IT

Independent schools online

Internet use has great potential for schools, but also presents many risks. Brent Ludewick reveals the results of the Ludwood Interactive Independent Schools Online Survey 2010, which shows how the sector is faring

The survey (produced in association with Funding for Independent Schools) charts the use of the internet by independent schools in the UK. The survey should also assist schools assess and develop internet strategies that will deliver the highest quality of appropriate online services for students, parents and other site users and, ultimately, help the school to be successful in achieving its wider goals.

Most independent schools are knowledge communities with a large proportion of students who are (age permitting) experienced web users and are web-literate or who are receptive to new network technologies. This makes them extremely well placed to gain from the full potential of the internet in the interests of students, parents, teachers and the wider school community.

In compiling the survey and reviewing the results, we have sought to address practical examples of both the huge potential of the internet for independent schools and also consider some of the challenges in adopting these technologies.

Survey scope, sample and methodology
This survey was carried out at the end of 2009 and featured fifty-five questions, often with each question requiring a large amount of detail. The survey covered a range of subjects, including: methods for the design, implementation and maintenance of the website, website budgets and finance, interactive services offered, e-commerce, content for parents and students, website marketing and promotion, the school intranet, networking technologies used by the schools, access provided to staff and students, and what formal policies are in place for social networking sites and mobile technologies.

Forty schools participated in the survey and represented a wide range of school sizes and ages: 25 per cent had children of all ages, 35 per cent were pre-prep, 10 per cent were prep schools, 25 per cent were senior schools and 5 per cent were sixth form colleges. We think this question is particularly relevant because the nature and scope of web services for students at independent schools will vary drastically according to children’s ages.

Of course, there will be less variance in appropriate internet services from the school for parents and carers who will begin to expect standard online customer relationship management services as well as interactive services for their children’s timetable, achievements, and electronic communication from teachers and other staff. The schools came from a wide geographical area but there was a concentration of schools from London and the south-east, with 68 per cent of responding schools located there.

Given the complex nature of the questions and the relatively low sample size, we view this survey as a good indicator of trends rather than as a rigorously scientific survey. Not all schools answered all of the questions and, for ease of interpretation, we only included those that answered questions and rounded results to the nearest percentage.

Website finance and budgets
We thought it would be interesting to consider how our respondents as a group were doing in terms of student enrolment, employment and current and planned expenditure on their websites. Of those that responded, 50 per cent said their enrolment had increased over the last twelve months, 37 per cent indicated it had stayed the same, while only 13 per cent reported it had decreased.

Staffing levels within respondent schools over the last 12 months might also be considered an indicator of financial health. Of our respondents, 33 per cent said that staffing levels had increased, 50 per cent said they had remained the same and only 16 per cent said that they had decreased.

To better understand the volume of resources currently being dedicated to independent school web projects, we asked readers to give an approximate annual budget for their website, not including salaries for internal staff with site responsibilities.

Our survey indicated that 59 per cent of responding schools have allocated a budget of less than £2,000. A further 29 per cent had a budget between £2,000 and £4,999, with 6 per cent of readers indicating a budget between £10,000 and £14,999, and 6 per cent indicating a budget between £15,000 and £19,999.

There was a very high correlation between lower expenditure and very simple “brochureware” marketing websites with low amounts of interactive content. The same was true of schools with larger budgets, which tended to feature a much more comprehensive range of sophisticated design and interactive features. As a relative percentage of our schools’ indicated annual turnover, existing web budgets are extremely low.

We asked schools about their planned expenditure on their websites. Among our schools, 61 per cent said that they planned to increase expenditure, with 39 per cent indicating it would stay the same and no respondents predicting a decrease in expenditure.

It is possible there may be some survey bias here, with proactive schools being more interested in internet issues and so more likely to respond but, in broad terms, we believe that these figures indicate that most respondent schools are doing well financially, with a majority of schools planning to increase their web expenditure and no schools with plans to decrease expenditure.

We also asked schools to tell us whether they thought their website represented overall value for money. With 50 per cent of our respondents strongly agreeing, and 28 per cent agreeing, it is clear that our participants believe their websites represent good value. Only 17 per cent were neutral and only 5 per cent disagreed. None of our schools strongly disagreed about their website’s overall value for money.

