Back in mid-March I wrote that I was going to put up some options for the best websites in the tertiary education sector. And then I forgot about it. Well, now I’m going to get started.

This won’t be an official competition with prizes or entries, and I won’t be grading everyone on a fixed scale. I’ll also be focusing mainly on who does things well, rather than picking over things that don’t seem to work. And the criteria I’ll be using will be arbitrary and personal, but hopefully readers get something out of it and find a few things they hadn’t noticed before. I’ll assume that all websites provide an electronic brochure to what courses are on offer, so I’ll be looking for:

• effective use of Facebook, Twitter or other social media (and if I can’t find links to them on a homepage, that’s not very effective – hmm, after reviewing some that are student-focused, I can see why they’re put on sub-pages);
• an x-factor that makes people come back to the site; and
• some way to engage broader stakeholders, such as employers or the community.

Sites will have all sorts of other content, including a lot of private content for students and staff that I can’t review – I’m focusing on a few public aspects.

I’ll do this in stages as I work thru the TEIs, some ITOs, some PTEs and government agencies. If anyone thinks I’ve missed anything, let me know, and feel free to offer your own comments as the series develops. I’ll start with 10 ITPs, working up from the deep South. Please be aware that Facebook links may require you to be logged into Facebook.

1. SIT - 343 on FB with updates on activities and seems to have good interaction with fans. Can’t see Twitter. Not much of an x-factor but they have some good iTunesU titles like “Throw another chef on the barbie”.  The website doesn’t reach out to wider stakeholders.
2. Telford Rural Polytechnic - Keeping on the positive side of things, you can check out their weather online.
3. Otago Polytechnic - No FB on the front page but if you drill down you can find 1,120 fans on a general page, but it doesn’t seem to be updated very often and there’s not much engagement. Their Art School has almost 900 fans with frequent updates and good engagement. No Twitter but they seem pretty good about reaching out to business,with lots of industry-specific info (look at the horticulture page). No big x-factor but the home page has good stories and graphics to engage people.
4. Aoraki Polytechnic - it is mainly a brochure.
5. CPIT - again, it’s mainly a brochure, and nothing jumped out at me to highlight.
6. Tai Poutini Polytechnic - mainly a brochure, but there is a link to a steam school news story on the home page.
7. NMIT - Their Facebook page has 376 fans and is mainly used for student competitions – it gets good interaction (a Twitter account with the same contact has 5 followers). Their business and industry section has case studies of how NMIT works with those groups. A YouTube channel also looks good, with campus overview videos getting the most views. There’s no x factor but the site has good points.
8. WelTec - It’s mainly a brochure, but also has some info on how they work with businesses. They also list their advisory committee members.
9. Whitireia - You can link to FB (397 fans, regular updates, but limited interaction), Twitter (89 followers), Myspace (91 friends), YouTube and WordPress (a blog) from their home page. What I especially like is that they’re using each channel differently, appealing to different audiences. The use of social media is an x-factor, as is the Newswire site by Whitireia’s journalism students. The Whitireia site doesn’t reach out to wider stakeholders in particular.
10. Open Polytechnic - It’s mainly a brochure. There are home page links for business and industry, and alumni, but there isn’t much detail on the pages that follow. The x-factor might be that you can order a graduation bear!

Out of those 10, I’d put Whitireia and Otago at the top overall (each doing 2 things well), with the social media work by SIT and NMIT being good too. Once I’ve looked at the other ten ITPs, I will rank the top few for each category.