WEBSITE USABILITY FOR TERTIARY EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS IN BOTSWANA: AN EXPLORATORY ANALYSIS

Abstract

Technology has greatly affected people’s ways of life across the globe. Under the
education sector, technology continues to play a significant role in the curriculum development,
thereby, promoting growth in use of the Internet. A further consequence of this development has
been an increased the development and ownership of websites by various organizations. The
growth of technology around the world has influenced institutions to develop websites of their
own through the Internet, as a way of selling their service to the audience. A website contains
unique information that is to be shared to any user having access to it. Across educational
institutions, the aim of a website is to provide accurate and up to date information to the lecturers,
students, staff, alumni, guests and other users in a well organized and resourceful manner.
Tertiary schools in Botswana are amongst the institutions around the world that have realized a
gain in owning a website. The paper sought to analyze the website content of the selected tertiary
schools in Botswana. The aim was achieved by a desktop research where an analysis of online
content of selected tertiary schools’ websites was undertaken. This analysis covered several items
ranging from interactivity, navigation, functionality to site marketing. The results of this study
show that all of tertiary schools studied have established websites to communicate to a vast
audience. In addition, it has been discovered that some institutional websites are strong on certain
features and weak on others.