Main benefits of the website
The internet has enormous potential to positively transform knowledge communities such as schools, so we asked respondents about the main benefits of their websites by rating benefits in order of importance. By far, the most common response to this question was that “it attracted new students to the school“, followed by its ability to “present an efficient and modern image” and “improve communication with others”.

Given what we think is the enormous potential for using the internet as a key tool in education, we were surprised that “more efficient provision of information for student education” was not cited as one of the top three main benefits.

It may be that our respondents do not believe that this is one of the top benefits for schools. However, it is possible that this is simply an indictment on the quality of some resources available on current school sites and the lack of faith placed in these resources to provide more efficient education.

Existing/future interactive website content
To quantify the quality of existing school web content beyond basic brochure and marketing information, we asked what interactive services are currently on the site and what services are planned for the next twelve months. Out of a list of ten interactive features available, the top five most common interactive services in order of frequency were:
1  School policies online
2  Interactive calendar of events
3  Electronic newsletter for news and urgent notifications
4  Site search facility
5  Interactive photo galleries  

To understand how this was likely to develop, we also asked what interactive services were planned for the next twelve months. The top five most common answers in order of frequency were:
1  Electronic newsletter for news and urgent notifications
2  Feedback forms
3  School policies online
4  Surveys/polls of users
5  Streamed audio and video presentations

The planned introduction of further interactive services such as these suggests that our schools are beginning to take the concept of an interactive school community seriously. Electronic newsletters will greatly enhance the ability of school staff to communicate with parents and feedback forms, and polls will help schools to better understand what parents are thinking.

Throughout the UK, there has been tremendous growth in the adoption of social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. We believe that this wider trend will now expand rapidly in schools. Over the next year, we expect to see the rapid adoption of school-centred social networking services integrated and offered as part of the school’s information services.

Independent school intranets
An intranet within the school can be an enormously valuable resource in helping staff to improve their efficiency and internal communications. We asked our schools about their use of intranets to establish some benchmarks for their adoption and also to better understand the internal use of information technology.

Of course, definitions about what constitutes an “intranet” vary widely and the services offered and benefits accrued will be dependent on available resources and the working culture and willingness to adopt technology at the school. Among our respondents, 43 per cent indicated that their school had implemented an intranet. Of those that had an intranet, 25 per cent strongly agreed that the intranet represented value for money, with 50 per cent agreeing and 25 per cent neutral on the matter.

Implementing web solutions
We asked what the most common problems faced by independent schools are in finding and implementing their web solutions.

We asked our schools to indicate and rank what problems (if any) had been encountered. By far, the most highly ranked problem was “finding the time to implement the project”. The second ranked problem was “developing a long-term internet strategy” and the third was “securing adequate budgets”.

These would all appear to be resource-based issues rather than technical barriers. Of course, it will take continued demonstration of the huge advantages provided by enhanced internet services for schools for budget and resource limitations to be addressed. Among our schools that indicated an increase in their annual budget, we would expect a dramatic improvement in the internet services provided by the school.

IT technologies
We asked respondents to indicate the predominant operating system used by internet users at the school. As we expected, there was an overwhelming majority of 95 per cent using Microsoft Windows-based platforms.

We also asked about the predominant internet browser at the school: 76 per cent of our schools were using Microsoft Internet Explorer, with Firefox making up 18 per cent and Google Chrome 6 per cent.

Policies for email, web and mobile use As expected, the overwhelming majority of our schools had either formal written or an informal unwritten policy in place for the use of email, web and mobile phones.

Conclusions
The survey results indicate that the majority of independent schools now offer basic internet services, with many continuing to use their website as a simple marketing platform. There are some schools that offer a range of interactive facilities, with a minority offering a sophisticated and highly interactive web service.

Common problems faced by our respondents include lack of time, resources and the ability to adopt a strategic plan for implementing new services. But despite these challenges and a difficult economic climate, it is clear that our respondents appear to be maintaining their student and staff numbers and are planning to either increase or at least maintain their current expenditure on their website.

Brent Ludewick is development director of Ludwood Interactive, the education and not-for-profit specialists. Brent can be contacted through www.ludwood.com.

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