed the entire KnowledgeNet section.

The majority of the respondents use the intranet. 149 people, 86.1% use the intranet, whereas only 24 people do not use the intranet. In terms of this, the majority of people whom use the intranet only access it at least one to three times a week. Almost half of the respondents (47.4% - 82 responses) access it 1-3 times; where as 6.4% of the respondents, 11 people access it 8 – 10 times. 14 people do not access the intranet at all during the week, while 18 people access the intranet more than 10 times.

Through the statistics gained, via the electronic channels of this survey, we are able to see that the majority of people whom access the intranet, access it for the school notices. 89 respondents access the school notices, which is over 50% (actual figures 54.9%) of the total number surveyed. Google Apps is accessed just under 50% at 49.4% which is quite reasonable, whereas House Events and KnowledgeNet are accessed, but not by the majority.

Of those who had responded to the survey, 139 (80.3%) had stated that they would like to access the intranet at home. In correlation to the Internet use they have at home, the majority of the survey population have access to Broadband internet. 147 people (85%) can access internet via broadband. 7 of the surveyed respondents do not have internet access, while 11 have access to dialup. 4.6% or 8 respondents do not know what connection they have available to them at home.

In terms of accessing the intranet, the majority of surveyed students have accessed the intranet more than they have accessed the learning management resource KnowledgeNet.

General Closed Questions – Accessing KnowledgeNet

173 people were surveyed for the Web Development Survey, and only 101 people had answered the questions in regards to KnowledgeNet. In terms of the responses, the majority answered ‘No’ (49 out of 101, 48.5%), followed by ‘Sometimes’ with 34 respondents at 33.7%. In terms of those who use KnowledgeNet, it is quite minimal with only 18 respondents.

For those who access the learning management resource, the majorities do not access it. 46 of the 101, at 45.5% do not access it. While those who access it, access it at school or at school and at home, both at 23.8%, with 24 respondents. The respondents rarely access KnowledgeNet at home. Only six respondents access the system at home, and only at home.

In comparison with the intranet, there seem to be more usage in terms of those who access the intranet and those who use KnowledgeNet. It is apparent that 72 people have not taken this segment of the survey, and this could be due to the fact that they may not have knowledge of KnowledgeNet, or generally did not have time, or had system failure. We can see that there is more usage in terms of the intranet with 86.1% using the intranet, and only 51.5% of the respondents who took the segment of the survey, either access it sometimes or on a regular basis.

Accessing the Intranet - Year Nine

In response to the survey, 30 year nine students have taken the Web Development Survey. In regards to this, there are some figures based on their views and opinions, which can lead to the opportunities, and needs of the target audience. By the level of responses provided by the year nines, we are able to identify the needs of the entry-level student and what they require when accessing the online services. Not that much of KnowledgeNet, but that of the Intranet. 24 year nine students access the intranet, whereas the remaining 6 stated they do not use the intranet.

In terms of what the year nines access on the intranet, the majority access Google Apps with 11 year nines. This is followed by ‘other’ which 9 respondents have answered, stating that they use the intranet in terms of accessing either school related information, research information or third party email addresses e.g. Hotmail. 7 respondents access notices, while 6 access the House Events information. In terms of what is least used, two have answered to using KnowledgeNet. Six people did not respond to this question at all as they do not access the intranet.

It is clearly revealed that the year nines are obsolete with their knowledge of KnowledgeNet, and this was definitely assumed prior to the survey. This learning management system would definitely be a different system from those that they usually use prior to attending secondary school.

In terms of wanting to access the intranet at home, 5 people have stated that they do not want to access the intranet at home. The majority stated yes (25 respondents). In terms of the internet connection available at home, 3 of the 30 do not have internet at home. Ironically they also stated they would like to access the intranet at home. 3 of the 30 also said they would like to access the intranet at home, but do not know what internet connection they have at home. 2 of the 30 have dial up, while the remaining 22 have broadband. 5 of the broadband users have answered ‘No’ in terms of accessing the intranet at home.

12 of the 30 people would like to access school related material. This is in the form of house events, careers information, sport, school photos and even homework help. The 1 have stated so, or answered as ‘All’. In terms of multimedia, 6 people would like to access videos, photos, music, lyrics and comedy shows. 5 people have also mentioned that they would like to access social networking such as Bebo, Facebook etc. 9 people either said they do not care what is on there, or they did not answer properly.

