Blog 4:

The two schools I chose were directed to the elementary education programs, and they are William Carey University and Mississippi State University. I thought that the William Carey Website was more effective and engaging for a few reasons. For one, their site seemed to have enthusiasm by using exclamation marks and sounding excited in their tone. Their website does an excellent job of providing what the program is characterized by and gives links to find more information on subjects such as their philosophy, scholarships, programs and accreditation and so forth. The website for Mississippi State University was pretty boring and did not provide quit as much information on their education program as William Carey's did. The website did provide a decent amount of information on the subject and seemed as though they wanted prospective students to feel as though graduating with a degree from their school would be highly regarded by future employers. The difference between the two was the William Carey wanted to encourage students to attend their school and be excited about it and MSU seemed as like they were trying to convince you to go their school by describing the high quality in education the student would receive.
If I were designing a website to try to persuade prospective students to attend my university and participate in my education program I would want my site to provide as much information as the student would need in an organized and appealing manner. I would introduce the prospective students to the program with a brief overview and provide links or side tabs describing in more detail about the program. I would want the student to feel as though they would be selecting a school that they could trust would prepare them for a successful career in education. I would provide links for information on financial aid options as to make the student confident they would be able to afford school. Assuming that parents of freshman students attempting to join the program would also be viewing the site, I would want to make sure that parents would feel confident in the University's license and accreditation to ensure their (grown) child would be taught by professional professors and given the best education that their money would pay for.
After viewing several college websites I have found somethings to be useful to pay attention to when creating my own site. For instance, I would want my page to be visually appealing unlike USM. Also, from the main page of the college I would want the academic programs to be easily located, because on several websites it took me a while to find the programs they offered. Organization of the site and information on the program would also be key to a successful web page.