In October 2016, Global Reviews conducted online behavioral research using 650 prospective students, measuring and analysing 20 university sites via our Digital Sales Effectiveness (DSE) programme.
Each brand has unique areas where it performs better or worse than others specifically regarding a student’s ability to locate and understand entry requirements in order to find the best course to meet their needs. Each of the following elements can influence just how effective your website is at helping prospective students find the right course for them:
Formatting
Language
In-content links
Signposting and headings
The data collected from our desktop Digital Sales Effectiveness studies can reveal which areas throughout the consideration and application stages of selecting a course to study, are helping or hindering online conversions.For best practice examples and more information, watch our webinar recording now:
The internet is a popular channel of choice when searching for higher learning courses and the selection of universities. There are a number of stages when it comes to choosing a university and the internet plays a specific role in each of these steps.
In a survey conducted by Global Reviews, only 2% stated that they did not use the internet during any stage of choosing a university, meaning that the majority (98%) used the internet at some point.
When first researching courses, 85% of respondents stated that they used the internet during the process. As they start comparing different universities, 68% are still using the internet. This number increases to 73% when it comes to researching specific information about a university.
Figure 1: Usage of internet during process of choosing a university (prospective, new & current students)
Whilst 69% reported that they used the internet during the process of applying for a university, only 1% stated that they would be not at all likely to apply to a university online compared to 43% who said that they were extremely likely to apply online.
Table 1: Likelihood of applying to a university online
The outcomes of the research show an overwhelming need for universities to ensure their website offers the correct information and is easily found and accessible.
The survey results provide a clear understanding of the requirements and priorities of prospective, new and current students searching for higher learning options and the best university to meet their needs.
Global Reviews has a significant range of data and insights relating to higher learning and international student processes of searching for courses and considering and applying to specific universities.
To find out more on the research we have on your university compared with competitive universities contact us.
Our recent UK higher learning study revealed that 1/3 of UK prospective students don’t know what specific course they want to research, but rather, they have a broad idea of an area of interest. Until students know more about the university and area of interest, they’re not going to know what courses are on offer let alone which course to specifically search for.
While browsing behaviour dominates when it comes to locating a range of courses, leading universities are providing multiple pathways to cater to different needs of students, for example those that know the specific course they want to study verses those that don’t know but may have an interest area in mind.
Our recent webinar explored some of the ways Australian universities are helping prospective students to find the right course to match their needs and area of interest. For example, search capabilities within the site provides the opportunity to not only help prospective students find specific courses and subject areas, but also to serendipitously discover other courses that might be suitable for them through the use of additional filters.
For more insights into the student mindset when researching universities and courses online, watch our webinar or contact us for more information. We will also be featured at the upcoming Higher Education Marketing Conference in London, so be sure so come say hello!
Presented by: Geri McGann – Principal Client Advisor
Let is know what you thought about the webinar and have your say as to what we deliver next!
In this week’s 2 series blog post, we unravel insights from our recent study in the Higher Learning space. The main purpose of carrying out this research, was to find out answers to the way prospective students search for a course on a university website. The results were then evaluated to find out, if there is a link between the way they searched and the choice they made as a consequence of that.
What we hope you gain from these insights is a better understanding of:
– Why prospects behave the way they do and ‘why’ they make the decisions they make when interacting with your brand.
– What is important to your prospective students when they are looking at what your university offers.
– Where and why your processes and systems are negatively impacting prospective students and the chances of them returning to your website.
– Whether you’re leveraging the strengths of each customer or prospect (interaction) channel
– Who within your competitor set is best at winning your target prospects and why.
This blog post series will address two major aspects from our research findings and delve into a deeper understanding of each one:
Presentation of finding course options.
How information architecture impacts user behaviour for finding a course.
In Q4 2017, Global Reviews conducted a research study to understand the behaviour of 796 prospective students, while they searched for a course on their desktop devices. This search was conducted across the websites of 22 major Australian universities to further evaluate industry best practices and recommendations of why each one works.
The main takeaways from the research study were:
Site navigation was ranked as the second most important criteria by prospective students when searching for a course.
This was made clear when universities like ECU and CSU were ranked much higher than the other brands competing for their attention, solely based on the ease of navigating to their courses.
Time taken to locate a course range does not equate to the success of a university website.
Success rate is not equal to having an efficient website. If users take more time to find certain information on the website, they are inclined to leave the website.
CSU may have the highest success rate; however, users took above average time to complete this task.
The main issues faced by prospective students while undertaking the course search task were:
Multiple pathways competing for attention.
– Prospective students came across websites where there were no “Courses options/ button”, thereby compelling them to use the generic search bar to find the course information they wanted.
Ambiguous labelling leading to confusion in finding the right course on university websites.
Lack of course search options based on various filters.
Based on a few industry best practices, our recommendations to combat these issues would be:
Simplify information, use formatting and progressive disclosure techniques-
Industry Best Practice- ECU does a great job of displaying the information the way they do. The information is streamlined and easy to navigate to.
Provide clear labelling and obvious signposts
Industry Best Practice- La Trobe University succeeds in ensuring prospective students are taken down one clear pathway in their search for course information.
Offer tools to assist prospective students with course choices
Industry Best Practice 1: USQ’s course search caters to various segments of prospective students.
Industry Best Practice 2: Deakin’s tool shows the number of courses available based on the prospective student’s selection:
All of the information we have relayed thus far, goes to show how important paying attention to minute details is for your website.
In our next post we will talk about the importance of website architecture and the impact it has on the traffic and retention rates of your website.
Alternatively, click here to check out the full video of the webinar we recently conducted on this topic:
For best practice examples and more information, watch our webinar recording now:
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