Accessing the Intranet - Year Ten

34 year 10s have participated in this Web Development Survey. The data collected from the year 10s would be specific to the transition of intermediate to high school, as we are able to look at the data and see what the year 10s have gathered after being here for a year. This will allow us to open a door of which we can look at the data through the perspective of a year 10 so that we can create a design that would cater for their needs.

3 out of the 34 do not use the intranet. Although this is the minority, it is very dominant that the majority does access the intranet. In terms of accessing the intranet, 12 of the 34 respondents access the intranet for the notices. This is quite reasonable considering that 7 of 30 accessed the notices from year 9. There is a five respondent difference. Once again, in terms of Google Apps, 16 respondents access the intranet to use Google Apps. This is similar to that of the year 9s who had 11 out of 30 users accessing Google Apps. Unlike the Year 9 usage of House Events of 6 out of 30, year 10s have seem to have a much desired interest with 14 out of 34 accessing House Event information. This could be due to familiarization of the school and house system, whereas the year 9s are still quite new to the system. 9 students have stated they use KnowledgeNet, which shows that the figures between the junior school are low for the usage of KnowledgeNet.

The data reveals that the junior school surveyed has only 11 people who access KnowledgeNet.

4 of the 34 use the intranet for school related purposes. 4 people have answered miscellaneously. Claiming that they are either “trying to access other sites but it won’t allow us”, and “Just looking up cool pic’s of my fave cartoons =]”. One of them accesses the intranet in order to get quotes, though there is no specific quote typed that is accessed. Approximately 24 people claim either they do not access anything else, have entered random figures or have not answered the question.

29 of the 34 have answered ‘Yes’ to having want to access the intranet at home, whereas in 5 of the 34 do not. The majority for both year 9 and 10 have answered ‘Yes’ to accessing the intranet at home. In terms of the internet access at home, one respondent does not have access to internet at home. 2 of the 34 do not know what connection they have, while 4 of the 34 have access to dialup internet. 27 of the 34 have access to broadband internet.

The content that would like to be accessed from the intranet is particularly careers. 10 respondents have mentioned that they would like to see career information. 10 people stated they would like to see school related content, whether it is arts and culture, documents of work and information about the school. In terms of multimedia, 7 people have stated they would like to access video, whether this school relevant or in the means of online video function e.g. Youtube is unknown. Some have commented on whether it is Youtube or not, but it is still entirely unclear. 6 people have suggested photos. The photos mostly wanted are those of school events, e.g. Dreamgirls (school production), sport events, and even ball photos. 6 respondents have stated that they would like to have access to gaming and social networking. This is quite similar in terms of the figures for the year 9s who wanted to have access to the social networking network. 3 people have stated that they “do not know” what they want or they want “nothing”. One entry was empty.

Accessing the Intranet - Year Eleven

The year 11 students mostly use the intranet at least 4-8 times a week, and is the second largest respondent group, at 35 students of the 173. Out of the 35 students, 6 of them stated that they do not use the intranet. 29 students in year 11use the intranet at School. This is a sizeable amount to see how the entry-level senior student would use the intranet to benefit their learning at this educational facility.

In terms of the services accessed through the intranet, 21 of the 35 access Notices, which is a huge increased compared to the year 9s and 10s. This could mean that the year 11s may be more in demand of the events occurring around the school. This is followed by Google Apps that has 16 respondents accessing this service. 11 accesses House Event information while KnowledgeNet is positioned at the bottom again with only 8 respondents using the service. There is a gradual increase in the use of the intranet as the year levels increase from the data collected so far. In addition, there are other services of which is accessed through the school intranet, these are, house points (2 respondents), option choices or examinations (3 respondents), or 4 respondents for miscellaneous school based services e.g. site of the week, research, reading and events around the school. One respondent accesses games via the intranet.

In terms of wanting to access the intranet at home, 7 of the 35 stated that they would not like to access, whereas 28 have stated that they would. In terms of the Internet background at the residence of the year 11, 2 have stated that they do not have internet, where as only one participant does not know what internet connection that they have. In terms of dialup, 3 of the respondents stated they have dialup connection, while the remaining 29 have stated that they have a broadband connection.

