Education websites: design, features, and effectiveness

Classroom Space

Analysis of Three Different Educational Websites

Cultural Diversity

Cliques

Differentiated instruction

Classroom Space

Cultural Diversity

Cliques

Differentiated instruction

Classroom Space

Cultural Diversity

Cliques

Differentiated Instruction

Homepage (University of Phenoix, 2014)

Classroom Space

The University of Phoenix is the largest school in terms of its total student population. The school offers both in-class instruction as well as online education.

"Today, our students study at more than 100 locations, as well as through online programs available in countries around the world. Not only will you attend classes that are convenient for you, you'll earn your degree on your terms (University of Phenoix, 2014)."

The locations are spread out throughout the United States as well as in a select few international locations. However, most of the universities students are registered for online classes. The University of Phoenix has been a pioneer in the online classroom development and has an advanced portfolio of different content options. The school even offers a free three-week orientation workshop to get students ready for using their online platforms for education.

Cultural Diversity

The University of Phoenix is primarily populated by female Caucasians but has a mix of different ethnicities that can be found in both their online programs as well as in their campus locations.

Figure 2 - University of Phoenix Diversity (University of Phoenix, 2014)

Cliques

It is difficult to find information about different cliques at the University of Phoenix especially since most of their educational services are dedicated to the online sphere. However, there are likely some cliquish type behaviors that manifest on their campus locations.

Differentiated instruction

This is definitely the University of Phoenix's core competency. They offer the full spectrum of class option to suit pretty much any student's needs; even students with disabilities.

Figure 3 - University of Arizona Homepage (The University of Arizona, 2014)

Classroom Space

The University of Arizona Students and housed in the Tucson, Arizona and hosts 29,719 Undergraduate, 6,962 Graduate, and 1,376 Professional & Medical students (The University of Arizona, 2014). Most of these students attend class in a traditional classroom setting. However, the university has added some online course content but not to the extent that universities that specialize in this format offer; such as the University of Phoenix.

Cultural Diversity

The University of Arizona offers a relatively diverse student environment that claims over twenty five percent of its students as minorities. About half of these minority students are from the state while the other half are from other destinations.

Figure 4 - University of Arizona Diversity (The University of Arizona, 2014)

Cliques

There are many cliques that can be found on campus at the University of Arizona. Among these tensions is racism. For example, A fraternity at Arizona State University decided to celebrate the national holiday honoring civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., by being overtly racist. The Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity at ASU held an unregistered party Sunday and dubbed it an "MLK Black Party" (Kingkade, 2014).

Differentiated instruction

Although the University of Arizona offers an array of differentiated instructions in their classrooms, one of the interesting aspect about the school is they are one of the leaders in researching differentiated instruction. For example, one study was to examine variables that predict teachers' implementation of differentiated instruction in a one-to-one high school computing environment; predictors were: collaborative learning, project-based learning implementation, knowledge regarding the use of technology and years of experience and the interrelationship among those variables (Murthy, Shannon, Short, Morote, & Inserra, 2013). The university has a whole research group that is dedicated to the differentiated instruction discipline.

Figure 5 - Harvard's Homepage (Harvard University, 2014)

Classroom Space

Harvard University is one of the most prestigious universities in the world and currently has about twenty-one thousand students with a majority of them being graduate students.

Cultural Diversity

Of all the universities surveyed, Harvard actually appears to be among the most diverse in terms of its student bodies. From their admission statistics you can estimate that roughly half the student population is of a minority background.