BestEdSites.com

What is Best Education Sites?

We’ve gathered a panel of specialists from the fields of graphic design, web development, and college counseling to analyze the state of the academic web space in 2011. We set out to answer one question: Are schools doing the best job they can of reaching out to students through edu websites?

Welcome

At Best Education Sites, we believe that many of our colleges and universities are failing their students in one crucial way - by not providing them with a rich and easy learning experience on their educational sites. As the world of web design progresses at a dizzying pace, education websites seem to be lost in the past, unable or unwilling to keep up. Anyone who has visited edu sites has probably had the experience: clunky user interface, incomprehensible navigation, ugly design, and no content of any real use for students. We are well aware of this situation, and that is why we decided to create this project of ranking the best educational websites: to try to help fix it.

Our 2011 report on the state of the academic web space, in particular educational websites for students, was compiled by our team of over 2,000 web specialists for the single purpose of assessing where we stand, as a nation of colleges and universities, right now. Rating each school’s educational website in terms of design, content, and usability, our experts have sought to create a full and thorough picture of what each educational site has to offer, and what it lacks. We‘ve also looked at schools’ use (or misuse) of social media outlets such as Facebook and Twitter. Although we believe that, by and large, schools, through their learning websites, are inadequately supplying their students with a web experience of quality, we also want to acknowledge those that have done a stellar job at creating some of the best educational sites for students. This is how we give the best sites their proper due.

BestEdSites is intended for anyone who has ever become frustrated by the education website of a college or university, and for everyone who thinks that our schools can - and should - do better. Best Education Sites is also for anyone interested in web design and higher education, and how the two seemingly disparate fields of interest interact in profoundly important ways. Most of all, Best Education Sites is for students. Today’s college students are engaged with an online world in a way that no other generation ever has before. Our schools must step up to the challenge of meeting them there by providing them with the best education websites possible. And we will try to help them do just that.

Click here for a list of educational websites and educational links including the best educational websites for kids, the top educational websites for teachers, the top language arts educational sites for kids and the best websites for students regarding math and science.

making a good website is hard

If you represent a college or university, we would love to help you with yours. Contact us today for free professional guidance from our experts

Advertising Disclosure

Our website includes information regarding degrees, programs, and other offerings at various client schools and institutions from which we may receive compensation. These schools will be labeled "Sponsored," "Featured," or something similar. This information typically comes directly from the schools and is not independently verified before publication on our website. It is the duty of the associated institution to ensure that the information they provide is accurate and up to date.

Furthermore, we do not guarantee that any of the school listings on our website (including those listed by specific information like program, location, etc.) are exhaustive.

Meet our lead experts

Representing four fields central to the project of educational web design, our experts lead the teams of analysts that grade each site. A rich web experience requires that three elements - design, content, and usability - exist in a perfect synergy on the page. Our experts are the ones who have the final word on whether or not any given school’s website has achieved this.

Jonathan S.

Web Development Expert

Having a standards compliant optimized website gives freedom for users to use your application in the way that it was intended to be used without any extra garbage... and always keep in mind KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid).

Chris K.

UI Expert

With any websites, It's important for designers to create an intuitive experience for users who are searching for valuable information. Users should be able to easily navigate throughout the site and find the right information they need.

Katrina M.

Design Expert

Design is something colleges and schools seem to overlook with their websites. Websites are often the first impressions for students so it's important for schools to give them the right first look!

Alli O.

Admissions Advisor Expert

A website with great content should give students the right base knowledge and idea as to what a certain school can offer. Schools should strive to provide comprehensive, accurate, and helpful content to best prepare students for a new chapter in life.

Exploring the academic web space

Choose from the filters to start browsing through the home pages of thousands of colleges and universities.

Color Usage

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Font Usage

Social Presence

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Subject & Location

Explore Subject

Explore State

Allen University

1530 Harden Street
Columbia, South Carolina
(803) 254-4165
allenuniversity.edu

Site Statistics

Click on the circles below to see how our experts rated each category. Click the 'User' circle to submit your own rating.

6.8Overall Score
6Design
5.4Content
9Usability
0User

Design Grade

Jonathan S.

Web Development Expert

4.4

Chris K.

Ui Expert

5.75

5.1

8.75

Katrina M.

Design Expert

6.75

6.1

8.5

Alli O.

Admissions Advisor Expert

6.5

5.9

9.75

User Ratings

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Friday / May 31 / 11:36 AM
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Visuals

Colors

white 5.0ffffff
white 3.7fefefe
yellow 1.0fecb00

Fonts

Arial
Helvetica
Sans serif
Georgia

Web Metrics

Google

Google Page Rank

Google index pages

223

SEOMoz

SEOMoz page rank

2.0

Seomoz page links

Seomoz page authority

11.5

Compete

Compete page rank

191,519

Other Metrics

title

ALLEN UNIVERSITY (16 characters)

meta desciption

(0 characters)

meta keywords

(0 characters)

W3C Validation

Failed HTML validation: 2 Errors / 1 Warnings
Failed CSS validation: 1 Errors

Download Times

14.4K - 1 minutes and 13.2 seconds
28.8K - 36.6 seconds
33.6K - 31.2 seconds
56K - 18.6 seconds
ISDN 128K - 8.4 seconds
T1 1.44Mbps - 0.6 seconds

Jonathan S.

Chris K.

Katrina M.

Alli O.

Anonymous

rate this site

Colors

Fonts

Google

Google Page Rank

Google index pages

SEOMoz

SEOMoz page rank

Seomoz page links

Seomoz page authority

Compete

Compete page rank

Other Metrics

title

meta desciption

meta keywords

W3C Validation

Download Times

Broken Links/404s

Facebook

total fans

update frequency (per week)

shared/liked on facebook

Twitter

total fans

tweet frequency (per week)

shared/liked on twitter

Delicious

Bookmarks

Tags

Youtube

total videos uploaded

Subscribers

Programs Offered

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