In terms of the content that the year 11s would like to access, the majority would like to access photos. 14 of the 35 responses had mentioned that they would like to see photos. Coming up second was anything school related. Under this category information regarding exams, homework etc, has been applied to, and 8 respondents chose this option. Sports and arts and culture along with videos both had 4 mentions, while careers had 6. Games had 1 respondent, while anything or everything came in with 5 respondents. One comment though that has a valid point is that “it would be better if it was updated regularly because some of the stuff is pretty old.”

We can see that there is an obvious factor in terms of the intranet that it is out of date. Some people have noted this before arriving at the questions regarding the content of the intranet. It is also apparent that KnowledgeNet is a service that remains unused. We also see the pattern of more usage of the intranet as we progress through the year levels.

Accessing the Intranet - Year Twelve

In terms of the number of respondents, year 12 held the largest amount, with 41 students (23.7%). This large portion of responses will be able to assist in determining what the year 12s need in terms of their intranet, and what opportunities can come from the data collected. The number of people who do no access the intranet is quite small in comparison. 5 out of the 41 do not access the intranet, leaving the 36 students in year 12 who use the intranet.

The intranet, like for the year 11s is highly used for notices. 24 of the 41 mentioned they access the intranet for notices. This is followed by Google Apps who has a larger number of mentions at 22. Unlike the previous year levels, year 12 have a large number of users on KnowledgeNet. 16 people mentioned that they access the learning management resourced. This is a large number, which reveals to us that as the year levels increase, they may become more reliant on data on KnowledgeNet that could benefit their learning. House Events is in the bottom with 14 mentions, whereas other services accessed are school related. In terms of not answer the question, 2 students had not selected anything.

Accessing the intranet at home would be desirable for the year 12s. Only 7 of the 41 have stated they would not want to use the intranet at home. This is minimal, as like in the other year levels compared to the vast number of those who wish to access the intranet at home. 34 have stated that they would like to access the intranet at home. In terms of being able to access the intranet at home, the internet connection that is used largely is broadband. 39 respondents have broadband access, while one only has dial up. One also does not know what connection they have. Surprisingly all the year 12s who had participated in this survey have internet access, unlike the other years, where there were a minority of people who did not have access at home.

The majority of year 12s would like to access school related content, photos and career information. 30 respondents mentioned one of the above. 10 in each category. In terms of videos or music, 5 respondents mentioned this, while 3 mentioned that they would like to access social networking or games. This is by far the lowest amount. 5 people did not mention anything or said ‘Any’ in their answer. In terms of the intranet there should be “more subject help/resources. Also it would be helpful if you could see what books are in the library from any computer in school so you could find out books you could get without having to get time in the library.”

We can see from the data that the year 12s along with the other year levels would like to access more school related material, as well as careers. This may be due to the decision of a career that students will need to make before transitioning to further tertiary education. Either way, school material, careers and photo material seem to be very in demand in terms of what the year 12s would like to see on the intranet.

Accessing the Intranet - Year Thirteen

Year 13 being the last year of a High School Student we can see what the needs are in terms of the student. We can see how the intranet has catered for them in the duration of their study, and what is needed to make them use the intranet more so often. 33 or 19.1% of respondents completed the survey. 3 of the 33 said they do not use the intranet, whereas 30 of the year 13 population surveyed have stated that they do. For those who do not access the intranet, they did not answer what services they use in terms of the intranet channel.

8 of the 33 do not access the school notices on the intranet, meaning that the majority of 25 access the notices. 14 of the respondents access Google Apps, which is almost 50% of the respondents. 10 respondents access House events information while 6 of the 33 accesses KnowledgeNet, which is in comparison to the other year levels quite low. 3 of the 33 also mentioned that they use the intranet for other means. 2 have stated that they use the intranet for research, while one stated that they access it for timetables such as examinations.

10 of the respondents stated they would not want to access the intranet at home, which in reality is quite a large number in the likes of the 7 out of 41 who had chosen ‘No’ as their answer in year 12. 23 is still the majority that would want to access the intranet at home. Along with being able to access the intranet at home, 1 surveyed student said they do not have internet access at home. 1 do not know what internet connection they have at home, while one is on dialup. This makes the majority 30 of which have access to broadband internet at home.

In terms of the need to access material there is a slight decline compared to year 12 where the majority of options peak. Although this has occurred, a large number access the notices, which may mean more participation in the likes of school events.

With those who access the intranet they would like to access more of photos related to school. This may be “a range of things - Arts and Culture, Sports, Careers, and other interesting school related events - Bollywood Night, School Productions, International Day”. There was a mention of photos 14 times within the 33 year 13s that access the intranet. This is then followed by videos and school related material such as house events that are regularly updated, and better studying material. Both video and school related material had a mention by 12 surveyed students. It is also apparent that library was used frequently as a catalogue or such is wanted by the year 13s so they know what books are available, sports are also categorised as only 2 mentions came from this. Careers followed with 9 mentions, meaning that although there is not a larger number, careers is generally one of the most desired options when coming to access information in regards to the school intranet. Arts and culture came in with 5 mentions, as people tend to like the visual side rather than the informative side. It is also apparent that the year 13s would like to access more notices, this could possibly be of a wider scale than that that is already attainable via the school intranet. 6 mentions for the respondents claim they either do not know or have not specified what they would like to see.

The information collated via the year 13s show that there is quite a decline in terms of the access of the intranet services. Less use the KnowledgeNet, while the main focus is school notices, this reveals that the year 13s may have a strong desire for the events occurring around the school.

Usability of the Intranet

In terms of the intranet and the overall usability functions the response from the 173 students showed that the majority of students could ‘Sometimes’ find what they are looking for. 119 students had chosen this option, bringing the percentage to 68.8% more than half of the population surveyed. 43 (24.9%) of students said ‘Yes’ whereas 11 people said no. The 6.4% of the people that said ‘No’ is a reasonable amount to confirm that there is some difficulty in finding information, in fact the huge proportion of students who claim that they can ‘Sometimes’ find what they are looking for, is enough to show that the intranet is not friendly in terms of data content.

In terms of the content that the intranet holds, 88 students, which is just 50.9% has stated that the content is ok. This is followed by 28 students at 16.2% that say the content is good. 14 heads claim that the content is very good, bringing this percentage to 8.1%. Bad and awful have 15 people who agree with this, bring the two percentages to 8.7%. 13 surveyed students do not know what they would rate content, this is 7.5%. This data clearly shows that although there are different views on the content, there is a large number who find that this is ‘ok’, whereas 30 students from the school population surveyed find it awful or bad, which is quite a sizeable amount in terms of school wide scale.

As for the design of the intranet, it is rather apparent that at 43.4%, 75 surveyed students, the design was ‘Ok’. This is a reasonable amount, which shows that the design is mediocre. Although this is the majority, another large amount of students state that the design is ‘Good’ with 23.7%, 41 respondents. Even so, there is a large proportion of students who state that the design is either bad – 9.2%, 16 students, or it was awful with 21 students -12.1%. This clearly shows that there is a significant amount of students who find the design unattractive. It shows that there are students who may be happy with the layout, but overall large amounts do not find the design appealing. This is a sizeable amount to see that there is something wrong. In terms of ‘Very Good’ there were 11 respondents at 6.4%, and for those who ‘Do not know’ there were 9 respondents at 5.2%.

KnowledgeNet

It is already apparent that there is a significant amount of students who do not use KnowledgeNet. Throughout the year levels it is clearly seen that the junior school would not use the learning resource system as much as those in year 11 and 12. Year 13 shows a slight decline in the usage of the KnowledgeNet. The majority of the school do not use KnowledgeNet, whereas more prefer to use it sometimes rather than all the time.

Students use KnowledgeNet, “only once in a while to check an event or to find subject resources. KnowledgeNet is overloaded, there is too much content and the majority is not used by anyone. The links are unintuitive. It should be less 'personalized', the links under Navigator are useless to most (web diary, to-do list etc, come on). I would rather have links to my subjects, or at least the most recently accessed pages. I would use KnowledgeNet more if I knew each subject page had proper and easily accessible content. For example, the accounting page only has text labels that don't even lead anywhere. Also, the design is quite unpleasing.”

We clearly see that those who use KnowledgeNet are put off by various factors such as layout, content and the out of date material, just as the intranet is out of date. This proves to be a topic to investigate as if there is minimal usage of a learning management resource, is there really any point in having so.

In terms of the knowledge of KnowledgeNet, it is apparent that the majority ‘don’t know what it is’.

The data gathered in terms of KnowledgeNet, feels as if there is not enough substance in the use, and rather the obsolete knowledge of it. It is shown that the intranet has much more interest than that of the system of KnowledgeNet. 72 did not fill this part of the survey, which leaves the data unjust.